The flamboyantly camp 'Entwistle' in Australian film "Dad and Dave Come to Town" (1938)

The character ‘Entwistle’, played by actor Alec Kellaway, in the "Dad & Dave" series of movies was one of the first positive portrayals of an effeminate man in Australian cinema. "Dad and Dave Come to Town" was Kellaway’s debut as the shop assistant / floorwalker ‘Entwistle’.

In this clip, Dad (Bert Bailey) and Dave (Fred MacDonald) arrive at Cecille’s dress shop to inspect their new inheritance. After some confusion with the mannequins, they meet the floorwalker, Mr Entwhistle, a flamboyantly effeminate man who shows them around. Dave mistakes one of the models, Myrtle (Muriel Flood), for a mannequin, but he likes what he sees.

The homosexual ‘sissy’ was a relatively common stereotype in American comedies of the 1930s, although in somewhat more disguised form. They were often prissy Englishmen, rather than transparently gay (as in some of the Fred Astaire films). There was a similar tradition of effeminate Englishmen in Australian comedy, going back to the silent era, but Alec Kellaway’s performance here set a new benchmark. The humour in this film is more openly ribald than in any earlier Cinesound film, and the depiction of Entwhistle appears to be part of that new boldness on Ken Hall’s part. Entwhistle was certainly popular, because Kellaway played him again in Dad Rudd, MP (1940), the last of the Dad and Dave films, two years later.

The film is a ‘Dad and Dave’ comedy in which Dad unexpectedly inherits a woman’s fashion store in the city, and the family moves there to take charge but find it hard to adapt to city life. Climax is a spectacular fashion show which is a huge success and allows Dad to return to the farm. Commercially successful in Australia and Britain. It was released in England as "The Rudd Family Come to Town", and was the first Australian film to screen in a cinema in the West End.


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