Something of a "Carry on, Soldier" for the Aussie set, the hour-long 1931 feature Diggers (the first film produced for the Efftee Studios production company) is a rollicking comedy adapted from the popular Australian stage show of the same title, and helmed by Oz's infamous director-cum-actor Frank W. Thring. The film stars comedy team Pat Hanna and George Moon as a pair of mischievous "diggers" (or soldiers in the Australian army) who repeatedly stir up mirth while serving in the AIF in France circa 1918. In the first segment, Hanna and Moon attempt to lift some rum from a Brit Army surplus store. In the second, Hanna and Moon sit at a French café while another digger courts a waitress. And in the third, Hanna and Moon fake illness to escape from the horrors of battle, and wind up in a hospital, where they (according to the film's posters) "flirt with the pretty nursies."
by Nathan Southern
synopsis
