The Dingo

{{short description|1923 film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2012}} {{Infobox film | name = The Dingo | image = | caption = | director = Kenneth Brampton | producer = | writer = Kenneth Brampton<br>Phyllis Coughlan | based_on = | narrator = | starring = George Edwards<br>Godfrey Cass | music = | cinematography = Lacey Percival | editing = | studio = British-Australasian Photoplays | distributor = Duncan and Jones | released = {{Film date|1923|06|23|df=yes|ref1=<ref>"Filmography", ''Cinema Papers'', June–July 1980 p175</ref>}} | runtime = six reels | country = Australia | language = Silent film <br>English intertitles | budget = }}

'''''The Dingo''''' is a 1923 Australian silent film directed by Kenneth Brampton. It is a melodrama about a drunken scoundrel who causes trouble. It is considered a lost film.<ref name="pike">Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 116.</ref>

==Plot== "The Dingo" is a nickname for Harry Selby, a drunken thief from the city who loves animals and little children. He marries a country girl, Molly, despite knowing that she loves someone else, Dr John Stirling. Selby becomes passionately jealous of Stirling's attentions to Molly and is encouraged in this by Oily Allen.

Harry breaks into Dr Stirling's house and discovers a photograph of his wife. He picks it up, knocking over a vase, the sound of which attracts Stirling's servant. The servant rushes down with a revolver, there is a struggle and the servant is shot dead. This shot is head by a policeman who runs to the house and captures Selby, who is eventually sentenced to death.

The shock of this is too much for Molly who dies after giving birth to a baby daughter. Her last words to Dr Stirling ask him to look after her little girl.

Harry spends 18 years in gaol then gets out to find his daughter has been raised by Dr Stirling. Seeing how happy his daughter is, Harry does not tell her that he is her real father and she marries a nice young man.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16077748 |title="THE DINGO.". |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=2 July 1923 |accessdate=29 July 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Cast== *George Edwards as Harry Selby *Phyllis Coughlan as Audrey Onslow *William Coulter as Oily Allen *Sybil Shirley *Godfrey Cass as Dr John Stirling *Gordon Collingridge *Charles Beetham *Fred Twitcham *Jackie Anderson *Lena Edwards *James Bendrodt *Peggy Dawes

==Production== The film was shot partly on location in Mudgee, New South Wales in October 1922.<ref>{{Citation | title=Everyones | date=1920 | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-549793606 | accessdate=4 June 2018 }}

</ref>

Phyllis Coughlan was a journalist who was married to Kenneth Brampton. A ballroom dance scene featured a popular dance duo of the time, James Bendrodt and Peggy Dawes.<ref name="pike"/>

George Edwards later became a noted radio star.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36650169 |title=AMUSEMENTS,. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=11 February 1924 |accessdate=29 July 2012 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Reception== The ''Adelaide Herald'' called the film "something new, different, fascinating, that will set the pulses beating quicker than ever. It is the kind of photo play everyone knew Australia would produce sooner or later."<ref name="adelaide">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106742754 |title="THE DINGO.". |newspaper=Daily Herald |location=Adelaide |date=8 February 1924 |accessdate=29 September 2013 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

However the film appears to have only been given a small release and it is unlikely it was a commercial success.<ref name="pike"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0350814|The Dingo}} *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=no;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=%22the%20dingo%22%201923;querytype=;rec=1;resCount=10 ''The Dingo''] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dingo, The}} Category:1923 films Category:1923 Australian films Category:1923 drama films Category:1923 English-language films Category:1923 lost films Category:1920s melodrama films Category:Australian black-and-white films Category:Australian silent feature films Category:English-language drama films Category:Films directed by Kenneth Brampton Category:Lost Australian silent drama films