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When Boys Leave Home

Original title: Downhill
  • 1927
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 14m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
2.8K
YOUR RATING
When Boys Leave Home (1927)
AdventureDramaThriller

Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.

  • Director
    • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Writers
    • Constance Collier
    • Ivor Novello
    • Eliot Stannard
  • Stars
    • Ivor Novello
    • Ben Webster
    • Norman McKinnel
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.0/10
    2.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Alfred Hitchcock
    • Writers
      • Constance Collier
      • Ivor Novello
      • Eliot Stannard
    • Stars
      • Ivor Novello
      • Ben Webster
      • Norman McKinnel
    • 37User reviews
    • 35Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos79

    Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Annette Benson and Robin Irvine in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Annette Benson and Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Annette Benson in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Norman McKinnel and Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    When Boys Leave Home (1927)
    Ivor Novello in When Boys Leave Home (1927)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ivor Novello
    Ivor Novello
    • Roddy Berwick
    Ben Webster
    Ben Webster
    • Dr. Dowson
    Norman McKinnel
    Norman McKinnel
    • Sir Thomas Berwick
    Robin Irvine
    Robin Irvine
    • Tim Wakeley
    Jerrold Robertshaw
    • The Rev. Henry Wakeley
    Sybil Rhoda
    Sybil Rhoda
    • Sybil Wakeley
    Annette Benson
    Annette Benson
    • Mabel
    Lilian Braithwaite
    Lilian Braithwaite
    • Lady Berwick
    Isabel Jeans
    Isabel Jeans
    • Julia Fotheringale
    Ian Hunter
    Ian Hunter
    • Archie
    Hannah Jones
    Hannah Jones
    • Dresser
    Barbara Gott
    Barbara Gott
    • Madame Michet
    Violet Farebrother
    Violet Farebrother
    • Poetess
    Alf Goddard
    • Sailor
    Constance Collier
    Constance Collier
    • Dance Hall Lady with Purse
    • (uncredited)
    Daisy Jackson
    • The Seductive Waitress
    • (uncredited)
    J. Nelson
    • Hibbert
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Alfred Hitchcock
    • Writers
      • Constance Collier(uncredited)
      • Ivor Novello(uncredited)
      • Eliot Stannard
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When Alfred Hitchcock looked back on this film, he was quite critical of it and felt that the symbolism he used was a touch too obvious.
    • Goofs
      When Roddy and the girl are dancing in the candy shop, a gramophone record of a tune called "I Want Money" is shown. It's on the old "WINNER" label. In a flashback, it's playing again on the record player, but in a further flashback, in a montage, the record has become a "His Master's Voice" disc.
    • Quotes

      [first title card]

      Title Card: Here is a tale of two school-boys who made a pact of loyalty. One of them kept it - at a price.

    • Connections
      Featured in Shepperton Babylon (2005)
    • 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 reviews37

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    As a showcase for Hitchcock's emerging visual style, it's a wonderful relic.
    Without Alfred Hitchcock's inventive camera, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this movie as much as I did. It's largely predictable and doesn't come to a resolution that I think properly utilizes some of the elements within the story, but it's fine. With Hitchcock's emerging talent, inspired heavily by German Expressionism, the story gains a cinematic edge that pushes it up in quality ever so slightly.

    Roddy is the king of his prep school in Britain. He's from a wealthy family, scores winning points in rugby matches, and gets appointed as the captain of the school (whatever that means...Britain, amiright?). When he and his best friend Tim decide to join a low class working girl at the baking shop she works at for an afterhours jaunt of dancing and fun, Roddy falls into a lie that he won't extricate himself from because it would harm his best friend Tim. You see, the girl was trying to make love to the son of a rich man Roddy but ended up with Tim instead. She comes to the school some time later with a charge of prostitution against Roddy and the accusation that he is the father of her unborn child. Based purely on this accusation, Roddy is expelled from school, Tim refusing to take any blame because he had just gotten a scholarship that could get him into Oxford and the news of his failure would destroy his father.

    Roddy's father isn't too kind on his son either, as it goes, calling him a liar to his face. Unable to take the insult, Roddy leaves to make his own life.

    This first half hour is full of shadows, little camera moves (my favorite being when the girl is in the headmaster's office to accuse and she can choose between Roddy and Tim, she steps forward towards camera, the camera pulls back slightly to reveal the two young men on either side of her in frame), and strong performances that sell the story. It's also where the movie feels the least formulaic.

    The second part starts with a seemingly effortlessly ingenious shot that starts with Roddy in a tux, as it pulls back and shows that he's actually a waiter, and then it pulls back again to reveal that he's actually a bit player in a theater production, all preceded by a title card that says, "The world of make-believe." It's a very good precursor to what is to happen, for Roddy is hopelessly in love with the lead actress, a fashionable and famous women with very expensive tastes and a man who feels that Roddy is no threat. When he suddenly comes into thirty thousand pounds, he instantly uses it to woo the girl, and the girl and her man instantly recognize it as an opportunity to swindle the young man. The further downfall of Roddy is predictable, which makes this section less compelling than it could be, but it's still well filmed and well-presented overall.

    The third section sees Roddy having made his way to Marseille where he dances for cheap with lonely old women in a dance hall, in seeming perpetual debt to the matron of the place. It's when the shutters are opened and sunlight shows Roddy the drunkenness and ugliness around him that he realizes how far he's fallen. Disgusted, he runs to the docks where he will waste away. Some find him, think he'll be a good source of money if they take him back to certainly rich friends in England, and shove him on a boat on the southern coast of France heading to the United Kingdom. In the five days Roddy spends onboard, he has a series of delirious visions (all given a sickly green filter) of his father and the people who've abused him through his journey. It's a rather harrowing experience, and he climbs off the ship, still delirious, seeing his father's face in a policeman's, and staggers home.

    This section is a step up from the second, feeling less predictable and more like actual drama, combined with some of the most visually inventive moments of the film.

    It's the coda of the film, where Roddy makes it home, that I have a real issue with. Tim never appears again in the film once Roddy says goodbye to him at the prep school. Since he is as much the orchestrator of Roddy's misery as the girl, I felt like he needed to appear at the end in some capacity. If I were writing it, I would have probably had Tim, now a successful young man in business, fully admit his fault to Roddy but refuse to do anything about it again, because I am a heartless idiot who does terrible things to my characters. The fact that he doesn't appear at all feels wrong to me. Instead, Roddy just goes home where he discovers that his father has found out the truth and all will be well. It's not a terribly compelling ending.

    As a showcase for Hitchcock's emerging visual style, it's a wonderful relic. As a drama, it sort of works, though it's ending needed something more. The acting is really good, especially from Ivor Novello, the actor who plays Roddy. He sells the innocent determination and slow degradation of his character really well. It's a good little example of Hitchcock learning his trade and producing quality content in the silent era.
    helpful•2
    0
    • davidmvining
    • Feb 26, 2020

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    FAQ2

    • Is this film in the public domain?
    • Every copy I've seen has been terrible. Which is the best version to buy?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • 1928 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Downhill
    • Filming locations
      • Maida Vale Underground Station, Maida Vale, London, England, UK
    • Production company
      • Gainsborough Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 14 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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