AustLit

An east-End barmaid discovers that she is the illegitimate daughter of an earl.

The film is based on a nineteenth-century stage melodrama by Dion Boucicault. Originally presented in the United States as The Poor of New York (1857), the play had been adapted to London as The Streets of London (1864); in the latter guise, it toured Australia in 1887.

While arguing with Gideon Bloodgood, from whose none-too-stable bank he is trying to recover his money, Captain Fairweather collapses and dies. This leaves Bloodgood, who retains Fairweather's money, vulnerable to the blackmailing activities of his clerk, Badger.

A planned adaptation of William Hatfield's bush novel.

After joining the police force, Tommy Wallace (aka Officer Dreadnought) is assigned to patrol Harmony Row, the roughest and most notorious district in the city. He soon makes friends with many of the locals, including Molly, a pretty street musician, and Leonard, a precocious boy soprano who accompanies her. Dreadnought runs into trouble, however, when he comes up against the notorious thug Slogger Lee. After many incidents he is forced into fighting Lee at a boxing tournament. Although almost beaten into submission, the policeman is given the strength to beat the villain by Molly, who declares her affection for him.

A short film adaptation of George Wallace's 1930 sketch, Oh What a Night sees a married couple John and Mary bicker as they prepare for bed. Then the wife thinks she hears a burglar. In the ensuing mayhem their neighbour, Mrs Malone, comes to investigate and is mistaken for the burglar by John who knocks her out. They put her in to bed but when her husband Mike turns up John jumps under the covers to hide thinking it’s the burglar. Malone discovers them in bed together and the riotous shenanigans continue.

In a review of the the April 1931 live staging at Brisbane's Theatre Royal, the Telegraph's theatre critic wrote: 'A sketch entitled "Oh! What a Night," reveals George Wallace as a drunken husband, who gels into complications by hitting his neighbour's wife on the head in mistake for a burglar. Phil Baker makes an attractive wife and Jack Ashworth a ludicrously foolish policeman' ('Theatre Royal.' 13 April 1932, p.3). In the Efftee Film Productions script Wallace's character does not appear to be intoxicated, however. Much of the humour in the opening segment is, however, developed through the husband and wife's. At 14 minutes duration, the filmed version appears to have remained largely faithful to the theatrical sketch in most other respects.

Tommy Dodds is an accident-prone stage manager who overnight becomes the King of Betonia. However, his uncouth Australian larrikin attitude, which sees him gambling with the footmen and decreeing that his courtiers wear roller skates, scandalises the court. When the rightful heir to the throne is discovered, Tommy is forcibly removed from the palace, at which point he wakes up from what has all been a dream.

With a screenplay written by C. J. Dennis, based on his collection of verse published as The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, this cinematic adaptation similarly tells the story of Bill, a larrikin of the Little Lonsdale Street Push, who is introduced to a young woman called Doreen. Through the course of their courtship and eventual marriage, Bill transforms from a violence-prone gang member to a contented husband and father.

Although Dennis retains the basic storyline of the poems, he also adds a sub-plot in which Bill saves Doreen's Uncle Jim from an attempted swindle.

Diggers primarily concerns the adventures of two Australian 'cobbers,' Chic Williams and Joe Mulga, who are serving in the A.I.F. in France during 1918. Much of the narrative is based on three of the Famous Diggers' more popular live sketches: namely, an incident involving the stealing of some rum (Rum Doings), the hospital scene where Chic and Joe feign illness (Chic and Joe in Hospital), and a scene set in a French estaminet (Mademoiselle from Armentieres). An unidentified Brisbane review held in the Pat Hanna Collection (Performing Arts Centre, Melbourne) records, for example, that 'Diggers made its Brisbane premiere at the Regent Theatre on Saturday. Many of the incidents have been played by Pat on the Brisbane stage, but they are worth repetition... There was a laugh when Pat feigns deafness in hospital so that he will not be sent to the front lines. He even remains motionless when a revolver is fired next to his ear, but when a champagne cork pops from the bottle it is too much and he reveals the sham' (n. pag.).

In the first sketch, Chic and Joe, who are typically anti-authoritarian, convince a fellow digger, Bluey, to help them steal some rum from the Quartermaster's store. The second sketch is played out in hospital, where Chic, Joe, and Fatty feign battle fatigue and illness in order to avoid being set back up the line. They are questioned by a medical officer who finds all but Chic to be malingerers. Although he successfully convinces the MO that he is the only genuine case (even when a pistol is fired behind his head), Chic later gives himself away by reacting to the pop of a champagne cork. The final sketch is based on the Famous Diggers' theatrical rendition of the song 'Mademoiselle from Armentieres.' Combining a mixture of romance and pathos, the narrative concerns a young French girl and her Australian lover shortly before he returns to the front. She later learns that he has been killed.

'Entertainers Stan Ray and George Moon Jnr perform a tap dancing routine on one of the stages inside His Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne' (Australian Screen).

'Multi-talented artist Jack O’Hagan performs five songs for Frank Thring’s series of variety shorts, Efftee Entertainers, including "The Road to Gundagai'" (Australian Screen).

An extract from the original Efftee Productions mini-film of Althol Tier presenting his 'Napoleon' routine. It ends with a song and his exit from stage on a wooden horse.

The Efftee Entertainers short film compilations of musical, comedy and vaudeville acts were made between 1931 and 1933. Comprising around fifty films (most are now lost), they were filmed in His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, where Frank Thring had set up his talking picture studios, Efftee Studios. In most of the items a static camera films the performer on a simple stage. Aside from the Melbourne Chinese Orchestra (a performance which stands apart from the variety items), the series features musical performances by Jack O’Hagan (composer of 'The Road to Gundagai’), George Wallace (who acted for Thring in Harmony Row, 1933, and His Royal Highness, 1932), Ada Reeve, Minnie Love, and the Williamson-Imperial Grand Opera Company.

[Sources: Poppy de Souza. Australian Screen; National Film and Sound Archive]

'This is a mystery story, constructed on lines reminiscent of "Seven Keys to Baldpate" and other pieces of the kind. Phil Smith plays effectively an important role as a business man, John Moon, who has made a hobby of his interest in ghosts, and has come to this old shed in the hope of meeting one. Donalda Warne and John Maitland appear as two lovers, seeking to elope, and John Cameron impersonates Captain Sturdy, who is concerned in the mystery. There are three other characters, apparently tramps, but one of them sets himself to the task of conjuring up a ghost, and engages the keen attention of Moon by his graphic description of the supernatural visitor.'

Source:

'New Films', The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 1931, p.4.

Described in contemporary newspapers as 'a farce of matrimonial tangles'. (See 'Australian Talkies', The West Australian, 20 November 1931, p.2).