Movie review – “Let George Do It” (1938) **1/2

George Wallace was a popular Australian vaudevillian who was probably second to only Bert Bailey as a box office star in Australia in the 1930s. He made three films for Frank Thring at Efftee, all of which were very stilted, but later made two better ones for Ken G Hall at Cinesound of which this was the first.

Like Wallace’s Efftee films, this leans heavily on Wallace’s stage background for material: after a (very funny) gag involving a “wake up device”, there’s a scene where Wallace sings a song with Joe Valli which seems like it comes straight from one of his shows, including Wallace doing his trademark fall-on-his ear. Then there’s a long sequence where Wallace interrupts a stage performance by a magician (Alec Kellaway, who usually played comic relief, here is more of a straight man) and does an entire routine for a crowd, including gags and tap dancing. 

But then the story kicks in and it turns into a movie: Wallace, feeling miserable, tries to get a gangster to kill him but can’t afford it, so he offers to give the gangsters his inheritance instead. The gangsters agree, thinking the whole thing’s a joke – but the next day Wallace inherits 30,000 pounds.

There are still Wallace set pieces but they are integrated in the plot i.e. a wrestling scene with a gangster that enables him to escape. Strong support cast, including ever reliable boozy Scot Joe Valli and chubby Letty Creyton as a girl with a yen for George. The last ten minutes or so consists of an exciting and well-done chase, including a long boat sequence on Sydney Harbour – compared to other sequences, this is pure cinema. It’s also an example of the structural skill Frank Harvey brought to Cinesound – there’s a “ticking clock” with Wallace having to sign the will within a certain time or he’ll lose the money.

The version of this film I saw at the NFSA only went for 50 minutes- apparently the proper time is 75 minutes but I couldn’t tell that I’d missed anything: maybe there was more Gwen Munro, the pretty ingénue who pops up at the beginning and the end and has nothing to do (she seems to have a boyfriend at the end about whom we know nothing)