A Ticket in Tatts (1934 film)

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A Ticket in Tatts
Directed by F. W. Thring
Written by George Wallace
John P. McLeod
Produced by F. W. Thring
Starring George Wallace
Cinematography Arthur Higgins
Edited byW. Albrecht
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • 13 January 1934 (1934-01-13)
Running time
88 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Box office£18,000 [1]

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]

Contents

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 that 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

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]

Related Research Articles

Efftee Studios was an early Australian film and theatre production studio, established by F.W. Thring in 1930. It existed until Thring's death in 1935. Initially Efftee Films was based in Melbourne and used optical sound equipment imported from the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinesound Productions</span> Australian film production company

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George Stephenson "Onkus" Wallace, was an Australian comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio personality. During the early to mid-20th century, he was one of the most famous and successful Australian comedians on both stage and screen, with screen, song and revue sketch writing amongst his repertoire. Wallace was a small tubby man with goggle eyes, a mobile face and croaky voice who appeared in trademark baggy trousers, checkered shirt and felt hat. His career as one of Australia's most popular comedians spanned four decades from the 1920s to 1960 and encompassed stage, radio and film entertainment. Ken G. Hall, who directed him in two films, wrote in his autobiography that George Wallace was the finest Australian comedian he had known.

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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. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p164
  8. 1 2 "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.
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