Alfred Hitchcock was generally dismissive of this unplanned follow up to THE LODGER, co-written by Ivor Novello who starred in both.* A Poor Little Rich Boy tale for the 34-yr-old Ivor, playing a school boy who takes the blame for a pal’s indiscretion with a staff member. Sent DOWN from school for the misdeed, Novello stumbles ever lower (bad marriage; cheap chorus boy; low class paid dancer at a chintzy French club; addiction; delirium on a boat home), every debasement announced by downward trajectory on: an escalator DOWN; an elevator DOWN; a ship’s ladder DOWN. Subtle it ain’t. But if script symbolism is a bit scrappy, execution, though rather slow paced in the first half, shows wild imagination, striking technical finish, a command of trick effects, and uncanny lens & lighting choices even for run-of-mill moments. It also displays Hitchcockian misogyny ably supported by Novello and co-playwright Constant Collier. (That's the same Collier who’d take a memorable role in Hitchcock’s ROPE/’48.) The whole film worth seeing for the dance hall sequence alone, especially when the drapes open to sunlight, revealing the scuzzy truth beneath makeup & formal wear. A hideous display of aging flesh, elegance tattered, shabby furnishings & morals, the very dregs of humanity. And the sole sympathetic ‘customer’ revealed as a transvestite. Yikes! (This in 1927.) And while Hitchcock always called THE LODGER the first real Hitchcock film (the second not till BLACKMAIL/’29), this one, loaded with delectable detours & perversions, is just too weird to miss.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Released in the States as WHEN BOYS LEAVE HOME (minus three reels of footage), its best title may be in French as THAT’S LIFE . . . (see poster)
DOUBLE-BILL: *Noël Coward on Novello: ‘The two most beautiful things in the world are Ivor's profile and my mind.’ Two qualities missing in Hitch’s next film, a silent adaptation of Coward’s play EASY VIRTUE/’27 (not seen here) starring this film’s irresponsible wife, Isabel Jeans.
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