Seven children live with their tyrannical father, Captain Woolcot, and step mother Esther.

Fuller said it would be part of a slate of projects, also including the story of Father Damien of Molokai and an adaptation of Norman Lindsay's novel Redheap.

[2] Fuller hired English director Arthur Greville Collins, who had directed several Hollywood films arrived in May 1939 to begin preproduction.

Collins later said he was visiting Sydney on holiday when he read the book and decided to turn it into a film.

[7] Shooting started in August 1939[8] and took place on location at Camden and in the studios of the Commonwealth Film Laboratories in Sydney.