Ken G. Hall wanted to fashion a film vehicle for Cecil Kellaway so came up with this (adapted from a novel). Kellaway plays Chedworth, a little man, likeable, with a useless gambling son, a nice daughter who is dating an aged idiot, a comic son, and a chirpy young daughter who can sing (Jean Hatton). Apparently Kellaway played these sort of roles on stage all the time back in the day. He's very good in these sort of parts (only in his forties but he looks older).
His character gets fired (excellent direction from Hall, lingering on Kellaway), he's kept on as a nightwatchman, discovers some money, it's forged, wins money on a bet, wins money in share investments that he's conned into by Sydney Wheeler who's also associated with the forgers, and who is the boss of son Peter Finch, and there's John Warwick as an old looking treasury man who likes Kellaway and romances Kellaway's eldest daughter, and daughter Jean Hatton enters a singing contest.
It's a bit all over the place but a lot of old 30s Hollywood star vehicles were - check out some of MGM's efforts.
I wonder why Shirley Ann Richards didn't play Kellaway's hot daughter. Maybe Hall felt he'd done that in It Isn't Done and didn't want to repeat himself. It's not a very big part - he's not in it very much. I did like how she dated a dodgy older guy, a shonk. But was there no better looking man than John Warwick as the treasury guy?
Rita Pauncefort has a high old time as Kellaway's greedy wife - the sort who was caricatured but when you think about it, suffered because she couldn't work. He tells her off early on but then she doesn't seem to change, spending all his money.
Hatton is very likeable and engaging. No wonder Hall used her again in Ants in His Pants. Peter Finch is excellent and full marks to Hall for giving him a decent role. He's so skinny - no wonder Hall struggled to see him as a romantic lead.
Frank Harvey juggles it well enough in his script. You can laugh at the gangsters but it does provide an element of pace. The film has a serious subtext and glimpses of Australia's class system and life.
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