Clara Gibbings is a 1934 Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n film directed by F.W. Thring about the owner of a London pub who discovers she is the daughter of an earl. It was a vehicle for stage star Dorothy Brunton

Dorothy Brunton

Christine Dorothy Brunton , generally known as Dorothy Brunton or "Dot" was an Australian singer and actress prominent in musical comedy from 1915 to the mid '30s....

.

Synopsis

Clara Gibbings (Dorothy Brunton) discovers she is the legitimate but abandoned daughter of the Earl of Drumoor (Harold Meade). She becomes a member of high society but soon becomes disillusioned with their morals. She falls in love with a young aristocrat, Errol Kerr (Campbell Copelin

Campbell Copelin

Campbell Copelin was an English-born actor, who moved to Australia in the 1920s and worked extensively in film, theatre, radio and television. He had a notable association with J.C. Williamson Ltd and frequently collaborated with F.W. Thring and Frank Harvey...

), who proposes, and they go off to live in Australia.

Play

The script was one of a number of play adaptations from F.W. Thring, being based on an English play which originally been presented by Thring in Melbourne (one of the cast, Beatrice Day, collapsed and died during rehearsal. It had also been produced on Broadway under the title of Lady Clara starring Florence Nash

Florence Nash

Florence Nash was an American actress and author. She was sister to theater and movie actor Mary Nash.-Career:...

.

Reception

The film won third prize (amounting to £750) in a competition held by the Commonwealth government in 1935. As of 1936 the film had not been seen on Sydney screens. It was the last movie Thring made at his Melbourne studios.

Cast

• Dorothy Brunton
  Dorothy Brunton
  Christine Dorothy Brunton , generally known as Dorothy Brunton or "Dot" was an Australian singer and actress prominent in musical comedy from 1915 to the mid '30s....
  
   as Clara Gibbings
• Campbell Copelin
  Campbell Copelin
  Campbell Copelin was an English-born actor, who moved to Australia in the 1920s and worked extensively in film, theatre, radio and television. He had a notable association with J.C. Williamson Ltd and frequently collaborated with F.W. Thring and Frank Harvey...
  
   as Errol Kerr
• Harvey Adams as Justin Kerr
• Noel Boyd as Yolande Probyn
• Harold Meade as Earl of Drumoor
• Byrl Walkley as Lady Drumoor
• Marshall Crosby as Tudor
• Russell Scott as Gallagher
• Guy Hastings as Ted

External links

• Review of play of same name (produced in conjunction with F. W. Thring), The Age newspaper via Google, Aug. 28, 1933. C. Copelin played the same role in the play as in the movie, at the Garrick Theatre (Guildford)
  Garrick Theatre (Guildford)
  The Garrick Theatre is the longest continual running amateur theatre group in metropolitan Western Australia, located 16 Meadow Street in Guildford, Western Australia...
  
  , while Ruby May originated the title character. The co-playwrights are identified as "the authors of The Cat's Cradle", which featured Marie Tempest
  Marie Tempest
  Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
  
  . Aimée Stuart is identified as killed WW1 airman William Bond's widow, in Bond's article.