Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

It Isn’t Done (1937)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Entitled to a title

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Hubert Blaydon (Cecil Kellaway) answers the door to an English lawyer in a bowler hat. Mr Potter (Leslie Victor) has come from England to bestow an inheritance. Mr Blaydon is really Lord Blaydon, with an estate in England. Mrs Blaydon (Nellie Ferguson) swoons at the news.

Curator’s notes

The Englishman in Australia had been a source of comedy in Australian cinema since at least 1910, but the roots of the 'New Chum’ cliché go back further, to literary forms of the 19th century. Charles Rowcroft’s Tales of the Colonies, published in 1843, portrays an English settler named Crab, who complains constantly but never quite gets round to leaving. The idea of the 'whingeing Pom’ has been partly attributed to this book. Beaumont Smith’s Splendid Fellows (1934) was a typical early sound-era version of a New Chum comedy; Peter Ustinov’s stockman in The Sundowners (1960) is a later version. Ken Hall rarely resorted to New Chum clichés in his films, but It Isn’t Done is one long satirical joke about the English, starting with Mr Potter, the bowler-hatted lawyer in this scene. Hall maintained that he never made satires, because they never worked at the Australian box office, but It Isn’t Done is satire nevertheless, and it became one of Cinesound’s most successful films.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Entitled to a title from the feature film It Isn't Done as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
itisntd1_pr.mp4 Large: 22.6MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
itisntd1_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.7MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: