1. The Pleasure Garden (1925)

After toiling for a few years as an errand boy, title card designer and assistant director, Alfred Hitchcock was given his first directorial assignment of Oliver Sandys' (one of the many psuedonyms of Marguerite Florence Laura Jarvis) 1923 novel, The Pleasure Garden.

The plot concerns two dancers at the Pleasure Garden theater in London, Patsy (Virginia Valli) and Jill (Carmelita Geraghty) who share their trials and tribulations while trying to achieve happiness (Patsy's goal) and fame (Jill's reason for existing). Jill gains fame and male admiration (which complicates her relationship with her fiance Hugh (John Stuart)). Patsy falls for Hugh's partner at his tropical plantation Levet (Miles Mander, who makes you wonder what Patsy was thinking). Levet has to leave Patsy to return to the plantation, and to the waiting arms of his native lover. When Levet doesn't write, Patsy goes to him believing he's sick, only to find him drunk and enamored with the Polynesian lady friend. Levet kills his lover and then goes after Patsy when he thinks she's falling for the sick Hugh (jilted by Jill for a Russian prince). Levet nearly kills her, but Hugh sent police protection for Patsy and Levet dies before he can commit the deed, leaving Patsy and Hugh free to be married. A more detailed version of the plot is here it is courtesy of Wikipedia.

The copy floating around on Youtube runs slightly over 60 minutes In 2012 the British Film Institute (BFI) restored this (as well as all the other existing Hitchcock silents) to 80 minutes. As of the beginning of 2020, the restored BFI print has not been released on DVD/Blu-Ray or on a US streaming service (hint, hint Criterion or Kino). So not having a quarter of the film to judge does alter a definitive opinion for the movie.

The first thing would be that The Pleasure Garden is not exactly what I would think of when someone would ask me to talk about a Hitchcock film. The plot just feels too melodramatic (I have not read the original source novel but it is available on archive.org) and obviously lacks the suspense and craftiness seen by Hitchcock in his more renowned movies. However, in his directorial debut, one can not miss the touches of a master getting his feet wet.

Humor, one element found in many Hitchcock films (and often very subtle), makes it mark here. In the first few minutes we have a line of chorus girls followed by a shot of the male members of the audiences with happiness in the faces, while one we can see is having blurry vision, but then takes out his binoculars and his joy is evident. Obviously, the two female leads are what the film revolves around, but I think Hitch made a mistake in casting two brunettes providing not much contrast between the two. One great scene that Hitchcock would duplicate either visually or with sound occurs when Patsy waves goodbye to Levet and the shot of her waving her handkerchief dissolves into the similar cloth the native girl is waving to welcome Levet. While not completely original in 1925, it does provide an excellent bridge between scenes that a clever filmmaker would use.

The film's producer, Michael Balcon, told Hitchcock that the Pleasure Garden looked more like an American picture rather than a continental one. I feel this is true, but at best it's probably only an average film only shown because of it being Hitchcock's debut. Once again, I can only assume the missing 20 minutes might give more character detail and a more cohesive plot, but still I think its only oridnary to begin with.