Dvd/150: DOWNHILL (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)

Hitchcock attempted to repeat the success of THE LODGER by teaming up with Ivor Novello again for the odd DOWNHILL.

 

It is hard to understand Novello's popularity nowadays.  DOWNHILL is based on one of his plays and what is without doubt is that Novello wrote himself a whacking star vehicle.

  

Novello (aged 34!) plays public schoolboy Roddy, disowned by his father when expelled for getting a tarty shopgirl pregnant (although his friend did the deed).  Roddy gets a job in a theatre and when he receives an unexpected bequest, he marries the play's avaricious leading lady (Isabel Jeans).

 

After she rinses him of his money and house, Roddy flees to Paris becoming a reluctant gigolo for a female pimp.  Sick of his life, he ends up destitute in a Marseilles flop-house. Can he find redemption?

Nice performances and Hitchcock's evolving mis-en-scene can't help this runaway star vehicle.

      

Shelf or charity shop?  Despite Novello, shelf...

Dvd/150: THE LODGER: A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG (Alfred Hitchcoock, 1927)

Hitchcock's first genuine classic sometimes betrays it's stage origins but his bravura direction and visual panache make it a constant pleasure.

London is gripped by a serial killer targeting blonde women.  A mysterious man arrives at the lodging house of the Buntings and their daughter Daisy, seeking a room.  Although his odd behaviour unsettles her parents and persistant policeman boyfriend, Daisy finds herself drawn to him.  What is his secret and is Daisy in peril?

Hitchcock's interest in German Expressionist cinema is shown in his use of tilted angles, shadows and light and it's fascinating to see ideas and motifs appear that were to become well-known in his later films such as THE 39 STEPS, VERTIGO, REAR WINDOW and even PSYCHO.

Although performing styles have changed, I liked June Tripp's feisty Daisy and Marie Ault and Arthur Chesney as her parents. Ivor Novello's neurastheic Lodger has aged less well.

Shelf or charity shop?  It can happily lodge on my shelf...