Nothing but expulsion is expected for a high school boy that dishonours a girl: and that is the fate of wealthy Roddy Berwick. But it wasn't him: it was his schoolmate Tim Wakely (by the way, he and the girl just kissed, thats'all). Besides, the girl is raging Mabel, who accuses Roddy just because, on the contrary, he failed to kiss her. Tim doesn't admit his fault, as he is in need of the scholarship he just achieved to fulfill his study career and not disappoint his less wealthy father. And Roddy doesn'tell: he understands Tim's point of view, and he doesn't want to sneak. And Brut... Roddy is an honourable man.
Roddy's father doesn't believe in his own son's asserted innocence, and calls him a liar. That's too much for the honourable Roddy, that immediately leaves his parents' home slamming the door. A period of ever growing downhill and degradation follows for poor Roddy, beginning with a marriage during which his wife sucks up all of the guy's money (as it happens sometimes), passing through an underpaid job as a gigolo, and ending, "shuddering and bleak of brain", in the filthy slums of Marseille.
In the end the prodigal son, after some interesting delirious days of illness, returns happily, and well received, to the paternal house in London.
One can watch it, but the Hitchcock we know is yet to come.
Review of Downhill
