The second of two films George Wallace made for Ken G. Hall. This was the British version - there's a Renown logo at the top, and it only goes for 61 minutes when the Australian cut goes for longer. I sense from this they kept all of Wallace and removed the love plot because a love triangle feels very truncated.
Wallace works at the zoo. He lives in what I think is a share house, along with John Dobbie and Ron Whelan with Letty Craydon as the housekeeper. Dobbie is Wallace's sidekick. There's shenanigans with elephants and parrots, a tubby boss, a gorilla, a haunted house, a plane.
He's in love with Kathleen Esler, daughter of a rich man. The main romance is between Lois Green, daughter of Creydon, and John Fleeting, as a vet. They sing a love song duet which is very much in style of stage musicals of the time. Fleeting is a bit wet but Green is lovely - very pretty, a good singer, dancer and actress. There's quite a spectacular number 'Gone to the Dogs' headed by Wallace and Green.
There's some epigrammatic dialogue between Green and Fleet ("he gets in my hair" "well get a barber") that feels like Frank Harvey's influence.
The humour is hokey but they just want you to have a good time. There's a lot of talent on display and things like the greyhounds are very Aussie.
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