Authors: Patrick McGilligan
William Rothman,
Hitchcock—The Murderous Gaze
1927
Downhill (U.S.: When Boys Leave Home)
As director.
Sc: Eliot Stannard, from a play by David. L’Estrange (pseudonym of Ivor Novello and Constance Collier). Ph: Claude L. McDonnell. Art Dir: Bertram Evans. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Ed: Ivor Montagu.
Cast: Ivor Novello, Robin Irvine, Isabel Jeans, Ian Hunter, Norman McKinnel, Annette Benson, Sybil Rhoda, Lilian Braithwaite, Violet Farebrother, Ben Webster, Hannah Jones, Jerrold Robertshaw, Barbara Gott, Alfred Goddard, J. Nelson.
(Silent, B & W, C. M. Woolf and Michael Balcon for Gainsborough, 7,803 ft.)
“Downhill
is slick, well photographed, neat—altogether a nicely turned-out piece of cinematography. … Mr Hitchcock, more perhaps than any of our directors, understands the significance of inanimate objects and the tremendous effects that the screen, alone of all the arts, can get out of them.
”
Beatrice Curtis Brown,
Graphic
(London), October 22, 1927
Easy Virtue
As director.
Sc: Eliot Stannard, based on the play by Noel Coward. Ph: Claude L. McDonnell. Art Dir: Clifford Pember. Ed: Ivor Montagu. Asst Dir: Frank Mills.
Cast: Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter, Robin Irvine, Violet Farebrother, Frank Elliott, Dacia Deane, Dorothy Boyd, Enid Stamp Taylor, Benita Hume, and Alfred Hitchcock (glimpsed leaving a tennis court through a side gate).
(Silent, B & W, C. M. Woolf and Michael Balcon for Gainsborough, 7,300 ft.) “
Seen in the context of the average British film of the day
, Easy Virtue
represents a tremendous step forward: not only is it inventive and cinematic, but it is obviously the work of a man who loves his medium and wants to do exciting things with it.
”
William K. Everson, “Rediscovery,”
Films in Review
26, no. 5 (1975)
The Ring
As scenarist and director.
Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills.
Cast: Carl Brisson, Lilian Hall-Davis, Ian Hunter, Forrester Harvey, Harry Terry, Gordon Harker, Clare Greet, Eugene Corri.
(Silent, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 8,400 ft.)
“
A great success in critical terms. Superlatives abounded in the press reviews and the film was hailed as ‘the greatest production ever made in this country’; ‘a devastating answer to those who disbelieved in the possibilities of a British film’; ‘a triumph for the British film industry’; and a picture which ‘challenges comparison with the best that America can produce.’ The newspaper comment was so favorable that as part of the advance publicity for the film
The Bioscope
included a double page spread which simply printed excerpts from 15 newspaper reviews under a banner headline which repeated the
Daily Mail
‘s judgment of the film as ‘the greatest production ever made in this country.
’ ”
Tom Ryall,
Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema
1928
The Farmer’s Wife
As director.
Sc: Eliot Stannard, based on the play by Eden Phillpotts. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Ed: Alfred Booth. Asst Dir: Frank Mills.
Cast: Jameson Thomas, Lilian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Maud Gill, Louise Pounds, Olga Slade, Ruth Maitland, Antonia Brough, Gibb McLaughlin, Haward Watts, Mollie Ellis.
(Silent, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 8,775 ft.)
“
The cast works as an ensemble, immaculately controlled by Hitchcock, and the film remains genuinely funny and even a little bit touching: One of Hitchcock’s rare out-and-out comedies, it reminds us of his great skills in the area, when he chose to exercise them.
”
John Russell Taylor,
18th Pordenone Silent Film Festival Catalogue
1999
Champagne
As adapter and director.
Sc: Eliot Stannard, from an original story by Walter C. Mycroft. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Titles: Arthur Wimperis.
Cast: Betty Balfour, Jean Bradin, Theo von Alten, Gordon Harker, Clifford Heatherley, Hannah Jones, Claude Hulbert.
(Silent, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 8,038 ft.)
Hitchcock: “… probably the lowest ebb in my output.” Truffaut: “That’s not fair. I enjoyed it. Some of the scenes have the lively quality of the Griffith comedies.”
François Truffaut,
Hitchcock
1929
The Manxman
As director.
Sc: Eliot Stannard, based on the novel by Sir Hall Caine. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Ed: Emile de Ruelle.
Cast: Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen, Anny Ondra, Randle Ayrton, Clare Greet.
(Silent, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 8,163 ft.)
“
A plot such as this, melodramatic in its premises, can only achieve the sublime if the filmmaker dares to meet the challenge head-on. For the first time, Hitchcock penetrated a domain that has since become dear to him—vertigo. The situation in
The Manxman
is sublime because it is insoluble and rejects all artifice. It is insoluble because it does not depend upon the evilness of the characters or the relentlessness of fate. Hitchcock gave himself up to a minute, complete, and unflinching description of the moral conflict opposing three people whose behavior is practically beyond reproach.
”
Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol,
Hitchcock—The First Forty-four Films
Blackmail (silent)
As scenarist and director.
From the play by Charles Bennett. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Ed: Emile de Ruelle.
Cast: Same as for the sound version, except for Phyllis Konstam (gossiping neighbor) and Sam Livesey (Chief Inspector).
(Silent, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 6,750 ft.)
“
The silent version of this fine drama brings the directorial art of Alfred Hitchcock into still greater prominence, and proves … that he has succeeded to a superlative degree in combining the advantages of the medium of the screen with those of the spoken drama. Without its dialogue and very effectively subtitled
, Blackmail
is likely to achieve equal success on the silent screen.
”
The Bioscope
, August 21, 1929
Blackmail (sound)
As adapter and director.
Adaptation: Hitchcock, from the play by Charles Bennett. Sound Dialogue: Benn W. Levy. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: C. Wilfred
Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Ed: Emile de Ruelle. Music: Campbell and Connelly. Score: Henry Stafford. Arranger: Hubert Bath. Musical Director: John Reynders.
Cast: Anny Ondra [Joan Barry, voice double for Anny Ondra], Cyril Ritchard, John Longden, Donald Calthrop, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton, Phyllis Monkman, Harvey Braban, Hannah Jones, and Alfred Hitchcock (on the train, being pestered by a small boy).
(Sound, B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 86 mins.)
*
“
Not just a talker, but a motion picture that
talks.
Alfred J. Hitchcock has solved the problem of making a picture which does not lose any film technique and gains effect from dialog. Silent, it would be an unusually good film; as it is, it comes near to being a landmark.
”
Variety
(London correspondent), July 1, 1929
Juno and the Paycock (U.S.: The Shame of Mary Boyle)
As adapter and director.
Sc: Alma Reville, from the play by Sean O’Casey. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: J. Marchant. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Sound: Cecil V. Thornton. Ed: Emile de Ruelle.
Cast: Sara Allgood, Edward Chapman, John Laurie, Maire O’Neill, Sidney Morgan, John Longden, Denis Wyndham, Kathleen O’Regan, Barry Fitzgerald, Dave Morris, Fred Schwartz, Donald Calthrop.
(B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 99 mins.)
“
Though crudely made in that early sound era, it is far superior and truer than the John Ford version of another O’Casey play
The Plough and the Stars (1936).
Hitchcock loved the play with its morally marginal message which pussyfoots around the
Irish Uprising
and oppressed Catholic theme.
”
Kevin Lewis,
Irish America Magazine
, August-September 1999
1930
An Elastic Affair (short subject)
As director.
Ten-minute black-and-white film starring scholarship winners in
Film Weekly
’s acting competition.
Cast:
Aileen Despard, Cyril Butcher.
Elstree Calling
As director of “sketches and other interpolated items.”
Dir: Adrian Brunel. Sc: Adrian Brunel, Walter C. Mycroft, Val Valentine. Ph: Claude Friese-Greene. Sound Recordist: Alec Murray. Prod Mgr: J. Sloan. Ed: A. C. Hammond, under supervision of Emile de Ruelle. Music: Reg Casson, Vivian Ellis, Chick Endor, Ivor Novello, Jack Strachey. Lyrics: Douglas Furber, Rowland
Leigh, Donovan Parsons, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, André Charlot. Conductors: Teddy Brown, Sydney Baynes, John Reynders.
Cast: Cicely Courtneidge, Jack Hulbert, Tommy Handley, Lily Morris, Helen Burnell, the Berkoffs, Bobbie Comber, Lawrence Green, Ivor McLaren, Anna May Wong, Jameson Thomas, John Longden, Donald Calthrop, Will Fyffe, Gordon Harker, Hannah Jones, Teddy Brown, the Three Eddies, the Balalaika Choral Orchestra, supported by the Adelphi Girls and the Charlot Girls.
(B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 86 mins.)
Elstree Calling
was produced as a multilingual in ten languages—including Flemish! And there was a color version. It is a matter of some interest what exactly was Hitchcock’s participation in the film. The best analytical work on this problem is by James M. Vest, who wrote: “Thus it appears that casual dismissals of
Elstree Calling
on the part of the director, his biographers, and some commentators stand in need of revision. In all likelihood Hitchcock’s role in this film is considerably greater than generally acknowledged.
”
James M. Vest, “Alfred Hitchcock’s Role in Elstree Calling,”
Hitchcock Annual
, 2000-2001
Murder!
As coadapter and director.
Sc: Alma Reville. Coadaptation: Walter Mycroft, from
Enter Sir John
by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: John F. Mead, Peter Proud. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Sound Recordist: Cecil V. Thornton. Music Dir: John Reynders. Ed: Rene Marrison, under supervision of Emile de Ruelle.
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring, Edward Chapman, Phyllis Konstam, Miles Mander, Esmé Percy, Donald Calthrop, Esme V. Chaplin, Amy Brandon Thomas, Joynson Powell, S. J. Warmington, Marie Wright, Hannah Jones, Una O’Connor, R. E. Jeffrey; Jury: Alan Stainer, Kenneth Kove, Guy Pelham Boulton, Violet Farebrother, Clare Greet, Drusilla Wills, Robert Easton, William Fazan, George Smythson, Ross Jefferson, Picton Roxborough, and Alfred Hitchcock (walking past the scene of the crime).
(B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 108 mins.)
“
Looked at as a thriller, it is less thrilling than
‘The Perfect Alibi’
and looked at as a piece of analysis, it lacks the true psychology which distinguishes many less valuable German pictures; but it sets out to be neither of these things. After you have seen it several times, you think of it, with its strong shafts of sound and wedges of visual continuity, as an abstract film on a gigantic and really for once modern scale.
”
Robert Herring,
London Mercury
, November 1930
Mary! (German version of Murder!)
As director.
Ph: John J. Cox. German adaptation: Herbert Juttke and Georg C. Klaren.
Cast: Alfred Abel, Olga Tschechowa, Paul Graetz, Lotte Stein, Ekkehard Arendt, Jack Mylong-Münz, Louis Ralph, Hermine Sterler, Fritz Alberti, Miles Mander (in his original role).
(B & W, German-English coproduction with British International Pictures, 80 mins.)
“Mary
is a neat little potboiler, efficient but rather empty, precisely because all the elements of ‘fun,’ the play on spectacle, dressing-up and pretending, which make
Murder!
so messy, have gone.
”
Richard Combs, “Murder II/Hitchcock’s German Double,”
Sight and Sound
, Autumn 1990
1931
The Skin Game
As adapter and director.
Sc: Alma Reville, from the play by John Galsworthy. Ph: John J. Cox. Art Dir: J. B. Maxwell. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Sound Recordist: Alec Murray. Ed: Rene Marrison, A. R. Cobbett,
Cast: Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye, C. V. France, Jill Esmond, John Longden, Phyllis Konstam, Frank Lawton, Herbert Ross, Dora Gregory, Edward Chapman, R. E. Jeffrey, George Bancroft, Ronald Frankau.
(B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 88 mins.)
“
Far more skilled and delicate than the original stage version.
”
John Grierson,
Everyman
, November 5, 1931 (
Grierson on the Movies
)
Rich and Strange (U.S. title: East of Shanghai)
As coscenarist and director.
Sc: Alma Reville and Val Valentine, from a theme by Dale Collins. Ph: John J. Cox, Charles Martin. Art Dir: C. Wilfred Arnold. Asst Dir: Frank Mills. Music: Hal Dolphe. Musical Direction: John Reynders. Sound Recordist: Alec Murray. Ed: Winifred Cooper, Rene Marrison.
Cast: Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Percy Marmont, Betty Amann, Elsie Randolph, Aubrey Dexter, Hannah Jones.
(B & W, John Maxwell for British International Pictures, 87 mins.)
“
In a sense it is Hitchcock’s subtlest, most far-reaching film [of the early years]. Since it is an early sound film, it does not have the defining style that would give it real greatness, but it has a great deal of quality and remains a very remarkable film.
”