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COMMENT AND REVIEW
Sound City of Shepperton has announced to all and sundry that it intends to make * films of national subjects showing the life and character of the British people as they really are." Having heard this kind of talk a score of times from every other studio, we were inclined to be sceptical, until we saw Doss House, Sound City's latest production.
Doss House almost marks a revolution in British film production. We had difficulty in believing our eyes, for the story of this film takes place entirely within the confines of a common lodging house. " When do they turn on the sex appeal," we asked ourselves. " Take heart, the cabaret scene will come on in a few moments," we murmured. But there was no sex appeal, not even a single woman, and no cabaret. Instead we had a poignant character study of some of London's down-and-outs who are permitted by a generous society to take shelter in the night provided they can raise the sum of ninepence
True, some sort of a plot had to be included, otherwise the Board of Trade would not have accepted it for Quota. But we are willing to excuse the story of the detective and reporter wTho come to the doss house in search of a criminal. What is important is that a British film company has dared to dramatise the lives of people for whom the last word in luxury is a bed to sleep in at night. To do that takes some courage. It is against the whole tradition of the commercial film. A film without women ? A film about down-and-outs ? Preposterous, old boy ! All the wise-acres prophesied a box-office flop. As usual they were wrong. Doss House wiU make money because more and more people are wanting films which bear some relation to life, life as it really is and not as hundred-thousand-doUar-a-year magnates imagine it to be.
We have been saying for years that the real stuff of drama is to be found in the streets of the towns and cities, but this is the first time that a British film companjr has made the same discovery.
Curious to learn more about this unit which cheerfully defies box-office convention, I travelled down to Shepperton and met John Baxter who directed Doss House. He is a modest feUow. " British films must strike out on a line of their own," he said, " and not just imitate Hollywood product because Hollywood can do that sort of stuff better than anyone in the world." Wise words from a man who puts his ideas into practice. Baxter is now working on a film of English agricultural life and he has a grand opportunity to put the real English countryside on the screen.
The Sound City studios are ideally located on a site covering seventy acres of ground with almost every type of scenery on their front doorstep. The actual studios, covering some thirty thousand square feet contain all the most modern equipment and I came away with the impression that this comparatively new concern is trying hard to bring new ideas and conceptions to the making of British films. They have made a fine start with Doss House. Let's hope they can keep it up. R. Bond.
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