LET GEORGE DO IT

Australia, 1938, 75 minutes, Black and white.
George Wallace, Letty Craydon, Joe Valli.
Directed by Ken G. Hall.

Let George Do It is a vehicle for vaudevillian and comedian of the '20s and '30s, George Wallace. He made some films in the early '30s for Frank Thring Senior and this film and Gone to the Dogs in the late '30s for Cinesound producer director Ken Hall. The film is a blend of visual and verbal comic routines which highlight Wallace's versatility, as stand-up comic, dancer, knockabout comedian. There is a very good boat-chase on Sydney Harbour as the climax of the film, a blend of photography with rear projection. The supporting cast includes many regulars of Hall's Acting Group of the '30s. An amusing example of the comedy of its time.

1. The entertainment value of '30s comedy? In its time? Now?

2. The quality of the film as a George Wallace vehicle: the title for him (and the British change to In The Nick of Time to enable them to use Let George Do It for a George Formby Comedy)? The persona of the comedian? Style and manner? His comedy skills? The innocent and victim? His capacity for movement: dance, falls? His skills at vaudeville and music hall patter? His drunk routine? Visual and verbal comedy? The action and chase? The Australian little man comedian?

3. The comedy style of the film, pace, editing, vaudeville routines, verbal humour and jokes, visual humour (of the knockabout type), the chase and the cinematic techniques? musical score, songs - especially Wallace's song on the stage about his bull?

4. The ingredients of the comic plot: the ordinary man, his day, harassed by the landlady, his friend, the attraction of Molly, society associates, the theatre and the acting by mistake, getting the sack, being drunk and the routine with the poison and the visual humour of his breathing fire, the gangster the inheritance and the chase? Stand-by routines, well-worn but well used?

5. Wallace and his characterisation of ice Blake? The appeal for humour, laughing at and with, pathos? His friendship with Happy and the routines with them in the room, at the hotel, with the gangsters, the chase? The vaudeville patter with Mysto the Magician? The gangster? The romance with Molly?

6. The supporting cast representing various types - Happy the good-natured friend looking mournful, the gangster, Mysto the Magician and his being put upon, the theatre people, the society people, Molly and her protectiveness of George?

7. The universal appeal of this kind of comedy? Its characteristics as an Australian comedy?