Know Thy Child

Last updated

Know Thy Child
Directed by Franklyn Barrett
Written byElsie M. Cummins
Produced byFranklyn Barrett
CinematographyFranklyn Barrett
Production
company
Barrett's Australian Productions
Release date
  • 8 October 1921 (1921-10-08) [1]
Running time
6 reels
CountryAustralia
Languages Silent film
English intertitles

Know Thy Child is a 1921 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett.

Contents

It is considered a lost film. [2] [3]

Plot

A travelling salesman, Ray Standford (Roland Conway), seduces country girl Sadie McClure (Vera James) but forgets about her when she returns to the city and marries Dorothy Graham (Nada Conrade), daughter of his boss. Sadie gives birth to a daughter, Eileen (Lotus Thompson), who becomes Ray's personal secretary. Dorothy becomes a social worker and she and Ray can not have children. Dorothy pressures the government to declare bigamous all marriages contracted by people who were "morally pledged" to others. Ray becomes attracted to Ellen, but she has a sweetheart, engineer Geoffrey Dexter. One night burglars enter a building containing Ray, Eileen and Geoffrey but they fight them off.

Sadie dies and Standford and Dorothy adopt the girl. [4] [5]

Cast

Production

The film was shot in Sydney at the Rushcutters Bay Studio with exteriors done at Berowra Waters [6] and at Grenwell Point near Nowra. [7]

A contemporary report said it featured "probably the biggest set ever used in an Australian film." [8] Filming was completed by July 1921. [9]

This was the film debut of Lotus Thompson who later achieved fame in Hollywood. [10]

Actress Wendy Osborne later claimed she refused a role in the film on moral grounds. [11]

Release

Barrett distributed the movie himself, but it was not a big success at the box office. [6]

The film was seen by Sir Walter Davidson, the Governor of New South Wales, whose endorsement of the film was used prominently in advertising. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lotus Thompson</span> Australian actress

Lotus Thompson was an Australian actress of silent and sound films. Her film career began in Australia in 1921 and ended in California in 1949, during which time she appeared in 35 motion pictures. She died in California in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Britain at the 1936 Summer Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. 208 competitors, 171 men and 37 women, took part in 91 events in 17 sports. British athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games.

<i>Miss Sadie Thompson</i> 1953 film by Curtis Bernhardt

Miss Sadie Thompson is a 1953 3-D American musical romantic drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, and Aldo Ray. The film was released by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1921 short story "Miss Thompson". Other film versions include Sadie Thompson (1928) starring Gloria Swanson, Rain (1932) starring Joan Crawford, and Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946).

<i>The Kid Stakes</i> 1927 film

The Kid Stakes is a 1927 Australian silent black and white comedy film written and directed by Tal Ordell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lottie Lyell</span> Australian actress and film director

Lottie Lyell was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the silent era through her collaborations with director and writer Raymond Longford.

<i>Robbery Under Arms</i> (1920 film) 1920 film

Robbery Under Arms is a 1920 Australian film directed by Kenneth Brampton and financed by mining magnate Pearson Tewksbury. It is an early example of the "Meat pie Western".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Longford</span> Australian filmmaker and actor (1878–1959)

Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer, and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell, including The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921), prompted the Australian Film Institute's AFI Raymond Longford Award, inaugurated in 1968, to be named in his honour.

<i>Wide Boy</i> (film) 1952 British film

Wide Boy is a 1952 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Susan Shaw, Sydney Tafler and Ronald Howard.

<i>The Murder of Captain Fryatt</i> 1917 film by John Gavin

The Murder of Captain Fryatt is a 1917 Australian silent film about the execution of Captain Charles Fryatt during World War I from John and Agnes Gavin.

The Gentleman Bushranger is a 1921 Australian film melodrama from director Beaumont Smith. Bushranging films were banned at the time but Smith got around this by making the plot about a man falsely accused of being a bushranger.

Prehistoric Hayseeds is a 1923 Australian film comedy that was written, produced, and directed by Beaumont Smith. It is the sixth in his series about the rural family the Hayseeds and concerns their discovery of a lost tribe.

The Church and the Woman is a 1917 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford set against the background of sectarianism in Australia. It is considered a lost film.

The Dinkum Bloke is a 1923 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford. Despite the title and the presence of Arthur Tauchert and Lottie Lyell in the cast, the film is not a direct sequel to The Sentimental Bloke (1919) or Ginger Mick (1920).

<i>Hills of Hate</i> (1926 film) 1926 film

Hills of Hate is a 1926 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford, based on the debut novel by E. V. Timms, who also did the screenplay. It is considered a lost film.

Walter Franklyn Barrett, better known as Franklyn Barrett, was an Australian film director and cinematographer. He worked for a number of years for West's Pictures. It was later written of the filmmaker that "Barrett's visual ingenuity was to be the highlight of all his work, but... his direction of actors was less assured".

<i>A Girl of the Bush</i> 1921 film

A Girl of the Bush is a 1921 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett. It is one of the few films from Barrett to survive in its entirety today.

<i>A Rough Passage</i> 1922 film

A Rough Passage is a 1922 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett based on the novel by Arthur Wright. It was Barrett's final feature and is considered a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera James</span> New Zealand actress

Vera James Munro was a New Zealand actress who worked in theatre and film. In 1929 she appeared in the first all-talking, all-colour feature length movie ever made, Warner Bros On with the Show!, and was already well known for starring in A Girl of the Bush in 1921.

Rushcutters Bay Studio was an Australian film studio built by Charles Cozens Spencer in 1912 at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

Roland James Conway was an Australian actor and producer best known for his work in silent films of the era. In the 1930s, he was president of the Actors' Federation of Australasia.

References

  1. ↑ "THE LYCEUM". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 8 October 1921. p. 16. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Edmondson, Ray; Pike, Andrew (1982). "Australia's Lost Films" (PDF). National Library of Australia. p. 64. Retrieved 13 March 2013. It would be hard to guess the significance of the rediscovery of, say, Longford's Ginger Mick or Barrett's Know Thy Child ...
  3. ↑ "Know Thy Child". silentera.com. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  4. ↑ ""KNOW THY CHILD"". The Daily News . Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 6 January 1922. p. 6. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  5. ↑ ""KNOW THY CHILD!"". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 24 January 1922. p. 9. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  6. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 108.
  7. ↑ "THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM". The Sunday Times . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 12 June 1921. p. 12. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "FIGHTING CRESSY". The Sunday Times . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 26 June 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "OUTSIDE THE LAW". The Sunday Times . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 3 July 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  10. ↑ "TO THE SUNSHINE". The Sunday Times . No. 1844. New South Wales, Australia. 29 May 1921. p. 5. Retrieved 12 March 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 22 October 1927. p. 13. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "THE PICTURES". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 24 November 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.