Doss House is a 1933 British drama film directed by John Baxter and starring Frank Cellier, Arnold Bell and Herbert Franklyn.[1]
It was written by Herbert Ayres and made at Shepperton Studios as a quota quickie.[2] In 1941 Baxter remade the film as The Common Touch.
Plot
Cast
- Frank Cellier as editor
- Arnold Bell as reporter
- Herbert Franklyn asdetective
- Mark Daly as shoeblack
- Edgar Driver as catsmeat man
- Hubert Leslie as murderer
- Wilson Coleman as strangler
- Robert MacLachlan as doctor
Reception
Kine Weekly wrote: “An artless British picture which finds the material for its drama in the stories of the lives of some of London’s down-and-outs, habitués of a doss-house. The idea is an excellent one and be treatment displays imagination, but full exploitation of the theme has evidently been limited by the economy of presentation.”[3]
Picturegoer wrote: “I am not going to say that Doss House is a great film; it is not. But it has got a very good idea which it exploits quite well and intelligently. … The atmosphere is exceedingly good, and though the picture contains no stellar names it is on the whole well acted.”[4]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as “good”, writing: “atmosphere is appropriately seedy and downbeat.”[5]
References
- ^ “Doss House”. British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
- ^ Wood p.77
- ^ “Doss House”. Kine Weekly. 196 (1367): 19. 29 June 1933. ProQuest 2338262056.
- ^ “Doss House”. Picturegoer. 3: 9. 2 July 1933. ProQuest 1776921292.
- ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 59. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
Bibliography
- Chibnall, Steve. Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British ‘B’ Film. British Film Institute, 2007.
- Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
- Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.
External links
- Doss House at IMDb