Diggers (1931) - A creaky, rum-soaked Aussie comedy

If you have a soft spot for dusty, creaky old black-and-white films where everyone talks like they have a mouthful of gravel, Diggers is absolutely worth an hour of your life today. It is a total gem for history nerds and people who love old Aussie slang, but if you want high-speed action, you will probably turn this off after five minutes.

The whole thing feels more like a series of comedy sketches than a real movie. We follow Chic and Joe, two Aussie soldiers who meet up years after the war to drink and talk about the old days in France.

The way they talk about World War I is so casual, it almost feels weird. They are basically just trying to avoid work and steal rum from the officers the whole time. 🍻

Joe Valli, who plays Joe, has this incredibly expressive face that looks like a crumpled paper bag. Half his jokes are just him making weird noises and looking annoyed at Chic.

I noticed that in the hospital scene, the background extras are barely moving. One guy in the back just stares directly at the camera for like three minutes straight, probably wondering when lunch is.

It has that super stagey quality you get in early talkies, similar to the stiff setups in The Battle of Trafalgar. Everything is shot from the front, and people stand in a semi-circle so the single microphone can catch their voices.

It reminds me of old-fashioned war stories like The Little Yank where the actual fighting takes a backseat to the characters just messing around. Nobody here seems particularly worried about the trenches; they just want their dinner.

Some things that made me chuckle:

• The absolute obsession with getting a "tot" of rum. It drives about 80% of the plot.
• Chic's hat is tilted so low in one scene I am convinced the actor was totally blind.
• The French characters speaking with the most hilariously fake accents you have ever heard.

The battle scenes—if you can even call them that—are mostly just smoke pots going off while guys jump into ditches. It is not exactly Spielberg, but there is a charming simplicity to it that I really liked.

Honestly, the movie gets way better when they stop trying to have a plot and just let the two main guys bicker. Their chemistry is the only reason this thing survives its own technical limitations.

If you decide to watch it, just prepare yourself for the audio. It sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can, but that is part of the charm, right?