Alfred Hitchcock Collectors’ Guide: Earliest British Films

• The Master’s Apprenticeship: detailing the preservation status of Hitch’s earliest works
• Entered the fledgling film industry in the early 1920s as a lowly freelance title card designer
• Quickly worked his way up through more responsible roles, culminating as assistant director
• Wunderkind’s next step was to begin creating his own inimitable catalogue of classic films
• Rose to become Britain’s top director within a few years and Hollywood soon came calling

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

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Contents

• Early career
• Woman to Woman (1923)
• Lord Camber’s Ladies (1932)
• Related articles

Early career

King and queen of the movies: Alfred and Alma at home in London, circa 1930; another

He’s been known for more than half a century as the undisputed master of movie suspense through classic films such as Suspicion, Notorious, Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds and Frenzy. Alfred Hitchcock was born in London on August 13, 1899. Commencing in advertising, Hitchcock made his first mark in films creating title cards for the silent films of the American company Famous Players-Lasky. At Gainsborough Pictures in 1923 he wrote his first scenario for a picture, created the art direction for another and got his first chance to direct. In 1925 his first film as director, The Pleasure Garden, was released to good reviews [sic] but it was his 1926 suspense film The Lodger, starring matinée idol Ivor Novello, that gained him his first notoriety.

The same year Hitchcock married Alma Reville, whose name would appear as scenarist on many of his films. Blackmail in 1929 was to be Hitchcock’s last silent film but when the studio, British International, asked him to complete it as a sound picture he did so brilliantly, using the new medium in a way others had not thought of. The sound innovations he was forced to adopt for Blackmail would become recognisable in the series of great British thrillers he was to make for producer Michael Balcon at Gaumont British between 1934 and 1937. The Man Who Knew Too Much starring Leslie Banks, Edna Best and Peter Lorre was followed by The 39 Steps in 1935, Secret Agent and Sabotage in 1936, and Young and Innocent in 1937 starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick de Marney.

In 1938, back at Gainsborough, The Lady Vanishes would seal his success. During its production, Hitchcock was offered a contract by the American producer of Gone with the Wind, David O. Selznick, which he accepted, concluding the British chapter of his career with the costume adventure Jamaica Inn starring Charles Laughton, Robert Newton and Maureen O’Hara. Hitchcock’s first film for Selznick was to be Titanic, about the sinking of the “unsinkable” pride of the White Star Line, but with war breaking out in Europe this was dropped in favour of the gothic Daphne du Maurier story Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. The film was a box office hit and went on to become the Oscar winning Best Picture of 1940, establishing “Hitch” as a major Hollywood director until his death in 1980. – Australian Roadshow Entertainment VHS (1998)

Marjorie Daw in The Passionate Adventure (1924); see here

During his early years in the British film industry throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Hitch worked on 20-odd shorts and features in various capacities and earned a sole directing credit for 27 more. Only around half of the films on which he had lesser input survive, but in varying levels of condition and completeness. The earliest, dating from 1921–1925, just prior to his first full directorial effort, The Pleasure Garden, were where he served his apprenticeship and forged many invaluable personal and professional relationships. Some of them would endure throughout his and Alma’s whole lives; just one is detailed in this lovely article and podcast.

As often noted, Hitch soaked up external influences like a sponge, readily absorbing anything he might later find useful and shaping it to fit his own vision. Notably, he was most impressed by the striking visual palette and editing techniques of the German Expressionists, and their sparing use of intertitles. Indeed, while shooting The Blackguard at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, he was able to gratefully observe F. W. Murnau making Der letzte Mann aka The Last Laugh (1924), a fact he later denied, somewhat characteristically.

These are the most significant British films Hitch worked on outside of his main oeuvre. Except where noted otherwise, most are lost and of the remainder only three and a half (in bold) are available on home video. Thankfully though, five of those that are wholly or partially extant can be viewed for free via the wonderful BFI Mediatheque (films). They also have a handful of other Hitch essentials, including the documentary Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009) in which the comedian extols the virtues of Hitch’s pre-Hollywood career.

AD: assistant director, ArtD: art director, CD: co-director, CW: co-writer, D: director, P: producer, PM: production manager, SA: studio assistant, TD: title designer

Famous Players-Lasky (British Producers Limited)

• The Call of Youth (1921) – TD
• The Great Day (1920) – TD
• The Princess of New York (1921) – TD
• Appearances (1921) – TD
• Dangerous Lies (1921) – TD
• The Mystery Road (1921) – TD
• Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush (1921) – TD
• Three Live Ghosts (1922) – TD, ; original lost but Soviet re-edit extant: 6 reels/5,784ft
• Love’s Boomerang (1922) – TD
• The Man from Home (1922) – TD, ArtD; original lost but extant w/Dutch titles: 7 reels/6,895ft
• The Spanish Jade (1922) – TD, ArtD

Islington Studios

• Number 13 (1922) – D, P; unfinished | Hitch-22
• Tell Your Children (1922) – TD, ArtD
• Flames of Passion (1922) – SA; extant w/Dutch titles
• Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923) – SA
• Always Tell Your Wife (1923, short) – uncredited CD, PM; one of two reels extant; UK-viewable
• Woman to Woman (1923) – CW, ArtD, AD; original lost but 1929 sound remake w/same star extant
• The White Shadow (1923) – CW, ArtD, AD; three of six reels extant
• The Passionate Adventure (1924) – CW, ArtD; partially extant w/German titles: 5,877ft of 7,923ft; UK-viewable
• The Blackguard (1925) – CW, ArtD, AD; partially extant; lost-films.eu: 6,525ft of 9,200ft; UK-viewable
• The Prude’s Fall (1925) – CW, ArtD, AD; partially extant: 1,998ft of 6,675ft; UK-viewable
• An Elastic Affair (1930, short) – D
• Elstree Calling (1930) – CD; extant
• Lord Camber’s Ladies (1932) – P; extant
• Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache (1944, shorts) – D; extant

Clips, more | Illustrierter Film-Kurier, Nr. 239

The most extensive and up-to-date survey of Hitch’s pre-Pleasure Garden British film career and its later notable but lesser-known corners is to be found in Charles Barr and Alain Kerzoncuf’s Hitchcock Lost and Found: The Forgotten Films (2015), which contains a wealth of previously unpublished research and photos. It’s the companion volume to Barr’s equally indispensable English Hitchcock (1999).

London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years (2014) by Gary Chapman is the definitive history of the Islington (later Gainsborough) studio where Hitch began his career, and a simultaneous account of his meteoric ascent. Author article.

Jazz Age Club: The Flames of Passion and Paddy the Next Best Thing

Woman to Woman (1923)

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Though a critical and commercial success, this is sadly lost and ranks highly on the BFI Most Wanted list. It’s the first of three film versions based on Michael Morton’s eponymous and seemingly unpublished 1921 play, and was directed by Graham Cutts. Hitch assists in several roles both credited and uncredited, writing and directing among them, though I wouldn’t expect it to have been the most insightfully written Hitch adaptation:

“I had to write the screenplay for the movie Woman to Woman: the story of a man who has a mistress in Paris, who bangs his head, loses his memory, and starts going with another woman, who gives him a child [sic: the child is from the mistress]. Well, I was 23 years old, I’d never been with a woman, and I didn’t have the slightest idea what a woman did to have a child. I had even less idea what a man did when he was with his mistress in Paris or when he was with another woman who was giving him a child.” – interview (italiano) with Oriana Fallaci in The Egotists/Limelighters/Gli antipatici (1963) | Internet Archive

Betty Compson in Woman to Woman

It’s a tragic tale of doomed romance set against the backdrop of the First World War. Despite Hitch’s lack of worldly insight, it gained enthusiastic reviews and was a commercial success, vindicating the cost of importing US star Betty Compson on a two-picture deal. However, its production overran, meaning the follow-up, The White Shadow, also with Hitch, Cutts and Compson, suffered from being too rushed and it flopped on release, wiping out all the profits earned by its predecessor. There’s a detailed synopsis and analysis of Woman in Representative Photoplays Analyzed (1924) by Scott O’Dell, describing the reshot ending of the American version in which – spoiler alert – Compson’s character doesn’t die and is reunited with her love. The actress also appeared in the following year’s The Prude’s Fall, which also had strong input from Hitch and is viewable, and reteamed with the director a final time as David’s date Gertie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Woman’s 1923 original is one of only two films of the seven Hitch apprenticed on under Cutts at Islington for which no material has been found. In its complete absence, we’ll have to content ourselves with the 1929 talkie remake, also featuring Betty Compson and directed by Woman and Shadow’s producer Victor Saville. A second remake followed in 1947, this time updated to WWII, but it’s currently unavailable. However, various copies going right back to the original negative are held by the BFI Archive, so you never know. Until someone ponies up for a full restoration, circulating copies of the 1929 version are in worn but watchable condition via these unofficial releases:

• Prime Video HD
• US: Grapevine DVD (2011) – region 0
  • Alpha DVD (2014) – region 0

Fun fact: Cutts had an actress daughter – like Hitch’s, also named Patricia – who, after moving to America, appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Hour and North by Northwest.

• Jazz Age Club: Woman to Woman
• A Lost Film: Woman to Woman

Lord Camber’s Ladies (1932)

This was Hitch’s final film for British International Pictures and the only one for which he was solely credited as producer. It’s based on Horace Annesley Vachell’s 1915 play, The Case of Lady Camber, first filmed eponymously in 1920 but now lost. A second retitled remake, The Story of Shirley Yorke, followed in 1948 and is available on DVD. Notable members of the 1932 version’s cast include Nigel Bruce in the title role but best known for playing Basil Rathbone’s amanuensis in the Fox/Universal Sherlock Holmes series. Another is Clare Greet, star of Number 13, Hitch’s first film, albeit uncompleted and also now lost. She also appeared in Three Live Ghosts, for which Hitch drew the the intertitles, and acted in seven other Hitchcocks, more than any other featured player. Lastly, Gerald du Maurier, father of Daphne, had top billing. His daughter of course wrote the source novels for Jamaica Inn and Rebecca.

• UK: Renown DVD The Story of Shirley Yorke (2012)

There’s more info and a very ropy bootleg copy over at the invaluable Hitchcock Zone; this is an expectedly creaky programmer that’s difficult to watch in its present condition but worth it for fans of early British talkies. As with Woman to Woman’s remake, the BFI have a cache of materials including the original negative, so there’s similarly strong potential for a great preservation or even restoration. But it’s owned by Studiocanal, so don’t hold your breath, given their complete lack of action over the far better known and more essential Juno and the Paycock.

Related articles

This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.