Downhill (1927)

Downhill (1927)

„Downhill“ is a 1927 silent drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the play „Down Hill“ by Novello and Constance Collier.

At an expensive English boarding school for boys, Roddy Berwick is a star rugby player and team captain. He and his best friend Tim Wakeley are approached by a shopgirl, Mabel, who invites them to her shop after hours to dance. Shortly after, Mabel tells the boys’ headmaster that she is pregnant and that Roddy is the father. However, Tim is really the father, and he cannot afford to be expelled because he needs to win a scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. Promising Tim that he will never reveal the truth, Roddy’s life begins its downward spiral when he is expelled from school after shielding his friend from punishment.

Returning to his parents’ home, Roddy finds that his father Sir Thomas Berwick believes Roddy guilty of the false accusation. The black sheep of this prosperous family leaves home and finds work as a waiter at a dinner theatre. After inheriting £30,000 from his godmother, following several desultory adventures, Roddy weds faithless actress Julia Fotheringale, who divests him of what little money he has and runs off with another man.

Julia secretly continues an affair with her leading man Archie and discards Roddy after exhausting his inheritance and swindling him out of his mansion. To pay off his debts Roddy goes to work for a madame in a Paris dance hall who rents out Roddy as a taxi dancer (implying he is also a gigolo). One morning at dawn, looking around the near-empty dance hall at the remaining demimonde stragglers who’ve been up all night, and having been propositioned by a homely wealthy older woman, Roddy quits, disgusted with himself for having fallen so low in society and romancing women for money.

Roddy ends up alone and desperate in a shabby room in Marseilles. Sailors take pity on him and ship him back home, possibly hoping for a reward. During the 5-day sea voyage, Roddy experiences delirium and elaborate nightmarish hallucinations, replaying the traumas of the past years, creating composite visions of the women who have used him for money, from Mabel the shopgirl, to Julia his ex-wife, to the madame, and the women who have availed themselves of his services. Disoriented, he stumbles his way through London with the chaos of the streets blending with and superimposing over visions of chaos in his mind. Eventually he finds his way home to his father. Only when he is at his lowest is Roddy forgiven by his family, who joyfully welcome him back and beg Roddy’s forgiveness, having learned the truth about the shopgirl’s false accusation. Roddy ends up back at school, starring in „old Boy“ rugby matches, resuming his previous status and life.

A 1927 British Black & White silent drama film (a/k/a „When Boys Leave Home“) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by Michael Balcon and C. M. Woolf, adapted by Eliot Stannard, based on the stage play of the same name by Constance Collier and Ivor Novello (as David L’Estrange), cinematography by Claude L. McDonnell, starring Ivor Novello, Ben Webster, Norman McKinnel, Robin Irvine, Jerrold Robertshaw, Sybil Rhoda, Annette Benson, Lilian Braithwaite, Isabel Jeans, Ian Hunter, Violet Farebrother, Barbara Gott, Violet Farebrother, Alf Goddard, and J. Nelson. Screen debut of Hannah Jones. Produced by Gainsborough Pictures at their Islington studios.

This was Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s fourth film as director, but his fifth to be released. 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 in a scene following a rugby match. An appreciative James Agate, drama critic for the London Sunday Times, wrote: „The scent of good honest soap crosses the footlights.“ Alfred Hitchcock included a similar scene of Novello for the film, in which he is shown naked from the waist up.

Second of two films Ivor Novello made with Hitchcock. The first was „The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog“ (1927). Novello was openly gay and was very successful despite homosexuality being a crime in Britain at the time. Also, he composed the song, „Keep the Home Fires Burning,“ which became a hit during WWI.

Hitchcock used a variety of screen techniques with a minimum of title cards, allowing the film’s visual narrative to tell the story. Hitchcock played with shadow and light in much the same way as German expressionist directors of the time, especially F.W. Murnau, for whom Hitchcock had worked as an assistant director.

Hitchcock experimented with dream sequences by shooting superimpositions, breaking with the common use of blurred images, in a hallucinatory scene, Hitchcock used solid, unblurred images, embodying the dream in the reality.

An interesting film. While not among his weakest, it’s a long way from being among his best.

Cast:

• Ivor Novello – Roddy Berwick
• Ben Webster – Dr. Dowson
• Norman McKinnel – Sir Thomas Berwick
• Robin Irvine – Tim Wakeley
• Jerrold Robertshaw – The Rev. Henry Wakeley
• Sybil Rhoda – Sybil Wakeley
• Annette Benson – Mabel
• Lilian Braithwaite – Lady Berwick
• Isabel Jeans – Julia Fotheringale
• Ian Hunter – Archie
• Hannah Jones – Dresser
• Barbara Gott – Madame Michet
• Violet Farebrother – Poetess
• Alf Goddard – Sailor
• Constance Collier – Dance Hall Lady with Purse
• Daisy Jackson – The Seductive Waitress
• J. Nelson – Hibbert

"Abwärts" (Downhill) ist ein Stummfilm-Drama aus dem Jahr 1927 unter der Regie von Alfred Hitchcock, das auf dem Theaterstück "Down Hill" von Novello und Constance Collier basiert.

In einem teuren englischen Jungeninternat ist Roddy Berwick ein Star-Rugbyspieler und Mannschaftskapitän. Er und sein bester Freund Tim Wakeley werden von einer Verkäuferin, Mabel, angesprochen, die sie nach Feierabend zum Tanzen in ihren Laden einlädt. Kurz darauf erzählt Mabel dem Schulleiter der Jungen, dass sie schwanger ist und dass Roddy der Vater ist. In Wirklichkeit ist jedoch Tim der Vater, und er kann es sich nicht leisten, von der Schule verwiesen zu werden, da er ein Stipendium für die Universität Oxford benötigt. Roddy verspricht Tim, niemals die Wahrheit zu verraten, doch sein Leben gerät in eine Abwärtsspirale, als er von der Schule verwiesen wird, nachdem er seinen Freund vor der Strafe bewahrt hat.