Easy Virtue (1927) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron prepare for scandal as they discuss Easy Virtue.

Written by: 

Adapted from the play by Noël Coward

Scenario by Eliot Stannard

Starring: Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter, Robin Irvine, Violet Farebrother, Frank Elliott, Dacia Deane, Dorothy Boyd, Enid Stamp-Taylor

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Watch the Picture (free on YouTube):

Our Favourite Trivia:

Director Cameo: Walking past a tennis court carrying a walking stick. Although it has been widely accepted that this is Hitchcock’s cameo appearance in the film, the British Film Institute has cast doubt on it, stating “on close inspection it does not appear to be him”.

Filming began at the Islington Studios on Easy Virtue before the final scenes of Downhill had been shot, as Gainsborough were keen to rush the film into cinemas to capitalise on the popularity of Coward’s play.

In late March, cast and crew travelled to film footage in the French Riviera and in Nice.  Ivor Novello came along as well, in order to complete his Downhill scenes, which were filmed on the rooftop of a French hotel.

For the initial courtroom scene, Hitchcock pulled off another one of his trademark in-camera special effects when the judge peers through his monocle at the plaintiff’s counsel: “I had to make the monocle oversized so it would be in focus at close range. Then I put a mirror in it instead of clear glass, and put the attorney character behind the camera, with a double for him in the long shot. And so, when the monocle came up the camera, you saw the man in close-up, without a cut.” 

When Hitchcock discussed the film with François Truffaut, he talked about two scenes in particular. Firstly, he expressed pride in the scene where the audience learns of the outcome of John Whittaker’s proposal of marriage to Larita Filton via the facial expressions of a telephone operator (played by Benita Hume). Secondly, he expressed his dislike of the film’s final witty intertitle card — “Shoot! There’s nothing left to kill.” — by calling it “the worst title I’ve ever written.”

The image of Isabel Jeans in bed, with her arms raised, was used in advertisements during the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, for sponsor McRoskey Mattress Company.

At the end of 2023, Easy Virtue will enter the public domain in the United States but only in its non-restored, scoreless form. It will remain copyrighted in the rest of the world until the end of 2050.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing Marnie (1964)

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