Diggers and Diggers In Blighty

TWO FEATURE FILMS IN ONE

DIGGERS 1931, 58 Minutes

Attending a reunion, two Australian ex-servicemen reminisce about their exploits in France during WW1. These include lying in a field hospital where they feigned deafness to extend their recuperation, stealing jars of rum from the Quartermaster and inventing an elaborate ruse to hide them and finally, the night before returning to the front relaxing in a French café where romance blossoms between the soldier and waitress as told through the songMademoiselle from Armentieres.

Vaudeville performer Pat Hanna brings his well-established stage and radio "Diggers" comedy routine to the screen. One of the very first Australian "talkies".

DIGGERS IN BLIGHTY 1933, 74 Minutes

The diggers and their officer, who has fallen for a nurse at the hospital, are subtly manipulated by a British intelligence officer to assist in passing false battle plans to the Germans. Given leave in England, they end up billeted at a country house and offered barley water instead of the home-brew they anticipated.

Directed by Pat Hanna and assisted by acclaimed silent film director Raymond Longford, who also played the role of the German spy.

DIGITALLY REMASTERED BY NFSA

Distributed by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. © 2016 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.