Director Ken G. Hall claimed it was the only one of his features not to go into profit within a few years of release, although the film eventually covered costs.

Gangster Al Baloney and Mae West impersonator Kate kidnap the girl and Mo is blamed for her disappearance.

Mo and Donald take off into the bush looking for a gold mine (this storyline was inspired by the 1930 expedition to find Lasseter's Reef).

Another plot involves a young couple, Margot Burnett and Larry McCormack, finding love, and dancers perform periodically.

Bert Bailey and George Wallace had managed to transfer their on-stage popularity to the screen in a series of films, so Ken G. Hall thought he would try to do the same for Rene.

The original title of Strike Me Lucky was Swastikas for Luck; it was described as "a musical farce with a semi-serious background".

[15] The female ingenue part was played by 18-year-old Lorraine Smith, who came from an acting family and had experience in amateur theatre.

[19] Rene was paid £70 a week for his performance,[4][20] which was high for an Australian actor in films, third only to Bert Bailey and George Wallace.

He later admitted he did not enjoy acting on film as he missed the stimulation of a live performance and disliked the repetition.

[21] The movie's world premiere was held in October 1934 coinciding with the opening of the extension of Cinesound's Studios at Waverly.

The critic from The Sydney Morning Herald stated that: One must, in fairness, record the fact that...[the] audience... seemed to enjoy the film immensely.

He would play straight at the audience, and wait patiently, wearing his inimitably grotesque expression, until each roar of mirth had died away.

An experienced director of Hollywood farce could perhaps have reshaped the comedian's style to fit the new medium; but Mr. Ken Hall has made only an amateurish job of things... all the actors have the air of novices in a suburban repertory show.

For no discoverable reason Miss Yvonne Banvard goes through her part in exact and avowed impersonation of Mae West.

He'd come on centre stage with no support and just leer at the audience without saying a word for minutes on end and have them rocking with laughter.

I had seen him rehearsing in the theatre a few times and he just casually walked through, usually waiting for the matinee with a live audience to get the feel of what he was doing.

This problem characterised many prominent vaudeville comedians transferring to film or television ...[26]He also felt that Rene was too adult in his humor.