Downhill (1927) review

School pals Roddy (Ivor Novello) and Tim (Robin Irvine) have been chumming around with shop girl Mabel (Annette Benson), but when she gets pregnant she blames Roddy (even though Tim actually did it), he is expelled from school, his parents don't believe he's innocent and he leaves home, makes the grievous mistake of marrying an actress (Isabel Jeans) and eventually winds up as a gigolo (for less-than-attractive women).  As one of Hitch's silent-era pictures, it isn't really discussed all that much - in his conversation with François Truffaut, he said he thought the play it was based on was "poor" and the dialogue (what there is of it) is "dreadful," and I can't say I disagree: it's also glacially paced, so even the most basic plot point is just dragged out.  For fans of his work, there are some interesting visual effects - particularly with the Parisian dance hall sequence which was inspired by the German filmmakers - and it's only one of two times (the other being The Lodger, also in '27) that The Master worked with composer Novello, who's so famous in the United Kingdom he has an actual award named after him.