''Diggers in Blighty'' is a 1933 Australian film starring and directed by

Pat Hanna George Patrick "Pat" Hanna (born 18 March 1888 in Whitianga, New Zealand – 24 October 1973 in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England) was a New Zealand-born film producer, he was a soldier of the First World War who entertained post-war audience ...

. Hanna decided to direct this film himself after being unhappy with how

F. W. Thring Francis William Thring (2 December 1882 – 1 July 1936), better known as F. W. Thring, was an Australian film director, film producer, producer, and film exhibitor, exhibitor. He has been credited with the invention of the clapperboard. Early ...

had handled ''

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from ...

'' (1931).Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 160.

Plot

While serving in the Australian Army in France in 1918, soldiers Chic and Joe steal some rum from the quartermaster's store. They later help British intelligence pass on some false battle plans to a German spy and are rewarded with ten days' leave in England. They go to a country house in Essex and have trouble with their uncouth manners but help some upper class friends have a romance.

Cast

as Chic Williams *

Joe Valli Joseph George McParlane (also spelled McFarlane and McPharlane; 13 August 1885 – 29 May 1967), known as Joe Valli, was a Scottish-Australian actor who worked in vaudeville and films. He had a long-running vaudeville partnership with Pat Hanna as ...

as Joe McTavish *

George Moon George Moon (19 March 1909 – 17 December 1981) was an English Theatre, stage, film actor, film and television actor. During the late 1950s he appeared as Ginger Smart in the television series ''Shadow Squad'' and its sequel ''Skyport''. ...

as Joe Mulga *Norman French as Sir Guy Gough *John D'Arcy as Captain Jack Fisher *Prudence Irving as Alison Dennett *

Thelma Scott Thelma Marjorie Scott (17 June 1913 – 23 November 2006) was an Australian character actress whose six-decade career in theatre, radio, film and Australian made her one of her country's most recognisable and beloved personalities. Having st ...

as Judy Fisher *Edwin Brett as the Colonel *Nellie Mortyne as Aunt Martha *Isa Crossley as the sister *

Raymond Longford Raymond Longford (born John Walter Hollis Longford, 23 September 18782 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian ...

as Von Schieling *Guy Hastings as quartermaster sergeant *Field Fisher as Muddles *George Randall as Colonel Mason *Alfred Frith as a Tommie *Reg Wykeham as WO Pay Corps *Sylvia Sterling as French adventuress

Production

The script was based on material Hanna had performed on stage for years. Although Hanna did not make the film under the Efftee umbrella, he hired

Efftee Studios Efftee Studios was an early Australian film and theatre production studio, established by F.W. Thring (the name 'Efftee' deriving from his initials, 'FT' for Francis Thring) in 1930. It existed until Thring's death in 1935. Initially Efftee Films ...

facilities and technical staff. The film was shot over six weeks commencing in October 1932. Many of the cast had appeared on stage, including Hanna, Valli and Moon. They were joined by comedian Alfred Firth in his film debut. Old Melbourne Gaol stood in for a medieval castle.

Reception

The movie was released on a double bill with an Effee film, '' Harmony Row'' (1932). Hanna later claimed that the film was a big success at the box office but due to the amounts taken by cinema owners and distributors it took him over a year for his production costs to be recovered. Contemporary reviews were poor, the critic from the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' claiming that:

Everyone in the play seems to be talking at the top of his or her voice; and talking so fast that the listener often grows quite desperate trying to keep up with them. Any microscopic respites from speech are zealously filled up with bursts of lively music... The directors must realise that actors need directing when they are before the camera. Merely to turn the players (however clever) loose in a drove across the studio floor is fatal.... The acting... is often much too violent for the screen; and, in the case of the women, the energetic "registering" of emotion recalls the early days of the silent screen... Mr. Hanna would be wise to consult well-informed opinion concerning his story and his continuity. Both are exceedingly weak.

The film was released in England. ''Diggers in Blighty'' proved to have a long life and Hanna re-released it regularly over the next 20 years. It was appearing in cinemas as late as 1952.

References

External links

*
''Diggers in Blighty''
at Oz Movies
''Diggers in Blighty''
{Dead link, date=July 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes at Australian Variety Theatre Archive
1933 ''Variety'' review
1933 films Australian black-and-white films Australian comedy films 1933 comedy films 1930s English-language films