Alfred Hitchcock 1-The Pleasure Garden (1925)
The first film I watched from the works of Alfred Hitchcock, The Pleasure Garden from 1925 is not his first film, but it is the earliest film that still survives or is available on DVD.
According to Internet Movie Database, Hitchcock directed two films before this feature: an unfinished film from 1922 called Number 13 and a short from 1923 Always Tell Your Wife which left his directorial efforts uncredited. Both of those films are lost.
Most recently. White Shadows or The White Shadow from 1923 was discovered in New Zealand. I should say most of it was found. The final reel is still missing. The rest of it was restored and presented but it is not on DVD.
Around this time, as an art director for the Gainsborough film company, Hitchcock was so influential in his set designs as to become a virtual director for other films. He designed one interior set, for instance, which forced the camera to only shoot down the stairs in the front room of a home.
Directing was not something he said he aspired to in those early years. However, the producer Michael Balcon, was impressed by the young man and assigned him to be a director for some films where a director couldn't be found. Quite a step up for someone who started just out of art school adding little illustrations to movie title cards!
By 1925 Hitchcock, who was then 25 years of age, had still not cemented his reputation as a director, but was assigned to do a movie called The Pleasure Garden.
The silent film survives to this day mostly intact thanks to Raymond Rohauer, who also rescued Buster Keaton films from the same era. This print does not include the original beginning and ending titles but instead makes it appear it is a Rohauer film with the phrase "Raymond Rohauer presents". Lee Erwin performs the organ music and scenes are tinted according to time of day and mood (blue for evening, yellow for day, for instance) with the inter-title cards also tinted. Most likely this print is a duplication made from a positive 35mm and not from the original negative (based on the quality of the images). I suspect certain scenes were edited a bit, either by Rohauer or by a censor board or two by the time Rohauer got it. However, the plot seems complete, the images are watchable and the music, while not really reinforcing the action, was not annoying.
In the opening titles the writer credited is Alma Reville. This name may sound familiar to those who know Hitchcock: Alma would marry Alfred a year after this film came out!
I did not see Hitchcock make an appearance in this film as he often did for his later movies. If he did, I did not spot it...but I wouldn't doubt he had not started that trend at this time early in his career.
This film has several elements that certainly seem "Hitchcockian" which maybe you wouldn't see in all movies at the time.
In one scene there was a brief use of what I call rack-focus (there probably is another term) where the actor in the foreground is in focus first, then the focus goes to an actor in the background. The scene quickly moved to a new scene right after so you didn't get the full effect, still it was a good technique and probably fairly rare at the time.
There were many comic moments with the older people who owned the house where Patsy lived and with the dog. A short but important scene near the beginning of the film with two shady characters was quite memorable.
The title for the film was the name of the theater where both Patsy and later Jill would perform. Like so many of Hitchcock's films, the theater and its goings-on were not the central theme of the movie but more of the MacGuffin that Hitchcock often referred to for some of his later movies. The idea of being in the theater, performing there, and using the theater as a means of success drove a good part of the story yet there was much more going on.
Also this film particularly dealt with how men deal with women and women deal with men: some men often "use" women and don't see the whole person, but rather their parts. This is seen in an early scene with Patsy and a theater patron who is interested in her. Also, we find out that some women also "use" men to obtain status or money or both.
What truly makes this feel like a Hitchcock film is that one kind of abuse of man against woman is driven again and again and leads to a terrible conclusion.
Overall I found it a most satisfying film, only marred by its less than perfect print quality and imperfect music accompaniment.
The DVD this movie is on had to be obtained from the UK because it is not available in the USA. I have no idea why companies in the USA consider this unmarketable or unprofitable or why the owners in the UK have not worked with a USA distributor. The package itself is very nice with interviews of Alfred Hitchcock on a British television program called Cinema which aired between 1966 and 1969, a nice introduction, image gallery and a double-sided paper insert viewable from both sides of the transparent case.
According to Internet Movie Database, Hitchcock directed two films before this feature: an unfinished film from 1922 called Number 13 and a short from 1923 Always Tell Your Wife which left his directorial efforts uncredited. Both of those films are lost.
Most recently. White Shadows or The White Shadow from 1923 was discovered in New Zealand. I should say most of it was found. The final reel is still missing. The rest of it was restored and presented but it is not on DVD.
Around this time, as an art director for the Gainsborough film company, Hitchcock was so influential in his set designs as to become a virtual director for other films. He designed one interior set, for instance, which forced the camera to only shoot down the stairs in the front room of a home.
Directing was not something he said he aspired to in those early years. However, the producer Michael Balcon, was impressed by the young man and assigned him to be a director for some films where a director couldn't be found. Quite a step up for someone who started just out of art school adding little illustrations to movie title cards!
By 1925 Hitchcock, who was then 25 years of age, had still not cemented his reputation as a director, but was assigned to do a movie called The Pleasure Garden.
The silent film survives to this day mostly intact thanks to Raymond Rohauer, who also rescued Buster Keaton films from the same era. This print does not include the original beginning and ending titles but instead makes it appear it is a Rohauer film with the phrase "Raymond Rohauer presents". Lee Erwin performs the organ music and scenes are tinted according to time of day and mood (blue for evening, yellow for day, for instance) with the inter-title cards also tinted. Most likely this print is a duplication made from a positive 35mm and not from the original negative (based on the quality of the images). I suspect certain scenes were edited a bit, either by Rohauer or by a censor board or two by the time Rohauer got it. However, the plot seems complete, the images are watchable and the music, while not really reinforcing the action, was not annoying.
In the opening titles the writer credited is Alma Reville. This name may sound familiar to those who know Hitchcock: Alma would marry Alfred a year after this film came out!
I did not see Hitchcock make an appearance in this film as he often did for his later movies. If he did, I did not spot it...but I wouldn't doubt he had not started that trend at this time early in his career.
This film has several elements that certainly seem "Hitchcockian" which maybe you wouldn't see in all movies at the time.
In one scene there was a brief use of what I call rack-focus (there probably is another term) where the actor in the foreground is in focus first, then the focus goes to an actor in the background. The scene quickly moved to a new scene right after so you didn't get the full effect, still it was a good technique and probably fairly rare at the time.
There were many comic moments with the older people who owned the house where Patsy lived and with the dog. A short but important scene near the beginning of the film with two shady characters was quite memorable.
The title for the film was the name of the theater where both Patsy and later Jill would perform. Like so many of Hitchcock's films, the theater and its goings-on were not the central theme of the movie but more of the MacGuffin that Hitchcock often referred to for some of his later movies. The idea of being in the theater, performing there, and using the theater as a means of success drove a good part of the story yet there was much more going on.
Also this film particularly dealt with how men deal with women and women deal with men: some men often "use" women and don't see the whole person, but rather their parts. This is seen in an early scene with Patsy and a theater patron who is interested in her. Also, we find out that some women also "use" men to obtain status or money or both.
What truly makes this feel like a Hitchcock film is that one kind of abuse of man against woman is driven again and again and leads to a terrible conclusion.
Overall I found it a most satisfying film, only marred by its less than perfect print quality and imperfect music accompaniment.
The DVD this movie is on had to be obtained from the UK because it is not available in the USA. I have no idea why companies in the USA consider this unmarketable or unprofitable or why the owners in the UK have not worked with a USA distributor. The package itself is very nice with interviews of Alfred Hitchcock on a British television program called Cinema which aired between 1966 and 1969, a nice introduction, image gallery and a double-sided paper insert viewable from both sides of the transparent case.