Efftee Film Productions

The first documentary of Frank Thring’s Cities of the Empire series, this episode is about Melbourne in Victoria. It shows the city’s architectural highlights and public buildings along with its famous parks and gardens.

Attending a reunion, two Australian ex-servicemen reminisce about their exploits in France during WW1. These include lying in a field hospital where they feigned deafness to extend their recuperation, stealing jars of rum from the Quartermaster and inventing an elaborate ruse to hide them and finally, the night before returning to the front relaxing in a French café where romance blossoms between the soldier and waitress as told through the song 'Mademoiselle from Armentieres'.

After being fired from his job at a grocer, George, gets a job as a stableboy at a local stud farm run by the Fleming family. He befriends the horse Hotspur who is a favourite to win the Melbourne Cup, and develops a strong whistle which is used to make the horse run fast.

A larrikin is reformed due to the love of a good woman.

George enlists in the police force and is assigned to Harmony Row, a haunt of criminals such as Slogger Lee.