Cirrus@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.

Commissioned by the Department of Information, 100,000 Cobbers was essentially an exercise in propaganda, designed to increase enlistment at a crucial point in the war. It was filmed at the training camps in Liverpool, but did include well-known actors in fictionalised scenarios.

As a contemporary newspaper frames it:

The film is a documentary record of the second A.I.F. from the issue of the first recruiting poster down to the finished product, advancing through the smoke of battle in his first contact with the enemy.

The lighter side, with something of a pathetic tinge, is well presented by Joe Valli as "Scotty"–a veteran of the last war who successfully passes himself off by slicing about 10 years from his correct age. Shirley Ann Richards, too, is seen in the role of a chiropodist treating foot worn soldiers at the camp.

From the time the recruits reach the enlistment depot every phase of their lives and training is presented wtih a realism hitherto lacking in some of our propaganda films. Instruction in and the operation of automatic weapons, trench mortars, tanks and field guns and the throwing of hand grenades pass quickly across the screen, to be followed by field exercises showing light tanks, Bren gun carriers and other mechanised vehicles participating as in a real action.

As the film proceeds to its climax, one's emotions are stirred by the departure of the trainees, now tough and seasoned soldiers after six months' training.

Source:

'A Film for Everybody', The West Australian, 12 March 1942, p.7.

The fourth in the 'Dad and Dave' (On Our Selection) series, Dad Rudd, M.P. sees Dad clash with his neighbour Henry Webster over the need for a higher wall for a dam being constructed in the district. When the local member of the state parliament dies, Dad and Webster stand against each other for the seat. Webster's camp uses every dirty trick to stop Dad Rudd's campaign, but with the help of an old friend Mr Entwhistle, Dad responds with some tricks of his own. On polling day, a major flood threatens the dam wall, while a party of workman on the other side are trapped and certain to die if it collapses. Henry Webster's son Jim (who is in love with Ann Rudd) helps rescue the stranded workers. The emergency sees Dad Rudd vindicated, and he is elected. In his maiden speech to parliament, Dad gives a rousing speech that foreshadows the coming war.

Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1980) note that Dad Rudd, M.P. has almost nothing in common with the original Steele Rudd stories, and 'resembles instead the sort of small-town family comedy emphasised by Hollywood's Andy Hardy series. Dad Rudd [becomes] less a naive comic figure than a bastion of middle-class morality, and the story [turns] from the frivolity of the earlier films to an inherently more sober, if rudimentary, allegory on the war in Europe' (p. 249).

The narrative also sees the Rudds attempting to modernise their farm, with unpredictable (and comic) results. Dad Rudd, for example, sets off to buy a new car and returns with an ancient horse-drawn fire-engine. Dave installs a new gas-powered stove for Mum but almost blows the kitchen apart. Among the other comedy interludes scattered through what is essentially a serious plot is a scene in which a team of country fire fighters operate with all the efficiency of the Keystone Kops (Pike and Cooper, p. 249).

Barney O'Hara runs a sideshow act in a touring carnival with Pat, his daughter, and Horace Worthington Howard, an ex-Shakespearean actor. The act struggles to make money, and Pat's voice is one of the main attractions.

When Pat's voice fails her at a party held by Colonel Cameron and his daughter Eve, to which she has been invited as a performer, a specialist tells Barney an expensive operation is necessary.

With few options for raising the money, Barney agrees to fight a boxer called 'The Killer', a fight for which he is trained by dancer Kitty Katkin. On fight day, ants are slipped into Barney's shorts, and he defeats the Killer, winning the money that will pay for Pat's operation.

After being fired from the position as clerk that he has held for 24 years, mild-mannered Mr Chedworth takes a position as a night watchman, where he stumbles on a printing press and a bag of money. He takes the opportunity to live large – not realising that the money is counterfeit and that its creators are looking for it.

Loosely based on the novel by Australian author F. J. Thwaites, The Broken Melody concerns John Ainsworth, a talented violinist and university teacher whose life and career begin to spiral out of control in the aftermath of a nightclub brawl. He eventually becomes penniless, and without any prospect of employment is forced to drift about Sydney as a vagabond. After he prevents an equally impoverished girl, Ann, from attempting suicide, she encourages him to begin playing his violin again. He then progresses from busking on street corners to playing in a cabaret club, where he eventually comes to the attention of a French entrepreneur. Ainsworth is sent to England where he finds success and fame as a conductor and composer. He later returns to Australia in order to tour his own opera. One night, the company's fiery soprano refuses to sing and her understudy is rushed on stage. It is Ann, whom John instantly recognises, and thus the pair are happily reunited.

Although the film is essentially a 'high drama,' Ken G. Hall infused the narrative with occasional light comic touches, in addition to moments of deliberate sentimentality (including [for example] a death-bed reunion between John and his dying father). Much of the comedic moments fell to veteran variety artist Alec Kellaway who played Joe, a genial pickpocket.

Dad inherits a Sydney fashion shop from his brother, whom he hadn't seen in more than twenty years. He sends one of his daughters down to run the shop, but it soon becomes apparent that a corrupt manager is in league with a competitor, Pierre. In an attempt to counter the dirty tricks campaign being waged against him, Dad closes the shop for renovations and to prepare for a major fashion show. Pierre still has a trump card up his sleeve, however: a debt of £1,000 left by Dad's brother.

'An English solicitor, Mr Potter, arrives at the Blaydon farm at Stony Creek, near Sydney. He tells Hubert Blaydon that he's the long-lost heir to an English estate. Now known as Lord Blaydon, Hubert sails for England with his wife and 22-year-old daughter Pat. The two women take easily to life on the estate, but Hubert finds the new rules and social snobbery a trial, especially when his family is snubbed by the neighbour, Lord Denvee. Pat falls in love with her cousin, Peter Ashton, but he promises her father not to propose until his prospects improve.

For the inheritance to become legal, Hubert sends for a photograph of his mother, to prove his identity. Knowing that Peter Ashton is next in the line of inheritance, he doctors the photo's signature, to disqualify his own claim. Peter inherits and marries Pat, which allows Hubert and his wife to sail back to Australia - where they want to be, anyway. The butler Jarms sails with them, rather than staying on in class-ridden England. Besides, he knows that Hubert is the real Lord Blaydon - inheritance or not.' (Source: Australian Screen website)

'Set in the South Pacific. Daubeney Carshott goes to Thursday Island to dive for pearls to present to Stella Raff, with the hope of winning her hand. He meets Craig, another diver and eventually they realise they are both pearl-diving for the same girl.'

Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/40918). (Sighted: 11/9/2013)

Set in Papua New Guinea, this film followed a drunken gold miner, his wife, and his partner.

'The action takes place at Stroud, a small town right in the heart of Australia's great timber country, where in this usually peaceful stronghold of nature, a bitter fight between two rival companies for a big timber contract rages. Daily men flirt with death in clashes with the towering giants of the forest In the race to deliver first the million feet of timber that will win the coveted contract But it was not a clear, straight fight, and men and women were asking who was responsible for the mysterious explosion that blew up the timber trainbridge. What mysterious hand had cut the hawser that carried the flying fox across the gorge? What of Burbridge's machinery? Who was spreading discontent among his men? The answer came when young Jim Thornton (Frank Leighton) caught an agitator addressing his men, and thrashed him into a confession that he was being paid by the opposition company. Burbridge is not beaten, however. Thornton has an idea–a huge timber drive, never before attempted. Fifty acres of trees on the side of a hill are to be partly cut through, so that when the killers fall on those below, they will in turn fall on those below them.'

Source:

'Parkside Theatre: "Tall Timbers",' Queensland Times, 20 August 1937, p.4.

Horse breeder Ma Dawson is undergoing hard times. Her adopted daughter, Joan, a Canadian by birth, decides to act on her belief that a horse's bloodline is the most important factor in determining a champion and buys an unwanted thoroughbred. The emaciated colt, named Stormalong, is brought back to health and trained under the watchful eyes of Joan and Ma Dawson's son, Tommy. They eventually enter Stormalong in race after race, and he dutifully wins them all, thereby attracting the attention of an international gambling syndicate. Unable to convince the Dawsons to throw races for them, the syndicate tries first to have the horse doped and then killed in a stable fire. Unsuccessful in these attempts, they eventually shoot Stormalong by sniper fire as it races towards victory in the Melbourne Cup. The horse manages, however, to stay on its feet long enough to cross the line first, before collapsing and eventually dying. Meanwhile, Tommy, who has been kidnapped by the gang, manages to escape and capture those responsible. The story ends with him and Joan deciding to marry.

The story, written by emerging Hollywood writer Edmond Seward, is elaborated with numerous sub-plots, with comic relief introduced by the stable hands and through (satirical) discussions between Joan and the Dawsons' aristocratic neighbour, Bill Peel, regarding thoroughbred people and thoroughbred horses.

[Source: Australian Screen]

Cyril Maitland, a young clergyman, falls in love with a young woman called Alma Lee, despite already being engaged. When Alma's father finds out that she is pregnant he attacks Maitland but is accidentally killed in a fall. Maitland's closest friend, Dr Henry Everard, is blamed for the death and subsequently spends 20 years in goal. In all that time neither Lee nor Maitland attempt to clear his name. By the time Everard is released Maitland has become a prominent author and bishop. Not surprisingly Everard's only thought upon release is to seek vengance upon the man who ruined his life.

(Source: Australian Screen)

The film is an adaptation of the 1886 novel The Silence of Dean Maitland by English novelist Mary Gleed Tuttiett (11 Dec 1846 - 21 Sep 1923), who wrote under the pen-name Maxwell Gray. The novel, a popular best-seller, had been made into a successful stage play in the late nineteenth century as The Silence of Dean Maitland and had been previously filmed in 1914 in Australia by Raymond Longford (as The Silence of Dean Maitland) and in 1915 in the United States by John Ince (as Sealed Lips).

The storyline centres on the friendship between Mo, who is broke and behind in his rent, and Miriam, a young girl who claims to be an orphan, but who is in fact the runaway daughter of a rich aristocrat, Major Burnett. Mo is unaware that a large reward has been offered, but gangster Al Baloney and Mae West impersonator Kate plot to take the girl from him in order to get the money.

While Mo and his sidekick Donald undertake a series of disastrous attempts at finding employment, they inadvertently thwart the kidnap attempts. Miriam eventually leads Mo to the mansion where she lives but he is blamed for her disappearance and flees with Donald into the bush on a bicycle.

During their quest to find an old goldmine, the pair undertake various adventures, including being attacked by a tribe of Aborigines whom they take for cannibals. When they finally make it back to the city, they find that they have been cleared of any charges and the major throws a spectacular ball in Mo's honour.

A subplot involves a romance between a young couple, while the production itself includes a Busby Berkeley-style spectacle complete with 150 dancers.

A variety film made by director Ken G. Hall for Cinesound Productions, Cinesound Varieties was initially screened as a support to the full-length feature, The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934). Presented in two parts the first, "Evolution of a Waltz," has music director/composer W. Hamilton Webber and the 30-piece State Orchestra demonstrate the evolution of the waltz. The second part, "Nautical Nonsense" is a musical revue featuring more than 60 variety artists and musicians, including comedian Fred Bluett and his Boy Scouts (as Sydney pirates), Tom Katz and His Saxophone Band, Angela Parselles (soprano), the Lowell Bros, the Cinesound Octette, and the Cinesound Beauty Ballet.

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]

Although based on the 1905 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan (which was itself more faithfully adapted for film in 1910), this cinematic version retains little of the original. The storyline begins with Joan Enderby about to lose her family's sheep station because she can't afford to buy out the lease from her neighbours, the Sherringtons. To make matters worse, the elderly 'Ironbark' Sherrington, the owner of 'Waratah,' has been in England for two years allowing his villainous son Clive to try and remove Joan from the property. His attempt to bankrupt her is foiled, however, when a mysterious stranger offers to buy three thousand head of sheep from her at a good price. What she doesn't know is that the stranger, Wayne Ridgeway, is also rightful heir to the Sherrington estate. The only person who knows Ridgeway's identity is an Afghan trader called Jebal Zim, but he is murdered by Clive's overseer before he can tell the recently returned Ironbark Sherrington. Typical of the melodrama genre, the story's climax is played out in a thrilling scene - a bushfire - as Joan and Ridgeway try to deliver three thousand sheep to the market. After escaping the fire, they rescue Zim's kidnapped daughter, Zena and capture the overseer, Fletcher. Naturally Ridgeway is restored to his rightful inheritance, and he and Joan marry.

[Source: Australian Screen]

A series of four films, all directed by Ken G. Hall and made for Cinesound Productions, based on the On Our Selection stories of Steele Rudd.