''Down River'' is a 1931 British

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Peter Godfrey and starring

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

Jane Baxter Jane Baxter (9 September 1909 – 13 September 1996) was a British actress. Her stage career spanned half a century, and she appeared in a number of films and in television. Early life Baxter was born as Feodora Kathleen Alice Forde in Bremen, ...

and

Harold Huth Harold Huth (20 January 1892 – 26 October 1967) was a British actor, film director and producer. Biography Early life He was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1892. He was a nephew of Eva Moore and a cousin of the actor Roland Pertwee. Fo ...

. Based on a novel by "Seamark" ( Austin J. Small), it was made at Lime Grove Studios with sets designed by

Andrew Mazzei Andrew Mazzei (1887–1975) was a French-born British art director who designed the sets for more than sixty films during his career. Mazzei began his career in the late 1920s during the silent era including on the futuristic ''High Treason''. ...

. Produced as a

second feature A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

, it is classified as a

quota quickie The Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 ('' 17 & 18 Geo. V'') was an act of the United Kingdom Parliament designed to stimulate the declining British film industry. It received Royal Assent on 20 December 1927 and came into force on 1 April 1928. D ...

.Chibnall p.261

Plot

A man smuggling drugs up the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

is caught when a newspaper reporter pursues him.

Cast

as Captain Grossman *

as Hilary Gordon *

as John Durham *

Kenneth Kove Kenneth Kove (1892–1984) was a British actor. He was a regular member of the Aldwych farce team between 1923 and 1930, often in "silly-ass" roles; appearing in '' It Pays to Advertise'' (1923), '' Thark'' (1927), '' A Cup of Kindness'' (1929), ...

as Ronnie Gordon *

Hartley Power Hartley Power (14 March 1894 – 29 January 1966) was an American-born British film and television actor, who made his Broadway debut in ''Dolly Jordan'' in 1922. He is best remembered for two roles: "Sylvester Kee" the ventriloquist who is shot ...

as Lingard *

Arthur Goullet Arthur Goullet (1894–1978) was a British stage, film and television actor. He played the role of Sebastian Moran in the 1937 Sherlock Holmes film '' Silver Blaze''.Nollen p.298 Selected filmography * '' Down River'' (1931) * '' A Gentleman o ...

as Maxick *

Norman Shelley Norman Shelley (16 February 1903 – 21 August 1980) was a British actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's '' Children's Hour''. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera ''T ...

as Blind Rudley *

Frederick Leister Frederick Leister (1 December 1885 – 24 August 1970), was an English actor. He began his career in musical comedy and after serving in the First World War he played character roles in modern West End plays and in classic drama. He appeared in ...

as Inspector Manning *

Cyril McLaglen Cyril McLaglen (1899–1987) was a British actor who appeared in a variety of films between 1920 and 1951. He was born in London in 1899 and made his film debut in the 1920 film ''The Call of the Road''. He was the younger brother of the acto ...

as Sergeant Proctor *

Humberston Wright Humbertson Wright (1876 in London, England, UK – 1953), sometimes credited as Humberstone Wright or Humberston H. Wright, was a British film actor. Filmography * '' Trapped by the London Sharks'' (1916) * '' Thelma'' (1918) * '' The Secre ...

as Sir Michael Gordon * Hugh E. Wright as Charlie Wong

References

Bibliography

* Chibnall, Steve. ''Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British 'B' Film''. British Film Institute, 2007. *Wood, Linda. ''British Films, 1927–1939''. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

* 1931 films British crime films 1931 crime films Films directed by Peter Godfrey Films set in London Gainsborough Pictures films Films shot at Lime Grove Studios Quota quickies British black-and-white films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films {{1930s-crime-film-stub