When Boys Leave Home (1927)

Public schoolboy Roddy Berwick is expelled from school when he takes the blame for a friend's charge and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Constance Collier (as David L'Estrange), Ivor Novello (as David L'Estrange)

Stars:

Ivor Novello, Ben Webster, Norman McKinnel

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

Public schoolboy Roddy Berwick is expelled from school when he takes the blame for a friend's charge and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.

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Plot Keywords:

schoolboy | actor | theatre | father son relationship | false accusation | 

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Taglines:

A College Hero round whom is woven a picture of Love and Treachery. (Print ad- The recorder ((Port Pirie, South Australia)) 3 July 1928)

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included in the Blu-Ray edition of "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)" also by Alfred Hitchcock, under Criterion spine #885.

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Goofs

When Mabel is seeing the boys out of the shoppe, she turns away from the door to say goodbye, but in the shot immediately after, she is leaning her face and hand against the door.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

Referenced in Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense (2013)

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Soundtracks

I Want Some Money
Words by Herbert Rule & Fred Holt.
Music by L. Silberman.
Played on the gramophone machine by Mabel; even though Downhill is a silent film, the accompanying music would have referenced this song as it underscores elements of the plot.

User Reviews

"The world of lost illusions"

Alfred Hitchcock, despite all his ability, was undeniably a largely mechanical filmmaker. His approach was one of planning and manipulation rather than aesthetics or feeling. Not a bad thing in itself, so long as that cold mechanical mind could be put to the purposes of intrigue and excitement, as it would at the peak of his career. The trouble then with his earliest efforts is that they have all that technical intricacy without that much needed focus on reaching the audience as entertainment.

His silent films in particular seem to lurch all over the place, and are proof that the term "experimental film" generally means a bad one. After all, if you know how to do it properly you don't need to experiment, do you? Downhill, unlike the films made immediately before and after, has less of the camera trickery that characterises Hitch's early work, the exceptions being a couple of mobile point of view shots in the Headmaster's office scene, and the rather extravagant finale, which believe me is nothing compared to the obtrusive bag of tricks Hitch employs in, say, Champagne (1928).

Instead, the director focuses far more on the expression and gesture of the actors and the cunning arrangement of shots to reveal what is going on. Much of this is technique that Hitch appropriated from screenwriter Eliot Stannard, who actually predates Eisenstein in theories of montage, and the various inserts of reactions and concurrent bits of business – like the crosscutting from the courting couple to Ivor Novello dealing with the young customers in the shop scene – seem to fit in with the theories Stannard set out in film articles in the 1910s. A more Hitchcockian manoeuvre on display here is the beginning of scenes with close-ups, with gradual pull-back-and-reveal shots to give context. Often the opening shot, focusing on a single character or an item like a cap with the word "honour" on it, serves almost like a chapter heading. Gradually the shots become wider, giving more context to the scene, often finishing with a hauntingly empty wide shot – one that in another director's work might introduce a sequence. In one scene Hitchcock playfully confounds our expectations several times over, by starting with Novello in a posh outfit, pulling back to reveal he is in fact a waiter, then pulling back again to reveal the restaurant is part of a stage set.

This more subtle approach by Hitchcock is very welcome, but the trouble is he seems a little over-confident in his own abilities. Downhill contains very few intertitles, but the action is not quite coherent enough to make up for them. The shop scene in particular is very confusing, and synopsis writers cannot even seem to agree whether Novello is being falsely accused of stealing or getting a woman pregnant. The latter is less obvious but makes much more sense. The focus on people and their actions is a bonus at least, and we get to see a bit more character from Ivor Novello as compared to his rather leaden personality in The Lodger, but the handsome chappy still cannot really act. And it's nothing but mugging and crazy stares from the rest of the cast, I'm afraid.

But perhaps I am missing the point. The incident in the shop could be regarded as an early example of the "MacGuffin" – an otherwise unimportant device which serves only to drive the plot forward – and as such its details are of no consequence. And certainly, this rather trite plot of a man disowned by his family for some social misdemeanour, who descends the slippery slope until he ends up becoming a gigolo for fat French women… is certainly one which could bear a bit of style over substance. And isn't it in some ways the essence of cinema to conjure up atmosphere or visual delight, with coherence and plot detail being of secondary concern? All this is true, and yet the purpose of a motion picture is to tell a story, whether it be the ostensible one of plot, or an emotional one at a more human, character-driven level, and this is something Downhill fails to provide.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1928 (USA)

Also Known As:

When Boys Leave Home

Filming Locations:

Maida Vale Underground Station, Maida Vale, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gainsborough Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min 106 min (2012) (theatrical) 105 min (2012 restoration)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White (sepia/black & white) (tinted and toned)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1