Dr O'Dowd | BFI Most Wanted BFI National Archive

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Dr. O'Dowd

Directed by Herbert Mason, 1940

Authentic Irish melodrama with a blend of comedy and pathos and some standout performances.

Constantia (Mary Merrall) and Marius O'Dowd (Shaun Glenville) with a sleeping Rosemary (Patricia Roc).

Credits

Director Production Company Executive Producer Screenplay Original Novel Photography Art Director	Herbert Mason Warner Bros Sam Sax Austin Melford, Derek Twist L.A.G. Strong Basil Emmott Norman Arnold
Cast: Shaun Glenville (Marius O'Dowd); Peggy Cummins (Pat O'Dowd); Mary Merrall (Constantia); Liam Gaffney (Stephen O'Dowd); Patricia Roc (Rosemary); James Carney (O'Hara); Irene Handl (Sarah)
76 mins, 6,889 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

The film features one of only two film performances by Shaun Glenville, a popular music hall and pantomime star. He was best known for his double act with his wife Dorothy Ward, in which they played mother and daughter. Dr O'Dowd provided Glenville with a rare dramatic role and he rose to the challenge. It also marked the film debut of child actress Peggy Cummins, who was 13 when shooting began. Cummins went on to have a successful film career, starring in the American film noir Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949) and British horror title The Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957).

The photography was by Basil Emmott, already a veteran cameraman who had filmed John Grierson's much-fêted documentary Drifters (1929).

What's it about?

This synopsis is from the industry journal Kinematograph Weekly, 18 January 1940:

Marius O'Dowd, a local Irish practitioner, has one failing - he tipples. He is called on to perform an emergency operation on Moira, wife of his son, Stephen. Moira dies through no fault of O'Dowd, but the distraught Stephen accuses his father of criminal neglect. As a result, O'Dowd is struck off the register.

Some years later Stephen, an engineer, is in charge of construction of a dam. O'Dowd lives nearby, and there is trouble with the men because they prefer to consult O'Dowd rather than the firm's doctor. To make things more difficult for Stephen, his small daughter, Pat, becomes friendly with O'Dowd and later recognises him as her grandfather. In the end O'Dowd diagnoses a diphtheria epidemic and saves Stephen's life.

Last seen?

Produced and distributed by the British offices of Warner Bros, the film was trade shown in London on 16 January 1940 and had a wide release throughout the UK and Ireland. As far as we know, it hasn't been seen since then. It was reviewed in the US journal Motion Picture Herald in March 1940, so presumably had some sort of release over there.

What else do we know about it?

The film was shot at Warner Bros's Teddington Studios, as well as on location in Cumberland, standing in for Ireland. Some sequences were actually filmed on the Emerald Isle, at Poulaphonca, County Wicklow, where a hydro-electric dam was being built.

Warners were keen to achieve authenticity in the film and employed a doctor as technical adviser and a nurse to look after instruments and equipment. The doctor came in handy, as Peggy Cummins tripped in one scene and needed medical attention to treat a nasty wound on her leg. Also on hand were an angling expert to advise on the fishing scenes, and an expert billiards player to ensure that a saloon sequence rang true. Peggy Cummins was obliged by the London County Council to have a governess on the set and was allowed to film for no more than five hours a day.

Shooting began in the summer of 1939 and World War II broke out towards the end of filming. This aspect of the shoot remains vivid in the memory of the film's young star Peggy Cummins, who recalls the cast and crew helping out with sandbagging.

Does anything survive?

We don't know of any surviving film material on this title, but the BFI holds a good collection of stills, and some other material, such as press cuttings and a Trade Show ticket, are in the personal collection of Peggy Cummins.

Reviews

The Irish press were particularly complimentary about the film, one newspaper describing it as "one of the best films about Ireland ever made." Another deemed it "a film about Ireland with a difference. The difference is that it has a good story, splendid photography... and no animals in the living rooms of the homes." Based on a novel by Irish author L.A.G. Strong, it was felt to be the kind of film that the Irish film industry should be making itself.

The British and US press also approved of the film, Kinematograph Weekly praising its "Irish sentiment and humour" and summing up its points of appeal as "Good story, competent treatment, captivating juvenile angle, effective dramatic twists, good comedy and excellent atmosphere."

Much praise was given to Shaun Glenville ("the... doctor is admirably portrayed", wrote the Monthly Film Bulletin), but most critics agreed that the real find of the film was young Peggy Cummins. Kinematograph Weekly shrewdly predicted that "Given the chance, she'll go far."

Jo Botting, Curator (Fiction), BFI National Archive

You can find more about British films of the early 1940s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.