The Haunted Barn
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Haunted Barn'' is a short 1931 Australian comedy film produced by
F.W. Thring Francis William Thring (2 December 1882 – 1 July 1936), better known as F. W. Thring, was an Australian film director, producer, and exhibitor. He has been credited with the invention of the clapperboard. Early life Francis William Thring ( ...
directed by
Gregan McMahon Gregan McMahon, CBE (2 March 1874 – 30 August 1941)Allan Ashbolt,McMahon, Gregan (1874–1941), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, MUP, 1986, pp 336–337. Retrieved 2 October 2009 was an Australian actor and theatrical director ...
. It was one of the first productions by Thring's
Efftee Studios Efftee Studios was an early Australian film and theatre production studio, established by F.W. Thring (the name 'Efftee' deriving from his initials, 'FT' for Francis Thring) in 1930. It existed until Thring's death in 1935. Initially Efftee Films ...
. The film was produced to support of the feature '' Diggers'' (1931) and shown on the same bill.


Plot

John Moon is a businessman interested in ghosts. He decides to spend the night in a barn hoping to see the ghost of the bushranger Sturdy who died there when betrayed to the police by his friend Rogan. He is visited by two lovers, Ralph and Joan, seeking to elope, and worried about reprisals from Joan's father. Rose enters with a gun then leaves after demanding that no one leaves until dawn. A man bursts in with the news that lunatics have escaped from the asylum and ten pounds per head is offered for their capture. A body appears which all are convinced is the ghost of Sturdy. In the morning, Sturdy, Rose and Rogan confront each other. Sturdy explains he was not trying to kill Rogan but to get his permission to marry Rose, who is Sturdy's sister, and end a family feud. Rogan says he was the body, having fallen from the loft while hiding from Sturdy. Dr Glass arrives to claim Ralph and Joan who are lunatics. Mr Moon's two friends arrive and claim they hired an actor to pretend to be a ghost for Moon. Two tramps are left by themselves with Ralph's wallet which turns out to be stuffed with newspapers.Fitzpatrick p 155


Cast

*
Thelma Scott Thelma Marjorie Scott (17 June 1913 – 23 November 2006) was an Australian character actress whose six-decade career in theatre, radio, film and Australian made her one of her country's most recognisable and beloved personalities. Having st ...
*Donalda Warne as Joan *John Maitland as Ralph *Phil Smith as John Moon *Ed Brett *George Edwards *Royce Milton *Ronald Atholwood *John Cameron as Captain Sturdy *Willie Driscoll *Norman Shepherd *Keith Desmond as swagman


Production

Donalda Warne (1912-??) made her cinema debut in the film. Keith Desmond was a vaudeville star.


Release

It was banned in Victoria for children between six and sixteen on the grounds that the sound of the wind in the film as well as the title of the film made the film too scary for children. Thring appealed the decision and succeeded in having it overturned. The film and ''Diggers'' proved very popular at the box office. Thring's biographer later called the movie a "dog's breakfast" directed by two men "who could never have worked productively together".


See also

*
Cinema of Australia The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of '' The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internat ...


References

*Fitzpatrick, Peter, ''The Two Frank Thrings'', Monash University 2012


External links


''The Haunted Barn''
at
National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haunted Barn, The 1931 films Australian black-and-white films Australian comedy-drama films 1931 comedy-drama films 1930s English-language films