Downhill (1927)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Constance Collier (play)
Ivor Novello (play)
(more)

Release Date:

1928 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Thriller

Plot:

Public schoolboy Roddy Berwick is expelled from school when he takes the blame for a friend's theft...

Plot Keywords:

Playing Footsie | Based On Play

Cast

Ivor Novello	...	Roddy Berwick
Robin Irvine	...	Tim Wakely
Isabel Jeans	...	Julia
Ian Hunter	...	Archie
Norman McKinnel	...	Sir Thomas Berwick
Annette Benson	...	Mabel
Sybil Rhoda	...	Sybil Wakely
Lilian Braithwaite	...	Lady Berwick
Violet Farebrother	...	The Poet
Ben Webster	...	Dr. Dawson
Hannah Jones	...	The Dressmaker
Jerrold Robertshaw	...	Reverend Henry Wakely
Barbara Gott	...	Madame Michet
Alf Goddard	...	The Swede
J. Nelson	...	Hibbert
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daisy Jackson	...	The Seductive Waitress

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Constance Collier		play
Ivor Novello		play
Eliot Stannard		adaptation

Produced by
Michael Balcon	....	producer
C.M. Woolf	....	producer

Cinematography by
Claude L. McDonnell

Film Editing by
Ivor Montagu
Lionel Rich

Art Direction by
Bertram Evans

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Mills	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Gainsborough Pictures

Distributors

• Wardour Films (1928) (UK) (theatrical)
• Sono Art-World Wide Pictures (1929) (USA) (theatrical)
• Video Film Express (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Also Known As:

When Boys Leave Home (USA)

Runtime:

80 min | USA:74 min

Country:

UK

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dr. Dawson: I wish you had more boys like Roddy to send us, Sir Thomas.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Shepperton Babylon (2005) (TV)

An early downright Hitch.

With their theatre play Down Hill Ivor Novello and Constance Collier produced another lampoon dealing with British boarding school life and the layers of society it depends upon. Ivor Novello attended a school like that himself (Magdalen College, Oxford) and the theme of his play seems authentic in its unlikeliness. A school boy takes the blame for 'getting a girl into trouble' although a friend is to blame. He is expelled not only from school but also from his posh family home. Without his father's backing life quickly goes down hill. After a short career as a Paris gigolo he ends up in the slums of Marseille. Hitchcock filmed Down Hill with his typical mix of 'suspense' and humour throughout the film. The camera zooms into terrified faces, goes down hill on an escalator and an elevator and picks up every shadow and shade on its way. Apparently Hitch had the final scenes tinted in a horribly yellowish green when the protagonist feels ill. Apart from the almost unneeded final act Downhill is a downright Hitch. Its climax is the Paris night club scene where the young and inexperienced taxi dancer and gigolo is awaited by a horny elderly woman who has already compensated his services yet to be rendered.