Set in Ireland, it focuses on Marius O'Dowd, an Irish doctor, who works to restore his relationship with his son after his daughter-in-law dies under O'Dowd's care.
Preservation status
The film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.[3] No sequences of film are known to survive, although the BFI does possess a collection of stills from the production.[3]
Plot
Marius O'Dowd is an Irish doctor who is often drunk. His daughter-in-law Moira dies during a serious operation which O'Dowd is performing. Although O'Dowd is not to blame, his son Stephen suspects that Moira died due to O'Dowd operating while under the influence of alcohol, and accuses him of criminal neglect. O'Dowd consequently has his license to practice medicine taken away. Stephen also does not tell his daughter Pat that Marius is her grandfather, although several years later she becomes friends with Marius and works this out. Marius eventually manages to redeem himself by saving Stephen's life during an outbreak of diphtheria.[3]
Most of the filming for Dr. O'Dowd took place at the Warner Bros. studios in Teddington, with outdoor sequences shot in Cumberland in north west England and in County Wicklow, Ireland. The filming was undertaken in the summer of 1939, concluding just after the start of World War II. Warner Bros. employed a number of different experts as advisers to ensure the film was realistic, including a doctor, a nurse, an angler and a billiards player.[3]
Dr. O'Dowd was the film debut for 13-year-old Peggy Cummins, who later starred in films such as Gun Crazy and The Night of the Demon.[3][4][5] Cummins had caught the attention of film executives after appearing in a 1938 production named Let's Pretend in London,[5] and this film was the beginning of a deal signed with Warner Bros.[6] As part of an agreement with the London County Council, Cummins was limited to five hours of filming per day and had to be supervised by a governess.[3] The film was also a debut for her co-star Shaun Glenville, a music hall performer.[7] This was only one of two film roles Glenville played in his career.[3]
Release and reception
Dr. O'Dowd was distributed by the production studio Warner Bros. in 1940, with an initial trade showing in London on 16 January 1940. It had a public release in UK and Ireland in the same year. It was also distributed in America[3] and Australia.[8]
The film was received very positively by critics. One Irish newspaper described it as "one of the best films about Ireland ever made."[3]
Kinematograph Weekly summed up its positive response to the film as: "Good story, competent treatment, captivating juvenile angle, effective dramatic twists, good comedy and excellent atmosphere."[3] Despite the latter's young age, Kinematograph Weekly predicted that "Given the chance, she'll go far".[3]
In Australia, The Examiner described it as "one of the surprise hits of the year".[8] Praise was particularly given to the two main actors, Shaun Glenville and Peggy Cummins.
Halliwell's Film Guide describes it as a "somewhat woebegone tearjerker with an interesting cast".[9]
References
12Steve Chibnall (2019) Hollywood-on-Thames: the British productions ofWarner Bros. – First National, 1931–1945, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39:4, pp 687-724, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2019.1615292 at p 713
↑"Dr. O'Dowd". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 March 2026.
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