Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Smiley Gets a Gun (1958)

A video which normally appears on this page did not load because the Flash plug-in was not found on your computer. You can download and install the free Flash plug-in then view the video. Or you can view the same video as a downloadable MP4 file without installing the Flash plug-in.

Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Acting the goat

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

In Sunday services, Smiley (Keith Calvert) has volunteered to pump the organ for Mrs Gaspen (Ruth Cracknell) as part of his campaign to be good. One of his school rivals pushes a goat into the church, as the congregation sings a hymn. Smiley tries frantically to get rid of it, while not letting the organ stop. The policeman (Chips Rafferty) doesn’t see what’s ahead as he brings the collection plate forward. The vicar (Gordon Chater) can’t believe his eyes.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

The style of comic acting is broader in the sequel. In this clip alone, we see Keith Calvert, Ruth Cracknell and Gordon Chater perform exaggerated double takes and Chips Rafferty take an unlikely pratfall after failing to see or hear a goat that’s right in front of him.

The broad acting suggests that Anthony Kimmins wanted the film to be simply more commercial, rather than as good or better than its predecessor. In the end it was neither of those things, but this is one of the film’s better comedy scenes because the mayhem caused by the goat is well orchestrated and contrasts nicely with the pious church setting. Note a very young Ruth Cracknell in her first screen role, and Gordon Chater as the vicar, in almost his first screen appearance.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Acting the goat from the feature film Smiley Gets a Gun 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
smileyg3_pr.mp4 Large: 8.6MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
smileyg3_bb.mp4 Medium: 4.1MB 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: