“HITCH FINDING HIS WAY”

By Raymond Benson

While there are many DVD collections (and VHS anthologies before that) of the early British material directed by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1920s and most of the 1930s, there are very few that contain decent transfers. The silent films, until recently, all existed in extremely poor quality, as so did most of the British sound pictures. Companies like The Criterion Collection and Kino Lorber have begun to finally restore these classics in high definition Blu-ray. (There is a long-held belief that these titles are in the public domain, but this is false.)

The new 2-disk Kino Lorber set, British International Pictures Collection, contains a handful of these early movies—The Ring (1927), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1929), and the only sound feature in the bunch, The Skin Game (1931). They all display Hitch finding his way, exploring the possibilities of the medium, and trying to find his directorial “voice.” He was not yet the “Master of Suspense,” even though he had made one silent masterpiece thriller, The Lodger (1927), that kick-started his career. He did not yet have the clout to pick and choose his projects, so he directed whatever the studio assigned him. Too often, the titles were melodramas that bore little resemblance to the kinds of things Hitchcock would make once he had established his nickname.

The good news is that mostly these are beautifully restored transfers that look better than any previous iteration this reviewer has ever seen. In fact, the silent pictures look remarkable—Kino has done a splendid job in the presentation. (Oddly, the later title, The Skin Game, doesn’t look as good as the earlier ones, but it’s still more watchable than previous versions.)

The bad news is that none of these titles are stellar entries in Hitchcock’s oeuvre. In fact, only Hitchcock completists will get much out of this set, as admirably put together as it is.

The Ring is unique in that Hitchcock himself is credited with writing the screenplay—the only time in his entire filmography in which this is the case. Apparently, Hitch was a boxing fan and wrote the story about a love triangle between two fighters and the girl for whom they both have the hots. Hitchcock told François Truffaut in their famous interview that he considered The Ring to be the second “true” Hitchcock movie (after The Lodger). Personally, this reviewer finds it to be overly long, melodramatic, and slow.

The Farmer’s Wife is one of Hitchcock’s few comedies—a romantic comedy, to boot. It’s about a middle-aged farmer who becomes a widower and then sets about finding a new wife. Every woman he asks rejects him, until he realizes that his housekeeper will do just fine. (Believe it or not, that’s not a spoiler.) Again, the film is too lengthy and moves too slowly to be a comedy. Certainly not in the upper pantheon of Hitchcock classics.

Champagne is worse. Also billed as a “comedy,” it’s about a young woman from a wealthy family who is reckless and chases after a fellow who seemingly doesn’t want her. The woman’s father falsely declares bankruptcy to pull in her spending reins, but to no avail. In the end, the poor schmuck she was after ends up by her side after all (again, not a spoiler!).

The Manxman is so dreary and lifeless that it’s almost impossible to think that such a great filmmaker as Alfred Hitchcock made it. It’s another love triangle story in which the “Manxman” (a citizen of the Isle of Wight) goes away to find fame and fortune in Africa, leaving his beloved under the watchful gaze of his best friend. You can guess what happens between the beloved and the friend. Again—too long and too slow. Thank goodness Hitchcock rebounded from this with his first talkie, Blackmail, and proved that he really could direct a movie.

The Skin Game was Hitch’s fourth sound picture. It’s not terrible, but it’s not particularly good. It’s about two families of different social classes feuding over land. The richer family learns something scandalous about the daughter of the less-richer family and threatens blackmail. Edmund Gwenn (who starred in more than one Hitchcock title) is effective as the indignant head of the less-wealthy household. Of all the films in this collection, The Skin Game is the most interesting, and it’s not because it’s a talkie. There is some real drama going on, it’s just that there’s a lot of “melo-” to it.

Along with the superb high definition transfers, there are audio commentaries by film historian Farran Smith Nehme on Champagne and The Manxman, and by Nick Pinkerton on The Ring. New lovely scores accompany the silents—by Meg Morley (The Ring), Jon Mirsalis (The Farmer’s Wife), Ben Model (Champagne), and Andrew Earle Simpson (The Manxman). Finally, the only supplements are two audio excerpts from the Hitchcock/Truffaut interview related to the films in question.

Despite the so-so quality of the films themselves, the British International Pictures Collection does present outstanding editions of these early Alfred Hitchcock features—certainly worthwhile for any student and aficionado of the master during a crucial learning period of his profession.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON