Producer: Michael Balcon. A Gainsborough Production. U.S. release through Sono Art-World Wide (cut to 74 minutes). No recorded New York opening. U.K. release through Wardour Films. 80 minutes U.S. release title: WHEN BOYS LEAVE HOME.SYNOPSIS: Slatternly shop-girl alleges one of two college boys sexually assaulted her, when in actual fact she encouraged both of them.NOTES: The American version was considerably censored. The allegation of sexual assault was changed to theft (which makes no sense whatever. The reaction of the players and the vicious tirade launched by Miss Benson clearly indicate that a far more serious charge was involved).COMMENT: Although it meanders to a foregone yet disappointing conclusion, this is a most engrossing movie for three-quarters of its length. The opening scenes with that delightfully vicious floosie, Annette Benson, and the clerically coddled Robert Irvine, plus the middle episode in which our hero encounters spendthrift musical comedy star, Isabel Jeans, and her faithful yet otherwise comically rotten-to-the-core lover, Ian Hunter, come over as especially striking, despite the fact that Novello is obviously far too old for a college boy and his acting (particularly in comparison with the other players) overwrought. These scenes are also full of delightful Hitchcock touches, including a bit when our hero surreptitiously pockets the heroine's purse (which it turns out is a joke on the audience), rides a lonely Down escalator to the Underground, and gets drenched on top of a double-decker bus. Mr. Hunter does extremely well in a most difficult role. His Archie is a comic character, yet he's an object of derision (except oddly from Miss Jeans) and from an audience point-of-view, totally unsympathetic. Under Hitch's inspired direction, Hunter manages to juggle hisses and comic capers with amazing dexterity. Easily the best performance of his entire career!

Silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a wealthy young man named Roddy (Ivor Novello) who takes the blame for a friend's indiscretions with a tramp and finds his whole life unraveling because of it. Not entirely successful, with a yawner of an ending, but worth a look for Novello's performance and glimpses of Hitchcock's emerging style. Tenth-billed Ian Hunter plays a small role as an actor who helps rip Roddy off. The whole thing is filmed in sepia tone except for a section in green, the reason behind which is actually fairly clever. Watch and I'm sure you'll figure it out. It's a decent picture but it goes on too long. Lost my interest well before the disappointing ending. Still, give it a go and form your own opinion. Even a lesser Hitchcock film is worth seeing.

Classmates and close friends at an English public school, Roddy Berwick and Tim Wakely compete for the affections of a local shop girl. When the girl falsely accuses Roddy of getting her pregnant, he is expelled. However, Roddy remains silent to protect Tim, who was the guilty party, and the friends make a pact to keep silent. Outraged at his expulsion, Roddy's father does not believe his son's claims of innocence and throws him out. Thus, Roddy strikes out on his own, and his life begins a downward spiral from stage acting to a disastrous marriage to taxi dancing to the Marseilles waterfront. "When Boys Leave," also known as "Downhill," was Alfred Hitchcock's fifth completed film, and, early on in his career, the master director explores his oft-repeated theme of the wrongfully accused.Shot in 1927, the film is silent with inter-titles, and the black-and-white cinematography is often well lit with striking visual compositions. However, Hitchcock generally holds the camera steady, and movement occurs within the frame. The film lacks the camera fluidity common among movies of the late silent era, although Hitchcock is already a master of visual story-telling, and the inter-titles are brief and sparse. As Roddy's life reels out of control, he is dwarfed by his surroundings in rooms with impossibly high ceilings and doors that are more than twice his height. Fortunately, Hitchcock elicits naturalistic performances from his cast, and none indulges in the grand style of acting that negatively stereotyped silent movies. Ivor Novello, a Welsh matinée idol best known for his musical talents, plays the suffering Roddy quite well. Isabel Jeans as Julia Fotheringale, a spendthrift actress, and Ian Hunter as Archie, Julia's shady lover, provide amusing support during one colorful episode in Roddy's descent."When Boys Leave" is from Hitchcock's apprentice period in England, when he was still learning the craft. While the story is thin, and the motivations vague, this short silent film shows flashes of the genius to come, and, for students of the master, every Hitchcock film is worthwhile viewing.

With their theatre play Down Hill Ivor Novello and Constance Collier produced another lampoon dealing with British boarding school life and the layers of society it depends upon. Ivor Novello attended a school like that himself (Magdalen College, Oxford) and the theme of his play seems authentic in its unlikeliness. A school boy takes the blame for 'getting a girl into trouble' although a friend is to blame. He is expelled not only from school but also from his posh family home. Without his father's backing life quickly goes down hill. After a short career as a Paris gigolo he ends up in the slums of Marseille. Hitchcock filmed Down Hill with his typical mix of 'suspense' and humour throughout the film. The camera zooms into terrified faces, goes down hill on an escalator and an elevator and picks up every shadow and shade on its way. Apparently Hitch had the final scenes tinted in a horribly yellowish green when the protagonist feels ill. Apart from the almost unneeded final act Downhill is a downright Hitch. Its climax is the Paris night club scene where the young and inexperienced taxi dancer and gigolo is awaited by a horny elderly woman who has already compensated his services yet to be rendered.