A Ticket in Tatts (1934 film)

A Ticket in Tatts is a 1934 musical comedy film starring popular stage comedian George Wallace as an accident-prone stablehand. It was the last of three films Wallace made for F. W. Thring.[2]

A Ticket in Tatts
Directed byF. W. Thring
Produced byF. W. Thring
Written byGeorge Wallace
John P. McLeod
StarringGeorge Wallace
CinematographyArthur Higgins
Edited byW. Albrecht
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
13 January 1934
Running time
88 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Box office£18,000[1]

Plot

After being fired from his job at a grocer, George, gets a job as a stableboy at a local stud farm run by the Fleming family. He befriends the horse Hotspur who is a favourite to win the Melbourne Cup, and develops a strong whistle which is used to make the horse run fast. Gangsters working for the villainous Coyle are determined to kidnap Hotspur but George figures it out and one is captured. To find out more information, George becomes a waiter at a cabaret where several ballet and vaudeville numbers are performed.

Dorothy Fleming is in love with author Harvey Walls, but is pursued by Brian Winters, the owner of rival horse Surefoot. Dorothy promises to marry Winters if Surefoot defeats Hotspur.

Coyle arranges for Peters, the Fleming's jockey, to be kidnapped and replaced with his jockey, Slade, with the aim of making sure Hotspur loses. Slade rides the horse and keeps Hotspur back in the field. However George uses his whistle to help the horse win. Dorothy and Harvey are united, as are George and Dorothy's maid.[3]

Cast
  • George Wallace as George
  • Frank Harvey as Brian Winters
  • Campbell Copelin as Harvey Walls
  • Thelma Scott as Dorothy Fleming
  • Harold Meade as Mr Fleming
  • Marshall Crosby as Mr Summers
  • Nick Morton as Nick
  • Guy Hastings as Mr Coyle
  • Norman Shepherd as a crook
  • Stan Ray as a stablehand
  • John Dobbie as a stablehand
  • Darcy Kelway as a farmer
  • Dan Thomas as a crook
  • Noel Boyd as Harvey's secretary
  • Joyce Turner as Marjorie
  • Marie La Varre as Mrs Doyle
  • Dora Mostyn as Mrs Carter
  • Alec Walker as Peters
  • Frank Crowther as Slade
  • Royce Milton as head waiter
  • the Efftee Ballet

Production

The film marked the first appearance in an Australian feature by the actor and writer Frank Harvey.[4]

The script was likely influenced by the real-life attempt of gangsters to kill the race horse Phar Lap prior to the Melbourne Cup.[5]

Shooting began in July 1933.[6]

Unlike many of Thring's films, much of the movie was shot on location, at a stuff dark near Melbourne, at Flemington Racecourse and the grounds of a Melbourne villa. Studio scenes were still shot at Efftee's studio at His Majesty's Theatre but it was the last time Thring used it – after the film he moved operations to the former Wattle Path Dance Palais at St Kilda which Efftee had bought for £23,000.[7][8][9][10][11]

Release

The film was also known as High Stakes and released with the short Dear Old London.[12] It proved reasonably popular at the box office, running for six weeks at a Melbourne cinema.[7][13] Thring complained about difficulties of securing a decent release in Sydney.[14]

It was released in England.[15]

Wallace remained under contract for Efftee and appeared for them on stage in Collits' Inn. Plans were also announced to star him in the films Ginger Murdoch and The Black Sheep.[8] However Thring died in 1936 before these could be made.

Wallace then made two films for Cinesound which followed the story telling formula of A Ticket in Tatts: "George is given a simple labourer's job... Quite innocently is fired... He then becomes involved in a simple wish-fulfilment device... the device is complicated by an equally simple set of stereotyped gangsters who have no motivation beyond innate greed for greater wealth, and in each situation they are foiled, usually accidentally, by George and his friends."[16]

References
  1. 'Counting the Cash in Australian Films', Everyones 12 December 1934 p 19 quoted in Fitzpatrick p179
  2. Vagg, Stephen (23 December 2019). "Australian Film Musicals You Probably Didn't Realise Existed". Filmink.
  3. "GEORGE WALLACE AT REGENT". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 2 April 1934. p. 9. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 November 1933. p. 10. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. Paul Byrnes, 'A Ticket in Tatts – Curator's Notes', Australian Screen Online
  6. ""A Ticket in Tatt's"". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 22 June 1933. p. 6. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p164
  8. "AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTIONS". The West Australian. Perth. 14 July 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Talkies that Only Australia Can Make". Table Talk. Melbourne. 24 August 1933. p. 19. Retrieved 16 March 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "WHO ARE OUR POTENTIAL STARS?". Table Talk. Melbourne. 31 August 1933. p. 17. Retrieved 16 March 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "MAKING A TALKIE TAKES TIME!". Table Talk. Melbourne. 7 September 1933. p. 23. Retrieved 17 March 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 November 1933. p. 10. Retrieved 5 January 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Wallace's Popularity". Sunday Times. Perth. 10 June 1934. p. 17 Section: First Section. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. "RELEASE OF EFFTEE FILMS". The Argus. Melbourne. 26 February 1934. p. 8. Retrieved 9 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "AUSTRALIAN FILM". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 April 1934. p. 13. Retrieved 8 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. Pike, Andrew Franklin. "The History of an Australian Film Production Company: Cinesound, 1932-70" (PDF). Australian National University. pp. 93–94.
  • Fitzpatrick, Peter, The Two Frank Thrings, Monash University, 2012
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