'This is a mystery story, constructed on lines reminiscent of "Seven Keys to Baldpate" and other pieces of the kind. Phil Smith plays effectively an important role as a business man, John Moon, who has made a hobby of his interest in ghosts, and has come to this old shed in the hope of meeting one. Donalda Warne and John Maitland appear as two lovers, seeking to elope, and John Cameron impersonates Captain Sturdy, who is concerned in the mystery. There are three other characters, apparently tramps, but one of them sets himself to the task of conjuring up a ghost, and engages the keen attention of Moon by his graphic description of the supernatural visitor.'
Source:
'New Films', The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 1931, p.4.
The Victorian Censor's office restricted viewing of The Haunted Barn to over-sixteens. (The same restriction was simultaneously given to another Efftee production, A Co-respondent's Course.) Frank Thring successfully appealed the ban on The Haunted Barn:
The censor objected to the picture on the grounds that the wailing of the wind in it would serve to frighten children. The objection ls nothing if not pithy. The wailing of the wind pales into nothingness with the clutching hand stuff and the face-at-the-window type that swept the screen in years gone by. The effect on the child mind of these was far and away greater than mere shrieking of impromptu elements. At any rate the decision was reversed after a whole lot of protest and criticism, but not before a lot of damage was done financially to the struggling producers.
(See 'Australian Films: Victorian Censor Steps In', Sunday Times, 20 December 1931, p.8.)
