The feature film debut (although it does clock in at only 57 minutes) of FW Thring's Efftee Productions. It was smart of Thring to begin with established source material - although the film apparently made a loss. It's an adaptation of Pat Hanna's popular stage show which he had toured for years.
Hanna isn't particularly well remembered today, at least outside specialist circles - but basically Chips Rafferty stole his act: tall, skinny, gangly war veteran. Maybe that's a little unfair on Rafferty - Hann's persona tended to be more comic. He's a soldier Chic who is depicted as malingering in hospital and then later steals rum from a British hospital.
It's all decent enough stuff - not that funny to be honest, but fascinating to see. The quality of the acting is good - you can tell Hann knew his stuff, laconic and wry, but also George Moon, the shorty who plays his friend, and Joe Valli, who is a third member of the gang.,
In hindsight you can see why it wasn't a big hit despite having a solid basis and being well cast. It consists of three episodes - malingering in the hospital, stealing rum, and hanging out with a French girl. Hanna was annoyed Thring put the hospital segment first when he wanted it last... but the main problem is you could have shifted it around either way and it wouldn't have made that much difference because it's so episodic. There's no cause and effect.
Really all they needed to do was flesh out the subplot where digger Cecil Scott romances a French girl and is killed. This is handled super quickly in the last segment. They just needed to add a few scenes throughout of the romance, I think that would have done the trick.
Arthur Higgins did some lovely photography - it's crisp and clean and the one really world class thing about the production. The movie is edgy and of more interest from a historical point of view, but it's only an hour and is fascinating.
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