IMDb RATING
6.0/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.Bound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.
Constance Collier
- Dance Hall Lady with Purse
- (uncredited)
Daisy Jackson
- The Seductive Waitress
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Constance Collier(uncredited)
- Ivor Novello(uncredited)
- Eliot Stannard
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Sir Alfred Hitchcock looked back on this film, he was quite critical of it and felt that the symbolism he used was a touch too obvious.
- GoofsWhen Roddy and the girl are dancing in the candy shop, a gramophone record of a tune called "I Want Money" is shown. It's on the old "WINNER" label. In a flashback, it's playing again on the record player, but in a further flashback, in a montage, the record has become a "His Master's Voice" disc.
- Quotes
[first title card]
Title Card: Here is a tale of two school-boys who made a pact of loyalty. One of them kept it - at a price.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Shepperton Babylon (2005)
- SoundtracksI Want Some Money
Words by Herbert Rule & Fred Holt.
Music by L. Silberman.
Played on the gramophone machine by Mabel; even though Downhill is a silent film, the accompanying music would have referenced this song as it underscores elements of the plot.
Featured review
Hitch starts to show his style...
My copy of this movie is truly silence with no musical score. Whenever I watch a movie that is completely silent, initially I find it a little hard. But when the film is well made, as this one is, it doesn't take long to adjust and focus on the story as you are drawn into it. I feel Hitchcock was a master of the silent film genre with his ability to tell such a deep story with very few intertitles. Relying instead on the expressions of the actors and written notes and signs in the movie, without having to cut away to an intertitle, which allows the film to flow more fluidly instead of constant cutting between the live action and the title cards. Ivor Novello in the lead role of Roddy and in his prior work with Hitchcock in The Lodger really impressed me with his talent of conveying his feelings strictly through facial expressions and acting without the use of sound. Hitch is also good at using subtle exaggeration and focus on action to help take the place of the sound in his silent films.
The story is that of a young man in school who is falsely accused of theft by a lady that he had danced with and he is willing to take the blame for a friend of his and is expelled from school. This leads to the downhill spiral of his life as leaves home after his father calls him a "LIAR!". Things get worse from there as ends up working as a gigolo in Paris, getting in fights, losing a large sum of money, and eventually hitting bottom.
In this film we really begin seeing a lot of Hitchcock's visual style that he is so famous for. He has some really good use of fades and graphic matches between scenes. Two of my favorite where the fading out on the pocket watch and into a large clock, and the other being the scene where he fades out on a photograph and then back in on the real person. I really enjoyed the symbolic shot of Roddy heading down the escalator, showing us that is in heading downhill in his life. And my favorite "Hitch" shot in this movie was the point-of-view shot when the lady was leaning back in her chair and it cuts to Roddy walking into the room and we see him upside down on the screen. I also thought Hitchcock did a great job of portraying Roddy's seasickness towards the end of the film. I really enjoy seeing Hitchcock's style developing in his early silent films, that will become so prominent in his later, more famous movies. I also really appreciate Hitch's working in comedic scenes into his serious movies. My favorite humorous scene in this movie is the peashooter scene early in the film.
Without giving too much away, I would have liked to see a more typical Hitchcock ending to this film.
*** (out of 4 stars)
The story is that of a young man in school who is falsely accused of theft by a lady that he had danced with and he is willing to take the blame for a friend of his and is expelled from school. This leads to the downhill spiral of his life as leaves home after his father calls him a "LIAR!". Things get worse from there as ends up working as a gigolo in Paris, getting in fights, losing a large sum of money, and eventually hitting bottom.
In this film we really begin seeing a lot of Hitchcock's visual style that he is so famous for. He has some really good use of fades and graphic matches between scenes. Two of my favorite where the fading out on the pocket watch and into a large clock, and the other being the scene where he fades out on a photograph and then back in on the real person. I really enjoyed the symbolic shot of Roddy heading down the escalator, showing us that is in heading downhill in his life. And my favorite "Hitch" shot in this movie was the point-of-view shot when the lady was leaning back in her chair and it cuts to Roddy walking into the room and we see him upside down on the screen. I also thought Hitchcock did a great job of portraying Roddy's seasickness towards the end of the film. I really enjoy seeing Hitchcock's style developing in his early silent films, that will become so prominent in his later, more famous movies. I also really appreciate Hitch's working in comedic scenes into his serious movies. My favorite humorous scene in this movie is the peashooter scene early in the film.
Without giving too much away, I would have liked to see a more typical Hitchcock ending to this film.
*** (out of 4 stars)
helpful•205
- SinjinSB
- Sep 24, 2004
Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $158
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content