Synopsis
Barney O'Hara is a performer in a touring carnival. He runs a sideshow act with his daughter, Pat, and ex-Shakespearean actor, Horace Worthington Howard, which is struggling to make money. One of the main attractions is Pat's voice.
One day Pat is invited to sing at a party held by Colonel Cameron and his daughter Eve, but her voice fails her. A specialist tells Barney that Pat requires an expensive operation.
To raise the money, Barney agrees to fight a boxer known as 'The Killer'. He is helped in his training by dancer Kitty Katkin. On the day of the fight, ants are slipped into Barney's shorts, causing him to defeat the Killer. He wins the money to enable Pat to have her operation.
Production
The film was developed as a star vehicle for popular comedian Will Mahoney, an American vaudevillian who toured Australia successfully in 1938. Ken G. Hall also hired Mahoney's regular co-stars, his wife Evie Hayes and manager, Bob Geraghty. [6] Mahoney had previously made a British film Said O'Reilluy to MacNab.
Hall hoped that Mahoney's appeal would help the film outside Australia:
This is the most important contract that has been signed at Cinesound as Mahoney is the highest paid star we have ever signed up. In fact, I think he's the highest paid stage artist ever to have toured Australia. It is only the improved conditions of the Australian film industry, due to recent legislation, that has made it possible for us to enlarge our production budget. If any artist can carry an Australian film to overseas markets, it's Will Mahoney. [7]
Mahoney later said, "I think I'll be a big success in this film, but don't get me wrong. It's only because I'm playing myself and I feel I know me pretty well." [8] He described his role a "a nice little bloke trying to make something of himself." [9]
In June 1939 it was announced the film would be called Come Up Smiling and would be the first film from Cinesound Productions not directed by Hall. The writer-director, William Freshman, was born in Australia but had been working in the British film industry. Freshman was hired along with his wife, scriptwriter Lydia Hayward. [10] [11]
"We are now planning bigger things, as we are well able to do, by reason of the additional time at my disposal", said Hall at the time. "Opportunity will be taken to find big subjects from which to make big pictures – like Robbery Under Arms, which I expect to direct personally, Overland Telegraph, Eureka Stockade, and others of that calibre, though not all necessarily historic." [12] (None of these movies ended up being made by Hall.)
The Freshmans arrived in Australia in April 1939 [13] and the script was ready by June. [14] Hall later wrote that Freshman "seemed to lack the vital comedy sense we needed, but he was a good constructor in a general way of screenplay writing. The boxing ring sequence was, I think, one of the funniest things we did at Cinesound." [15]
Casting
The romantic leads were played by Cinesound regular Shirley Ann Richards and John Fleeting. Fleeting had previously appeared in Gone to the Dogs (1939). [16] Singing star Jean Hatton appeared in her second movie, after Mr. Chedworth Steps Out (1938).
The film is known as the first featuring future Australian filmstar Chips Rafferty (as an uncredited extra). Ken G. Hall insists he cast Rafferty in Dad Rudd MP and used him afterwards in reshoots he did on Come Up Smiling (see below). [17] However Raffety says he ws cast in this film first as a "hayseed" through the assistant casting director. [18]
Shooting
Filming began in late June 1939. [19]
The movie was mostly shot at Cinesound's Bondi studios, with carnival scenes filmed at the Sydney Showground. An estimated 16,000 extras were used. [20] [21]
A week into filming, Jean Hatton was injured falling down two flights of stairs but managed to recover. [22]
The fight scene reportedly took ten nights to film with audiences of one thousand a night. [23]
Adolph Zukor of Paramount visited the set during filming in August. He had seen Dad and Dave Come to Town on the boat out to Australia and was so impressed by its quality that he asked to visit Cinesound. Zukor watched Hall direct a sequence of Come Up Smiling and told reporters, "I watched that director at work and he certainly seems to be fully conversant with film technique. I've been pleasantly surprised with what I have seen to-day. I didn't expect to find anything like the facilities that this studio possesses. I would say that Clnesound is just as good as anything we have to Hollywood." [24]
Filming was completed on 1 September. [25]
A half hour radio special promoting the film broadcast on 17 September. [26]
A patriotic song "It's Up To You It's Up to Me" was included in the film. [27]
The film opened in Tasmania in November 1939. [28] [29]
Ants in His Pants
According to Hall, the film was not an immediate success at the box office so he had it re-cut and re-released as Ants in His Pants, adding a new song to explain the title. This decision was announced mid November. [30]
Hall said in December, "It is hot an unusual procedure, as many American pictures change titles on release When the film was run through for executives, Mahoney's comedy musical number. 'I've Got Ants In My Pants' was so successful it was agreed that it should be stressed In the title." [31]
According to one journalist "Personally it seemed that "Come Up Smiling" was a good title — but who knows? The crowds may find the predicament Of the ants and the owner of the pants a far greater lure." [32]
The retitled film was released on 29 December. [33]
Reception
The Sydney Morning Herald said " There is nothing in "Ants in His Pants" that a boy oftwelve could fail to appreciate.... Will Mahoney on the stage used to be colossal fun.... But on the screen he provides only meandering entertainment." [34]
The Sun said "The picture makes no contribution to the important! side of Australian production. It is pure slapstick, the story being a thread on which to hang a variety entertainment, given principally by Will Mahoney." [35]
Smith's Weekly said the film "has the marking of a Hollywood piece of work — not a very good l-lollywood work, but nevertheless not deserving of that terrible label: "typically Australian." It has decided polish, and some of the stadium-scenes are decidedly amusing — thanks to the technicians. In fact it's a credit to the technical department of Cinesound— cutters, effectmen, and sound-men — rather than to any special b'illiance of its stage people. Only Mahoney stands clearly out." [36]
The Bulletin said "Cinesound’s latest gift to the nation is not its best work by any means, chief fault being one that has hindered several earlier productions—disjointedness and a tendency to cram too much into the film. There’s no reason why comedy, villainy, songandance and the thread of a plot shouldn’t be the components of a good filmplay, but they should be blended to-gether to run in perfect accord and carry the whole set-up with them. In “Ants in His Pants” each ingredient seems to remain a separate part, each seems to butt in on the other and be played out to its utmost length, and, consequently, each seems a too-obvious artifice to pad the film out to a respectable running-time. " [37]
According to Hall, the movie performed much better on re-release. [20] "It was quite successful too after a bad start. It was well received on television because it’s a funny picture —- that fight scene, for example, with Alec Kellaway and little Will Mahoney." [38]
