Hollywood was not always the Hollywood as we know it.

In fact, the "Hollywood" we now know could well have been "Shoreham Beach".

That's because one of the first places in the world to make moving pictures was the spit across the Adur.

And one of the finest was A Lowland Cinderella, a silent movie following the familiar fairy tale.

Star of the show is Joan Morgan, daughter of the enigmatic writer/ producer/ director Sidney Morgan, who lived and worked on the beach back in the 1920s.

Uplifting, sweet and bursting the humour, the hour-long feature was full of fun and captivating to watch.

Set in Scotland but partly filmed locally, it followed the tale of Hester Stirling who is denied her fortune of rubies by her wicked uncle.

And as the film reaches a climax with good overcoming evil, there were rounds of applause from the packed audience in Shoreham's Ropetackle Arts Centre.

It was lifted with a clever and dramatic score by local musician Richard Durrant, added in the 1990s as part of a lottery scheme.

The reason this film was even showing was all down to the Shoreham Film Club, a group that's grown and grown in recent years.

With support from The Hub South East, it's been given money to promote films with a Sussex link.

And thank goodness they did, otherwise this little gem would have been lost forever.

Four stars