Review: Downhill

School chums Ivor Novello and Robin Irvine are both taken with shop girl Annette Benson. Irvine eventually gets her pregnant, but because rugby player Novello’s family is wealthier she claims the child is his, telling the headmaster that one of his students has gotten her up the duff (which is apparently seen as an indiscretion of some sort). Novello – being a good and decent chap – takes the fall for his friend because he doesn’t want the latter to lose his scholarship and knows he won’t own up to the truth. Novello is subsequently expelled and his life falls even further apart from there.

 

Watching the restored 100+ minute version of this 1927 silent film from Sir Alfred Hitchcock (“Blackmail”, “Vertigo”, “Psycho”), I got the distinct feeling that the shorter cut for once probably would’ve worked a bit better for me. However, at any length this was never going to be one of The Master’s better films. Adapted by Eliot Stannard (“The Pleasure Garden”, “Champagne”) from a play by star Ivor Novello and Constance Collier (who also has an uncredited bit role), it’s much ado about very little, and in the longer form that’s pretty deadly for the viewer. There’s some interesting visual moments here and there, but there’s not much going on and the characters are frankly not very likeable. The girl is especially unlikeable, and for all the flak some of Hitchcock’s later films copped for misogyny, this may be one of the worst offenders. However, even Ivor Novello’s character is so selfless and accepting of his fate to the point where you kind of hate him for it. Their motives don’t convince, and neither does the film. I’m not sure what the point of it all was either, especially given how aggressively downbeat it is.

 

The film isn’t boring enough to be among the bottom 5 Hitchcock films but it’s unrelentingly depressing to the point that I sorta resented watching it. On a visual level it’s one of Hitchcock’s more interesting silent films but a failure in every other respect. Story and character are king to me and this one just doesn’t have it. One of The Master’s strangest, most frustrating, and unsatisfying films.  

 

Rating: C