A Ticket in Tatts (1934 film)

''A Ticket in Tatts'' is a 1934 musical comedy film starring popular stage comedian George Wallace as an accident-prone stablehand. It was the last of three films Wallace made for F. W. Thring.

Plot

After being fired from his job at a grocer, George, gets a job as a stableboy at a local stud farm run by the Fleming family. He befriends the horse Hotspur who is a favourite to win the Melbourne Cup and develops a strong whistle that is used to make the horse run fast. Gangsters working for the villainous Coyle are determined to kidnap Hotspur but George figures it out and one is captured. To find out more information, George becomes a waiter at a cabaret where several ballet and vaudeville numbers are performed.

Dorothy Fleming is in love with author Harvey Walls, but is pursued by Brian Winters, the owner of rival horse Surefoot. Dorothy promises to marry Winters if Surefoot defeats Hotspur.

Coyle arranges for Peters, the Fleming's jockey, to be kidnapped and replaced with his jockey, Slade, with the aim of making sure Hotspur loses. Slade rides the horse and keeps Hotspur back in the field. However George uses his whistle to help the horse win. Dorothy and Harvey are united, as are George and Dorothy's maid.

Cast

*George Wallace as George
* Frank Harvey as Brian Winters
*Campbell Copelin as Harvey Walls
*Thelma Scott as Dorothy Fleming
*Harold Meade as Mr Fleming
*Marshall Crosby as Mr Summers
*Nick Morton as Nick
* Guy Hastings as Mr Coyle
*Norman Shepherd as a crook
*Stan Ray as a stablehand
* John Dobbie as a stablehand
*Darcy Kelway as a farmer
*Dan Thomas as a crook
*Noel Boyd as Harvey's secretary
*Joyce Turner as Marjorie
*Marie La Varre as Mrs Doyle
*Dora Mostyn as Mrs Carter
*Alec Walker as Peters
*Frank Crowther as Slade
*Royce Milton as head waiter
*the Efftee Ballet

Production

The film marked the first appearance in an Australian feature by the actor and writer Frank Harvey.

The script was likely influenced by the real-life attempt of gangsters to kill the race horse Phar Lap prior to the Melbourne Cup.

Shooting began in July 1933.

Unlike many of Thring's films, much of the movie was shot on location, at a stuff dark near Melbourne, at Flemington Racecourse and the grounds of a Melbourne villa. Studio scenes were still shot at Efftee's studio at His Majesty's Theatre but it was the last time Thring used it – after the film he moved operations to the former Wattle Path Dance Palais at St Kilda which Efftee had bought for £23,000.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p164

Release

The film was also known as ''High Stakes'' and released with the short ''Dear Old London''. It proved reasonably popular at the box office, running for six weeks at a Melbourne cinema. Thring complained about difficulties of securing a decent release in Sydney.

It was released in England.

Wallace remained under contract for Efftee and appeared for them on stage in ''Collits' Inn''. Plans were also announced to star him in the films ''Ginger Murdoch'' and ''The Black Sheep''. However Thring died in 1936 before these could be made.

Wallace then made two films for Cinesound which followed the story telling formula of ''A Ticket in Tatts'': "George is given a simple labourer's job... Quite innocently is fired... He then becomes involved in a simple wish-fulfilment device... the device is complicated by an equally simple set of stereotyped gangsters who have no motivation beyond innate greed for greater wealth, and in each situation they are foiled, usually accidentally, by George and his friends."

References

*Fitzpatrick, Peter, ''The Two Frank Thrings'', Monash University, 2012

External links

''A Ticket in Tatts''
in the Internet Movie Database
''A Ticket in Tatts''
at Australian Screen Online
''A Ticket in Tatts''
at Oz Movies
Complete script
at National Archives of Australia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ticket in Tatts
1934 films
Australian musical comedy films
Australian musicals
1934 musical comedy films
Films directed by F. W. Thring
Australian black-and-white films