by Stephen Vagg
Few Australian books of the 1950s were more beloved than They’re a Weird Mob. This comic look at Aussie life through the eyes of Italian immigrant Nino Culotta, written by Culotta, was a local phenomenon on its publication in 1957, selling 150,000 copies within a year, a record for an Australian book. By October 1960, that figure was up to 280,000, making it the best selling Australian novel of all time. After a little “who is Nino Culotta?” hype, it was revealed the author was actually not-very-Italian John O‘Grady (1907-1981), whose day job was a pharmacist for the New Zealand government in Western Samoa.
The success of They’re a Weird Mob led to it being turned into a 1958 radio serial, and a number of sequels (Cop This Lot, Gone Fishin’, Gone Gougin’) as well as being read out on television in 15-minute weekly instalments in a show called Telestory (1962) (seriously, that was a thing in the 1960s – they’d do TV programs consisting of someone reading out from a book).
The novel also earned O’Grady that dream of all prose writers, the sale of film rights. Apparently, Gregory Peck got them when making On the Beach (1959) in Australia, but he couldn’t get the film made (perhaps fortunately – an Aussie fish out of water doesn’t seem to be a natural fit for Atticus Finch though I may be misjudging the man). Rights eventually made their way to Brit Michael Powell, who made a lovely film in 1966 using British and Australian finance, the first big local box office hit since The Overlanders (1946). There were plans to follow this up with a TV series but it never happened (I’m surprised it hasn’t been remade, the title is prime IP, as the kids say).
Weird Mob wasn’t the only work of O’Grady’s adapted for the screen. In 1962, the ABC broadcast a television play of his, Light Me a Lucifer. It’s not very well remembered today but it has one of the best concepts for an Australian comedy ever – the Devil comes to Sydney.
The first mention I’ve been able to find about Light Me a Lucifer is in a 1960 Age profile on O’Grady which mentions he was working on a stage play of that title, which he called an “entertainment”. O’Grady had written some plays in his pre-Mob days – including The Valley – and clearly wanted to have another go. Somewhere along the line the work morphed into a television script.
The production was filmed in Melbourne in 1962 under the direction of William Sterling and a cast headed by none other than Frank Thring as Satan. I have written about Thring in my articles for Salome and Treason – he was the most charismatic character actor living in Australia at the time, having returned home to Melbourne after playing villains in four Hollywood epics (The Vikings, Ben Hur, El Cid, King of Kings). Thring had a track record in comedy – he had played Lancelot Spratt in a stage version of Doctor in the House in England – and was so perfectly cast one presumes O’Grady wrote this specifically for him, though I have no proof of that.
The action starts in Hell, where Satan (Thring) is unhappy at the number of people his agent in Australia, Stoker (Edward Howell), is getting in from that country. Stoker whines that it’s hard saying “they’re a weird mob up there”, so Satan decides to visit along with his wife Lilith (Lynne Flanagan). He disguises himself as Nick Devlin and meets a “typical” suburban Australian family: grocer Harry Harmon (Kenneth Goodlet), his wife Doreen (Joan Harris), and their daughter Barbara (Lyndall Rowe) plus her boyfriend Stan (David Mitchell), and their neighbour Bill (Wynn Roberts). Harry is very friendly, Barbara thinks Nick is hot stuff which makes Stan jealous, while Lilith tries to seduce Bill. Shenanigans build to a climax where [SPOILERS] Stoker burns down Devlin’s house, Harry and Bill die trying to rescue them and visit Satan and Lilith in Hell before heading off to Heaven. Nick decides to let Stoker return to Australia, asking him to send back the recipe for Australian beer.
To my knowledge, no copy of this broadcast exists apart from a few filmed segments and the credits, but you can read the full script online at the NAA.
It’s a very funny script with some great lines and moments. It feels as though it could have used a dramaturg to get all the juice out of the characters and situations (O’Grady was never too strong on plots) but you can imagine the actors having the time of their lives with it.
Culturally, Light Me a Lucifer is fascinating in its depiction of 1962 Australia through the eyes of John O’Grady. It’s a place where men love their mates, beer and barbecues, don’t work too hard and don’t dob on mates who take the day off to watch a movie. Women are depicted as being unhappy with their husbands (Doreen), boyfriends (Barbara) or life in general (Lilith) and all are punished for it. When Lilith tries to seduce Bill, who is single, he recoils and when she slaps him, he overpowers her.
A 75-minute television comedy was a bold commitment from the ABC at a time when there wasn’t much scripted local comedy (that would change in a few years with shows like Barley Charlie, Mavis Bramston and My Name‘s McGooley What’s Yours?). Reviews were mixed, though some were good – the Sydney Morning Herald called the play “brilliant”.
Light Me a Lucifer is a little-known but important work that captures something of Australia. A flawed piece, but it’s brilliant that the ABC made it and I would love to have seen it. How awesome would Thring have been as the devil? If you’re interested in They’re a Weird Mob, it’s worth reading the script.
