''Diggers'' is a 1931 Australian comedy film produced and directed by

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 ...

starring popular stage comedian

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 ...

. It was the first feature film from both men. The movie is based on Hanna's stage show, and is concerned with the adventures of Australian soldiers during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Plot summary

Two Australian 'cobbers', Chic and Joe, attend a reunion 12 years after World War I and reminisce about their exploits together in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. They recall three incidents in particular. Firstly, the time they were in hospital and ingeniously feigned an illness to stay away from active service and the front line. Secondly, when the 'cobbers' attempt to steal

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

from the British Army store. And finally, they recall relaxing in a French cafe while a fellow Digger romances the waitress (

Eugenie Prescott Daniel J. Bloomberg (July 4, 1905 – August 14, 1984) was an Academy Award-winning audio engineer. Bloomberg's first Hollywood credit was in 1934, his last his Oscar-nominated work on John Ford’s ''The Quiet Man'' 18 years later. In the int ...

Cast

as Chic Williams *George Moon as Joe Mulga *

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 McTavish *

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...

as medical officer * Guy Hastings as Quarter-Master Sergeant *

Cecil Scott Cecil Scott (November 22, 1905 in Springfield, Ohio – January 5, 1964 in New York City) was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, and bandleader. Scott played as a teenager with his brother, drummer Lloyd Scott. They played together ...

as Bluey * Edmund Warrington as Fatty *John Henry as a tommy *Rutland Becket as SM *Harry McClelland as Sergeant-Major Booth *Royce Milton as CO NB: The George Moon above is George Moon Snr. Although well known in Australia during the 1920s for his dance partnership with Dan Morris (as Moon and Morris), he is now often confused with his son, British actor George Moon Jnr (father of actress

Georgina Moon Georgina Moon is a British actress. Her television roles include Lt. Sylvia Howell in ''UFO'', Erotica in ''Up Pompeii!'', Rose Bivaque in ''Clochemerle'', Miss Finch in ''You're Only Young Twice'' and Christine Cropper in '' How's Your Father ...

). For further details on George Moon Snr and Moon and Morris se
Moon and Morris
at Australian Variety Theatre Archive

Production

The movie was part of Efftee Film Productions' initial group of pictures, including '' A Co-respondent's Course'' and ''

The Haunted Barn ''The Haunted Barn'' is a short 1931 Australian comedy film produced by F.W. Thring directed by Gregan McMahon. It was one of the first productions by Thring's Efftee Studios. The film was produced to support of the feature ''Diggers'' (1931) a ...

''. The cost of making these and establishing the studio came to £80,000. The script was adapted from Hanna's popular stage show. Eric Donaldson was the writer primarily responsible for adapting it to screen. The film was shot in Thring's studio in His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne. A cast of over 200 people was used. According to Bert Nicholas, Arthur Higgins' assistant, Hanna and Thring often argued throughout the shoot. Hanna insisted that he was in nearly every shot of the film and insisted on the scenic model shots that Thring thought were unnecessary but which Hanna thought needed to tie everything together. However Thring prevailed in a disagreement about the structure of the movie. The original stage show consisted of the same reunion dinner and three flashback episodes, but in a different structure – it started with the attempt to steal rum, then dealt with the waitress romance, and finished with the hospital sketch. The film was shot in the same order but Thring restructured it during editing. These changes annoyed Hanna, who decided to form his own production company to make his follow up films, ''

Diggers in Blighty ''Diggers in Blighty'' is a 1933 Australian film starring and directed by Pat Hanna. Hanna decided to direct this film himself after being unhappy with how F. W. Thring had handled ''Diggers'' (1931).Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Fi ...

'' (1933) and ''

Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) ...

'' (1933).Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 155.

Release

''Diggers'' was released in Melbourne on a double bill with the short '' A Co-respondent's Course''. Public response was at first poor but the film performed well in country areas. It was re-released in Melbourne on a double-bill with ''

'' and was a success at the box office. Thring says that the movie earned £2,000 in one Melbourne theatre alone. The movie was also released in England where it achieved 400 bookings, less successful than Thring's later ''His Royal Highness''. Thring's biographer Peter Fitzpatrick later wrote that:

''Diggers'' is driven... by three things that made Hanna's concert parties a hit: the rapport between Chic, long and lean as the proverbial pull-through, and Joe, his little mate, as they battle authority in all its forms; George Moon's genius for physical comedy; and, above all, a delight in verbal gags built on the intrinsic slipperiness of language, especially as used by Chic and Joe.Fitzpatrick p 152

References

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

External links

*
''Diggers''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

''Diggers''
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

''Diggers''
at Oz Movies
''Diggers''
at Australian Variety Theatre Archive
Article on Digger-style theatre companies
at Australian Variety Theatre Archive {{F.W. Thring 1931 films Australian World War I films Films directed by F. W. Thring Australian black-and-white films Australian comedy films 1931 comedy films 1930s English-language films