| The Squatter's Daughter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Ken G. Hall |
| Produced by | Ken G. Hall |
| Written by | Gayne Dexter E.V. Timms |
| Based on | play by Bert Bailey & Edmund Duggan |
| Starring | Jocelyn Howarth Grant Lyndsay |
| Cinematography | Frank Hurley George Malcom |
| Studio | Cinesound Productions |
| Release date(s) | 29 September 1933 (Australia) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ₤16,000[1] |
| Box office | ₤35,000[2] or ₤28,000[3] ₤7,500 (UK)[4] |
The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama starring Jocelyn Howarth. It is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously filmed in 1910.
Contents |
Joan Enderby (Jocelyn Howarth) runs her family sheep station but is about to lose it because she can't afford to buy the lease from the Sherringtons, who run the neighbouring station, Waratah. While Ironbark Sherrington (W Lane Bayliff) has been away in London looking for a cure to save his sight, his son Clive (John Warwick) and overseer, Fletcher (Les Warton) have planned to bankrupt Enderby station. Joan is helped by a mysterious newcomer, Wayne Ridgeway (Grant Lindsay), who is actually the rightful heir to the Sherrington estate. There is a subplot about Joan’s crippled brother Jimmy (Owen Ainley) who is in love with Zena (Kathleen Esler), daughter of Jebal Zim (Claude Turton), an Afghan trader. When Zim tries to tell Ironbark that Ridgeway is the true heir, Fletcher kills him and abducts Zena. Joan and Ridgeway manage to fight a bushfire that threatens Enderby, deliver sheep, rescue Zenaand capture Fletcher.
Director Ken G. Hall hired novelist E.V. Timms to work on him with the adaptation, but Hall was not happy with the result, so he brought on his old boss, Gayne Dexter, to do a rewrite.[5]
Jocelyn Howarth was a discovery of director Ken G. Hall. She moved to Hollywood and had a career under the name "Constance Worth".
A novelisation of the script by Charles Melaun was published in 1933.[6]
UK distribution rights were bought by MGM for ₤7,500; the film was released there under the titled of Down Under.[7]