AustLit
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Adaptation of
An Appealing Presentation of Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1925
single work
musical theatre
and
Rum Doings
1923
single work
drama
and
Chic and Joe in Hospital
1921
single work
drama
Issue Details:
First known date:
1931...
1931
Diggers
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Film Details - Efftee Film Productions , 1931
Producers:
F. W. Thring
Production Companies:
Efftee Film Productions
Director of Photography:
Arthur Higgins
Production Designers:
W. R. Coleman (Art Director)
Cast:
Pat Hanna (Chic Williams), George Moon (Joe Mulga), Edmund Warrington (Fatty), Cecil Scott (Bluey), Joe Valli (Joe McTavish), Norman French, Guy Hastings, Eugenie Prescott, A. F. Becker.
Release Dates:
6 November 1931 (Plaza Theatre, Melbourne).
Location:
- Filmed largely in Efftee Film productions Melbourne studio (formerly His Majesty's Theatre).
Notes:
1. Shot at F. W. Thring's Efftee Studios, which had been built inside the partly burnt-out Her Majesty's Theatre (Melbourne), Diggers created a good deal of bitterness between Thring and Hanna. The primary issue was the producer's insistence that the three sketches be linked as described in the abstract above. Hanna, whose entertainment philosophy had long been 'leave them laughing,' wanted the order to be changed to the way he had written the screenplay, allowing the hospital scene to close the film. Thring's insistence on ending the film with the slow-paced French scene proved to be a mistake; Diggers did poor business at the box office in all but a number of regional centres. Hanna's disappointment and anger with Thring was such that he vowed never to work for the producer again. Although he used Efftee's facilities for the sequel Diggers in Blighty, that film (along with Waltzing Matilda) was produced by his own company, Pat Hanna Productions.
2. Further reference: Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper. Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production (1980), pp.205-206.
Settings:
-
cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,