AustLit

Based on a story by Hal Carleton, Let George Do It is the fourth George Wallace film, and the first of two to be produced by Ken G. Hall. The film also established the formula that its sequel Gone To The Dogs (1939) would follow fairly closely. In this respect, Hall not only incorporated a romantic sub-plot into the main story line, but also provided several opportunities for song and dance sequences and self-contained comedy routines.

The story line concerns Joe (played by George Wallace), a man who is frustrated by both unrequited love and his chronic unemployment. While drunk, he decides to commit suicide and offers to leave all his possessions to a local gangster, Zilch, if he will arrange a painless death. The next day, Joe comes to his senses, a matter that is helped enormously when he is told that he has just inherited an enormous fortune. Unfortunately, Zilch becomes even more determined to carry out Joe's previous wishes. Joe finally wins out in the end, but not before being chased across Sydney Harbour as he attempts to gain possession of the money.

A water ballet sequence near the end of the wild speed-boat chase across Sydney Harbour was deleted from the final cut in an effort to maintain the pace of the dramatic action.

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.

Comic sketch.

Comic sketch.

The Agereports in 1929 that Me and My Girl, 'as with most revues,' contained no plot and consisted mostly of quickly changing scenes helped out by musical numbers and dances. The review does make passing reference, however, to the headmaster of an all-girls school ('who plans to conquer women by inventing a drug for making them feel like a man') and his wife, who is described as 'a screamingly funny, if skillfully cruel, caricature of the school marm at St James College' (27 December 1929, p.8).

While similarly describing the production as a 'light musical revue, the Argus critic indicates that Wallace had, in fact, made a successful attempt to sustain a semblance of a story throughout the nine episodes. The review further notes in this respect that 'as Horace, Mr Wallace after having been compelled to pose as a woman, was chosen as the subject for a professor's experiment to show that the sexes could be changed by draughts from a formula prepared by him' (27 December 1929, p.8). This appears to indicate that Me and My Girl was presented in similar fashion to the comedian's other revusicals, involving both written and improvised sketches (interspersed with song-and-dance sequences) that were bound together by a loosely fashioned plotline.

One of the features of the 1930 musical programme is said to have been 'a fascinating ballet of Australian girls.'

Revusical.

George Wallace played the role of a wizard in this revusical about a gang of criminals, the Baldheads, who make a practice of visiting private entertainments and holding up the guests. Much of the action is said to have taken 'place on the roof of the rose garden of the Free and Easy Club, where revolver shooting, dancing, singing and comic situations kept the large audience in a constant simmer of laughter' (Age 24 March 1930, p.12).

Revusical.

As an 'under-the-weather husband returning home to face an irate wife', George Wallace performs a number of comedy drunk routines in the staged version of this sketch. An argument eventually ensues (after the pair retire to bed), when the wife thinks she hears a burglar.

In a review of the the April 1931 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' (p.3)