Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco

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Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco is a 1946 British short film directed by Charles Hawtrey. It stars Ronald Waldman, Henry Kendall, and Flora Robson, with a script by Henry King, Victor Katona, and Bill Duncalf. Also released under the title Fag End, it is one of only two films Hawtrey directed (the other, What Do We Do Now? from 1945, is believed lost). The film runs about 41 minutes.

Plot: The story follows a young, scatterbrained journalist named Dumb Dora who is tasked with writing an article on the history of tobacco. To tell the tale, the film mixes old film clips and short dramatized scenes, covering the origins of smoking, changes in attitudes toward women smoking, and how cigars and cigarettes are made by hand and by machine.

Reception: Critics were mixed. The Monthly Film Bulletin said the film tries to be useful but Dora’s childish, light-hearted behavior undermines it. Kine Weekly found the period reenactments and old-film clips awkwardly stitched together with unfunny narration and criticized the editing and humor. Chibnall and McFarlane described it as a hotchpotch of sketches and clips from old films.

Preservation: The British Film Institute notes that a 35mm negative of the film is held in its collection.