The film places us in a factory, where Fred Hill (Henry Kendall) works, with many other, then he arrives at home with his wife, Emily (Joan Barry); in the behavior of Fred it is noticed some discomfort. While they talk about certain dissatisfactions in their lives, he suddenly receives a notification, a wealthy relative has given him an inheritance, a large amount of money to fulfill his dream of traveling around the world. Immediately they collect their new capital, and immediately begin to spend it, going to sumptuous shows, and then already making the long-awaited international trip on a luxurious cruise. They travel through the most exotic and attractive locations in the world, and soon Emily meets an individual, Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont), with whom adultery soon materializes, while Fred passes it dizzy in his cabin. Fred himself, when feeling better, also knows a female, who seems to be distinguished and of good lineage, a foreign Princess (Betty Amann), with whom, although going slow, finally also have an idyll. After experiencing each one disappointments in their adventures, and after almost sinking the cruise and being rescued by Chinese pirates, rediscover their love, they realize the genuineness of their feelings, and stay happily together the Hill marriage.
If there is something recognizable on the present and irregular picture, among the few Hitchcockian elements we find, there is the traditional beginning of the film, with images fast-chained, expressing a lot and without words, they print to us in seconds the world in which unfolds the unsatisfied Fred, the suffocating and enslaving system. The first thing we see is a pencil and an accounting book, characteristic business elements, then a zoom out of the camera will show us the complete picture, with a large human mass working, formed with great precision in rows, arranged in endless rows of desks, everyone at a distance, but the picture frame shows us closer to a clock. Then the employees leave in endless rows, board the train to home, all shown in frenetic rhythm, a typical beginning for a Hitchcockian movie, all of which configures the suffocating and enslaving capitalist world, the office routine of which there is no escape, a world where individuality is reduced to nothing, where everybody is part of the same mass. Hitch does not stop, he is a master, in the midst of that frenzy of images, which almost suffocate as the same they represent, inserts the image of a text in a newspaper, which reads the question "are you happy with your current circumstances?" with which Hitch unequivocally reinforces the idea of tiredness, of being tired of that routine, of those circumstances, which extend beyond his work, to his life itself, the discontent and boredom of man are thus made evident. And Hitch continues, with his well-known narrative economy, promptly shows us the detail of the notification, soon and without wasting time, and without further explanation, we already know that the inheritance has arrived, that their world has changed. And so the whole feature, brief and succinct, shows just the necesary, few characters, few scenarios, minimal spaces, almost just the cruiser, economy of resources. It is undoubtedly one of the movies of this period of Hitchcock, the British period, and you can see it, features in which his definitive style, the suspense, was not yet defined at all, pictures that are moving a little far -or much in this case-, of the slopes where the cinema of the best Hitch flows.
The person who knows only the masterpieces of the britanish, will find the works of this stage as unrecognizable, and certainly are atypical, the tone of the movie is noticed from the beginning, there is an almost total absence of his artistic norms, knowing what Hitch later produced. However, the picture is identifiable in this period of Hitchcock, in which they seems to have many other topics the English, it feels particularly close, in many, to
Champagne (1928), with the obvious detail of the lavish cruiser, luxuries and the frivolities of the affluent class, their whims, lightheartedness, the situations that border the absurd, the themes that he had already approached in
Skin Game (1931), where the aristocracy is portrayed, but from a more fatalistic perspective, always presenting, though, the human relations, his defects, his complexes; apparently it is a subject that attracted Hitchcock for those years, always setting a detail of moral teaching, as later would nottice and claim the great Truffaut. Is thus moralizing the movie, they looked outside for a satisfaction that end up discovering there was, between themselves. As well, it seems as if Hitch almost misses some elements of the silent cinema, as you can see in the various text frames that appear during the film, documenting the journey, their destinations, the stopovers they make in their long international journey. This way, it feels a flat feature, without breaking the linearity of the film, although certainly the story did not invite much to it, but Hitch in similar movies always managed to find, where there seemed not to be, opportunities to insert audiovisual experiments, something to which in the present work did not encouraged to do. Among the few visual adventures in the making of the picture, we see some overlaying of frames, to portray Fred's dizziness, but as said, are scarce, somewhat regrettable. Appreciable, yes, are some metaphors, the wife soon meets a gentleman, confessing some of their marriage difficulties, while Fred rests in his cabin, dizzy, as if the hardships of his life extend even on the high seas, as if he remained dizzy, with stupor of his life.
Likewise, as she falls into the charms of Commander Gordon, she also longs to free herself from her routine, in which she feels trapped, wants to be free from those chains that have her tied, like those chains that appear while they are looking for a location more suitable for his affair. Finally their love will triumph, although perhaps that happy outcome has obeyed more the canons of the time than the taste of Hitch himself, this because then was unthinkable and unacceptable that the pair would have finished broken, each with their respective lovers, with the false princess who walks coolly on the ship, even talking to Emily, with remarkable cynicism. We see that the film is a brief study of human relations, weariness, tediousness, boredom ahead an existence that absorbs, subjugates, eliminates with its routine the taste for living, where frustrations, passions, libidine are printed, but finally, true love that triumphs. We also appreciate the metaphor of sinking, for the sumptuous transatlantic, in spite of its luxury and security, sinks, like their adventure itself; it fails, as the ephemeral idylls they had; is false, like the artificial lineage of the princess; is extinguished, like the life of the Chinese drowned. But their union resurfaces, reborns, as the newborn son, their love grows, it is incredible that those last ten minutes contain so much, more than the rest of the film. And the element of the Chinese pirates is crucial, symbolically save the marriage from the falsehood of their initial and apparent happiness on the cruise, they, despite their astonishing coldness, letting drown impassively one of his comrades (with them, the Hills eat extravagant food with their hands), or attending evenly the birth of a baby, a new life is born, as a new existence for the Hills is born as well. Nevertheless, in this type of avatars, human dramas framed in stories that are actually innocuous, which feel harmless, loses the filmmaker all the effectiveness and forcefulness of which we know is possessor when he prints his suspense; but you must have patience and understanding, the genius was in the final moments of his training. The best was yet to come. A film not extraordinary, but that serves to continue studying and configuring a global understanding of the oeuvre of such referential filmmaker.
One of the exercises that carry less the stamp of its author, one of the less Hitchcockian films that has seen who writes, in which practically all the guidelines or main edges of his cinema are absent. No doubt it was the time when Hitchcock was still polishing and purifying his particular style, in search of his big subject, the suspense, more than one unusual picture produced during those years, being then the first talkies in which Hitchcock was discovering and experiencing. There are things that in the British never change, however, as is the circumstance of adapting literary works to the big screen, and this time the chosen work is authored by Dale Collins, adapted by the filmmaker himself, as he often did throughout his career. For this opportunity, prints the director one of the simplest stories that he ever did, when a marriage, sick and tired of his routine and daily existences, one good day receives an inheritance of a relative, an ideal way to escape from that suffocating reality; they embark on a cruise trip, but they will find themselves with more than one surprise on that trip. The film is far from the best exercises that the great englishman could produce, but for the avid of his cinema, at least one vision will demand.
The film places us in a factory, where Fred Hill (Henry Kendall) works, with many other, then he arrives at home with his wife, Emily (Joan Barry); in the behavior of Fred it is noticed some discomfort. While they talk about certain dissatisfactions in their lives, he suddenly receives a notification, a wealthy relative has given him an inheritance, a large amount of money to fulfill his dream of traveling around the world. Immediately they collect their new capital, and immediately begin to spend it, going to sumptuous shows, and then already making the long-awaited international trip on a luxurious cruise. They travel through the most exotic and attractive locations in the world, and soon Emily meets an individual, Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont), with whom adultery soon materializes, while Fred passes it dizzy in his cabin. Fred himself, when feeling better, also knows a female, who seems to be distinguished and of good lineage, a foreign Princess (Betty Amann), with whom, although going slow, finally also have an idyll. After experiencing each one disappointments in their adventures, and after almost sinking the cruise and being rescued by Chinese pirates, rediscover their love, they realize the genuineness of their feelings, and stay happily together the Hill marriage.
The person who knows only the masterpieces of the britanish, will find the works of this stage as unrecognizable, and certainly are atypical, the tone of the movie is noticed from the beginning, there is an almost total absence of his artistic norms, knowing what Hitch later produced. However, the picture is identifiable in this period of Hitchcock, in which they seems to have many other topics the English, it feels particularly close, in many, to Champagne (1928), with the obvious detail of the lavish cruiser, luxuries and the frivolities of the affluent class, their whims, lightheartedness, the situations that border the absurd, the themes that he had already approached in Skin Game (1931), where the aristocracy is portrayed, but from a more fatalistic perspective, always presenting, though, the human relations, his defects, his complexes; apparently it is a subject that attracted Hitchcock for those years, always setting a detail of moral teaching, as later would nottice and claim the great Truffaut. Is thus moralizing the movie, they looked outside for a satisfaction that end up discovering there was, between themselves. As well, it seems as if Hitch almost misses some elements of the silent cinema, as you can see in the various text frames that appear during the film, documenting the journey, their destinations, the stopovers they make in their long international journey. This way, it feels a flat feature, without breaking the linearity of the film, although certainly the story did not invite much to it, but Hitch in similar movies always managed to find, where there seemed not to be, opportunities to insert audiovisual experiments, something to which in the present work did not encouraged to do. Among the few visual adventures in the making of the picture, we see some overlaying of frames, to portray Fred's dizziness, but as said, are scarce, somewhat regrettable. Appreciable, yes, are some metaphors, the wife soon meets a gentleman, confessing some of their marriage difficulties, while Fred rests in his cabin, dizzy, as if the hardships of his life extend even on the high seas, as if he remained dizzy, with stupor of his life.
Likewise, as she falls into the charms of Commander Gordon, she also longs to free herself from her routine, in which she feels trapped, wants to be free from those chains that have her tied, like those chains that appear while they are looking for a location more suitable for his affair. Finally their love will triumph, although perhaps that happy outcome has obeyed more the canons of the time than the taste of Hitch himself, this because then was unthinkable and unacceptable that the pair would have finished broken, each with their respective lovers, with the false princess who walks coolly on the ship, even talking to Emily, with remarkable cynicism. We see that the film is a brief study of human relations, weariness, tediousness, boredom ahead an existence that absorbs, subjugates, eliminates with its routine the taste for living, where frustrations, passions, libidine are printed, but finally, true love that triumphs. We also appreciate the metaphor of sinking, for the sumptuous transatlantic, in spite of its luxury and security, sinks, like their adventure itself; it fails, as the ephemeral idylls they had; is false, like the artificial lineage of the princess; is extinguished, like the life of the Chinese drowned. But their union resurfaces, reborns, as the newborn son, their love grows, it is incredible that those last ten minutes contain so much, more than the rest of the film. And the element of the Chinese pirates is crucial, symbolically save the marriage from the falsehood of their initial and apparent happiness on the cruise, they, despite their astonishing coldness, letting drown impassively one of his comrades (with them, the Hills eat extravagant food with their hands), or attending evenly the birth of a baby, a new life is born, as a new existence for the Hills is born as well. Nevertheless, in this type of avatars, human dramas framed in stories that are actually innocuous, which feel harmless, loses the filmmaker all the effectiveness and forcefulness of which we know is possessor when he prints his suspense; but you must have patience and understanding, the genius was in the final moments of his training. The best was yet to come. A film not extraordinary, but that serves to continue studying and configuring a global understanding of the oeuvre of such referential filmmaker.
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