Downhill (1927 film)
| Downhill | |
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Original Movie Poster
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by |
Michael Balcon C. M. Woolf |
| Written by |
Play: Constance Collier Ivor Novello Adaption: Eliot Stannard |
| Starring |
Ivor Novello Robin Irvine Isabel Jeans Ian Hunter Violet Farebrother |
| Cinematography | Claude L. McDonnell |
| Edited by |
Ivor Montagu Lionel Rich |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Woolf & Freedman Film Service (UK) Sono Art-World Wide Pictures (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes (UK) 74 minutes (United States) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
Downhill is a 1927 British silent drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ivor Novello, Robin Irvine, and Isabel Jeans, and based on the play Down Hill by Novello and Constance Collier. The film was made by Gainsborough Pictures at their Islington studios. The film is Hitchcock's fifth film as director. The American alternative title for this film was When Boys Leave Home.
At an expensive English boarding school for boys, Roddy Berwick (Ivor Novello) is School Captain and star rugby player. He and his best friend Tim Wakely (Robin Irvine) start seeing a waitress Mabel (Annette Benson). Out of pique, she tells the headmaster that she is pregnant and that Roddy is the father. In fact it was Tim, who cannot afford to be expelled because he needs to win a scholarship to attend Oxford University. Promising Tim that he will never reveal the truth, Roddy accepts expulsion.
Returning to his parents’ home, he finds that his father Sir Thomas Berwick (Norman McKinnel) believes him guilty of the false accusation.
Leaving home, Roddy finds work as an actor in a theatre. He marries the leading actress Julia Fotheringale (Isabel Jeans) after inheriting £30,000 from a relation. The unfaithful Julia secretly continues an affair with her leading man Archie (Ian Hunter) and discards Roddy after his inheritance is exhausted. He becomes a gigolo in a Paris music hall but soon quits over self-loathing at romancing older women for money.
Roddy ends up alone and delirious in a shabby room in Marseilles. Some sailors take pity on him and ship him back home, possibly hoping for reward. Roddy's father has learned the truth about the waitress's false accusation during his son's absence and joyfully welcomes him back. Roddy resumes his previous life.
The film is based on the play, Down Hill, written by its star Ivor Novello and Constance Collier under the combined alias David L'Estrange.
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