Common Clay (1930 film)
1930 film by Victor Fleming
Common Clay is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Constance Bennett and Lew Ayres, based on the 1915 play of the same name by Cleves Kinkead which starred Jane Cowl.
The film is about a young servant who is seduced by the master of the house who will having nothing else to do with her besides sex because she is of an inferior class. She becomes pregnant and seeks to have the child recognized but his family treats her as if she were a blackmailer.
Cast
Constance Bennett as Ellen Neal
Lew Ayres as Hugh Fullerton
Tully Marshall as W.H. Yates
Matty Kemp as Arthur Coakley
Purnell Pratt as Richard Fullerton
Beryl Mercer as Mrs. Neal
Charles McNaughton as Edwards
Hale Hamilton as Judge Samuel Filson
Genevieve Blinn as Mrs. Fullerton
Release
Common Clay was one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1930.
References
External links
Common Clay at IMDb
Synopsis: Common Clay, allmovie.com; accessed February 10, 2016.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Common Clay (1930 film)” as 1930 film by Victor Fleming. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1930 film by Victor Fleming. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1116051. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1915 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Common Clay (1930 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.