Doss House

This article is about the 1933 film. For the topic, see doss-house.

Doss House
Directed by	John Baxter
Written by	Herbert Ayres
Produced by	Ivar Campbell
Starring	Frank Cellier Arnold Bell Herbert Franklyn
Music by	Colin Wark
Production companies	Baxter and Barter Productions
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	June 1933 (1933-06)
Running time	53 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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.

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

1. "Doss House". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
2. Wood p.77
3. "Doss House". Kine Weekly . 196 (1367): 19. 29 June 1933. ProQuest   2338262056.
4. "Doss House". Picturegoer . 3: 9. 2 July 1933. ProQuest   1776921292.
5. 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