Downhill (film)
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| Downhill | |
|---|---|
 Original Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon C.M. Wolf |
| Written by | Play: Constance Collier Ivor Novello Adaption: Eliot Stannard |
| Starring | Ivor Novello Robin Irvine Isabel Jeans]] Ian Hunter |
| Cinematography | Claude L. McDonnell |
| Editing by | Ivor Montagu Lionel Rich |
| Distributed by |  Wardour Films Sono Art |
| Release date(s) | October 24, 1927 1928 |
| Running time | 80 min. 74 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Downhill is a 1927 silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on the play Down Hill. It is Hitchcock's fourth film.
[edit] Plot
Roddy Berwich (Ivor Novello), son of a prosperous family, is school captain of the "Old Boy's" Rugby team. He makes a "pact" of loyalty with his best friend Tim Wakely (Robin Irvine). Roddy begins a downhill spiral after being falsely accused of impregnating a waitress, (Daisy Johnson), who turns vindictive after Roddy spurns her amorous advances. Roddy honors his loyalty pact with Tim and accepts the blame even though the father is actually his best friend, Tim, who desperately needs to stay in school to receive his Oxford scholarship.
Roddy is expelled from school and leaves home after being disowned by his father (Norman McKinnel) who believes him guilty of the false accusation TheGuardian. (The Internet Movie Database incorrectly states that Robby accepts the blame for a theft).
Roddy finds some work as an actor in a theatre. He marries the leading actress Julia (Isabel Jeans) after inheriting £30,000. The unfaithful Julia secretly continues an affair with her leading man (Ian Hunter) and discards Roddy after his inheritance is exhausted. He becomes a gigolo in a Paris music hall but soon quits over self loathing at romancing women for money.
Roddy ends up alone and delirious in a shabby room in Marseilles. Some sailors take pity on him and ship him back home. Robby's father has learned the truth about the waitress's false accusation during his son's absence and joyfully welcomes him back. Robby resumes his previous life.
[edit] Production
The film is based on the play, Down Hill, written by its star Ivor Novello and Constance Collier under the combined alias David L'Estrange. The stage performance had a short run in the West End and longer in the provinces. In the play Novello thrilled his female fans by washing his bare legs after the rugby match. An appreciative James Agate, drama critic for The London Sunday Times, wrote "The scent of good honest soap crosses the footlights". Hitchcock included a similar scene of Novello for the film in which he is shown naked from the waist up.
Roddy's rejection of the waitress and a female customer at the Paris cafe, where he was attempting to support himself as a gigolo, reflect a misogynistic repulsion of these women. Ivor Novello was a known homosexual and it is not inconceivable to imagine that he incorporated into the play underpinnings of a homosexual matinée idol oppressed by unwanted female attention.
Hitchcocks's emerging style is well demonstrated in this film. He used a variety of screen techniques to tell the story with a minimum of title Cards, preferring instead to allow the film's visual narrative to tell the story. A good example is the scene after Roddy leaves home. It opens with the title card "The world of make-believe". This is followed by a closeup of Roddy in a tuxedo. The camera pulls back to reveal Roddy is actually playing a waiter on stage in a theatre. Hitchcock also incorporated shots of a descending escalator as a visual metaphor for Roddy's downhill dissent. He experimented with dream sequences by shooting them in super impositions and blurred images. He played with shadow and light in much the same way as the German films of the time.
The scene involving Novello's voyage home on a boat was tinted a "sickly" green to express mental torment and nausea.
The film was released in the United States as When Boys Leave Home.
[edit] External links
- Downhill at the Internet Movie Database
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