''The Dop Doctor'', also known as The Love Trail or The Terrier and the Child, is a 1915/16 South African

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Fred Paul Fred Paul (1880–1967) was a Swiss-born British actor and film director. Paul was born in Lausanne in 1880 but moved to Britain at a young age. He was a prolific actor and director in the 1910s and 1920s, but his career dramatically declined with ...

. It is based on the book, The Dop Doctor, by

Clotilde Graves Clotilde Augusta Inez Mary Graves (3 June 1863 – 3 December 1932), known as Clo. Graves, was an Irish author who wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Dehan, becoming a successful playwright in London and New York City. Biography Graves was b ...

. The film depicts the

Siege of Mafeking The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking (now called Mafikeng) in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of ...

during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

through the scenario of an orphan girl that loves a soldier but is married to an exiled doctor. The film is notable for being the first South African film to be prohibited or censored. The government of Prime Minister

Louis Botha Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, ...

banned the film under the

Defence of the Realm Act The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...

as "the film wrongly represents the Boers as being cheats and immoral."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dop Doctor 1915 films 1916 films South African war drama films 1910s action war films War films based on actual events 1915 drama films Historical action films