Dad and Dave Come to Town

Dad and Dave Come to Town
Directed by	Ken G. Hall
Produced by	Ken G. Hall
Written by	Bert Bailey Frank Harvey
Based on	story by Ken G. Hall characters created by Steele Rudd
Starring	Bert Bailey Fred MacDonald Shirley Ann Richards
Music by	Hamilton Webber
Cinematography	George Heath
Editing by	William Shepherd
Release date(s)	30 September 1938 (Australia) 1943 (USA)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	£12,000[1] or ₤23,000[2]
Box office	£40,000[3]

Dad and Dave Come to Town is a 1938 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall, the third in the 'Dad and Dave' comedy series starring Bert Bailey.

Synopsis

Dad Rudd (Bert Bailey) inherits a woman's fashion store in the city from his dead brother. The Rudd family moves there to take charge but find it difficult to adapt to city ways. He also finds opposition from a rival shop owner Pierre (Sidney Wheeler) who wants to put his store out of business. He puts his daughter Jill (Shirley Ann Richards) in charge of the store, and she hires a young press agent from Pierre, Jim Bradley (Billy Rayes). Jill decides to put on a giant fashion show at the film's climax. Pierre hires some thugs to disrupt things, but they are stopped by Dave (Fred MacDonald), his new girlfriend Myrtle (Muriel Flood) and the store's effeminate floorwalker Entwistle (Alec Kellaway). The show is a big success and Dad Rudd returns to the country.

Production

Unlike the first two Dad and Dave films starring Bert Bailey, On Our Selection (1932) and Grandad Rudd (1935), this was not based on a play by Bailey but an original story by Ken G. Hall. Hall claims he asked his regular writer Frank Harvey to develop a premise, but Harvey could not do it, and indeed threatened to resign prior to the scripting of the film because he felt he couldn't write comedy. However, Hall came up with a story and Harvey stayed on the film, ending up with a writing credit. Uncredited work was done on the script by Hall's "comedy team" of Jim Bancks, Hal Carlton and Bill Maloney.^[4] The humour was considerably more risque that normal for a Cinesound film.^[5]

Hall made the film because Cinesound Productions needed a guaranteed box office success. There had recently been a ruling that Australian films were no longer eligible as British under the local quotas in England, which hurt their ability to sell overseas. Hall needed to make a film which was appealed to local audiences and On Our Selection (1932) had just enjoyed a fifth run in Sydney, indicating the market was still strong for Dad and Dave movies. "I'm fully prepared for verbal onslaughts from a certain section of the public that considers we are ruining Australia's prestige overseas," said Hall before filming. "In fact, it's the English markets that vitally concern us. But as our pictures have been subjected to certain restrictions there, we have cut our cloth to suit our pocket. Cinesound's next picture will be made for Australian audiences."^[6]

Casting

Bert Bailey and Fred MacDonald repeated their roles as Dad and Dave from the earlier films in the series, but the rest of the cast were newcomers. Ingenue Shirley Ann Richards, who was under long-term contract to Cinesound Productions was cast as Dad's daughter.

Billy Rayes and Leila Steppe were both Americans touring on the Tivoli vaudeville circuit.^[7]

Peter Finch plays a young man in love with Dad Rudd's daughter Sarah (Valerie Scanlan).Finch had appeared in a short film, The Magic Shoes (1935), but this was his first feature. He was recommended to Hall by George Cross, Cinesound's casting director, and so impressed the director he was cast in the role. "He was almost painfully thin in his early days, with high, prominent cheekbones, and his looks gave no real promise of the handsome, world-class screen star he matured into overseas," wrote Hall late. "But from the beginning he was a really first-class actor."^[8] Indeed, Hall later cast him in a larger role in Mr. Chedworth Steps Out (1939).

Valerie Scanlan was an 18 year old Sydney actor who had come to the attention of George Cross in an amateur proudction of Men Without Wives. It was her first film role.

Muriel Flood was a former vaudeville actor who was a well known radio personality "Susie" on 2GB.^[9]

Reception

The film was a success at the box office, Ken G. Hall later calling it a "very substantial hit",^[10] and it led to a fourth (and final) entry in the series, Dad Rudd, MP (1940). It was released in England as The Rudd Family Goes to Town, and was the first Australian film to screen in a cinema on the West End.^[11]

Legacy

In one scene, Jill (Shirley Ann Richards) says to Jim Bradley (Billy Rayes), "Don't call me girlie". This line was used as the title for a 1985 documentary about women in the Australian film industry.^[12]

The character of Entwistle (Alec Kellaway), the effeminate floorwalker who works at the fashion store, is a rare gay character in early Australian cinema. Although a stereotype, he is depicted as a loyal friend of the hero - the "first upfront camp male character to be treated in a positive fashion"^[13] and was so popular with audiences he returned in Dad Rudd, MP (1940).^[14]

Cast

• Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd
• Shirley Ann Richards (Ann Richards) as Jill
• Fred MacDonald as Dave
• Billy Rayes as Jim Bradley
• Alec Kellaway as Entwistle
• Sidney Wheeler as Pierre
• Connie Martyn as Mum
• Ossie Wenban as Joe
• Valerie Scanlan as Sarah
• Peter Finch as Bill Ryan
• Muriel Ford as Myrtle
• Leila Steppe as Sonia
• Marshall Crosby as Ryan Snr
• Cecil Perry as Rawlings
• Billy Stewart as Bob Thompson
• Marie D'Alton as Miss Quince
• Leslie Victor as Brown
• Raymond Longford as Policeman

References

1. ^ Gayne Dexter, Bert Bailey Obituary, The Sydney Sunday Herald, Sunday 5 April 1953 p12
2. ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 183.
3. ^ Gayne Dexter, 'Bert Bailey Started In Melodrama And Made A Fortune From A Beard', The Sydney Sunday Herald, Sunday 5 April 1953 p12
4. ^ Philip Taylor, 'Ken G. Hall', Cinema Papers January 1974 p 85
5. ^ Paul Byrne, 'Curator's Notes' on Dad and Dave Come to Town Clip 2 at Australian Screen Online
6. ^ 'NEW "DAD AND DAVE" COMEDY. Cinesound's Plans.' The West Australian (Perth), Friday 17 June 1938 p 9
7. ^ 'Show Girls Marry Millionaires Prominent New York Mannequin in Sydney', The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 14 June 1938 Supplement: Women's Supplement p 6
8. ^ Ken G. Hall. Directed by Ken G. Hall, Lansdowne Press, 1977 p 149
9. ^ 'DAD & DAVE Come to Town', The Mercury (Hobart), Saturday 3 September 1938 p 5
10. ^ Ken G. Hall, Directed by Ken G. Hall, Lansdowne Press, 1988 p147
11. ^ 'A Film Critic's Diary Every Wednesday DAD, DAVE, AND MUM ON LONDON SCREEN', The Argus (Melbourne), Wednesday 23 August 1939 p 15
12. ^ Don't Call Me Girlie at IMDB
13. ^ Philippa Hawker, 'There's nought so queer as folk',, The Age, March 10, 2004
14. ^ [http://www.afca.org.au/images/outback.pdf Deb Verhoeven, 'The sexual terrain of the Australian feature film - Putting the Out:back Putting the Out:back into the Ocker' in The Bent Lens (ed) Claire Jackson. Melbourne: Australian Catalogue Company, pp. 25-32]

• Murray, Scott; (ed.) (1994). Australian Cinema. St.Leonards, NSW.: Allen & Unwin/AFC. p. 23. ISBN 1-86373-311-6. 

External links

• Dad and Dave Come to Town at the Internet Movie Database
• Dad and Dave Come to Town at the NFSA
• Dad and Dave Come to Town at Australian Screen Online
• Article on Dad and Dave Come to Town by Bill Routt
• McNamara, Andrew E. (2008) The Promise of Modernity—Ken G. Hall's "Dad and Dave Come to Town" (1938-39). In Stephen, Ann, Goad, Philip, & McNamara, Andrew (Eds.) Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia. The Miegunyah Press/Powerhouse Publishing, Melbourne and Sydney, xxv-xxviii.[1]