Hitchcock's last project he filmed for Gainsborough Pictures (before joining British International Pictures) is a loose adaptation of Noel Coward's 1924 play of the same name. Gainsborough wanted to capitalize on the play's success by rushing the movie into production just as Hitchcock finished filming Downhill, so many of the cast of that film (Isabel Jeans, Ian Hunter and Violet Farebrother) were selected for Easy Virtue.
The movie focuses on Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) who at the beginning of the film is in court for a divorce case where her drunken husband beat an artist to death, who was smitten with Larita. She loses the case because of her attractiveness and the fact the artist left his "fortune" to Larita. She decides to move on to the French Riviera to avoid the scandal of the trial. She meets a young man John Whittaker (Robin Irvine) who immediately falls for her and wants to marry her. Larita insists that he take his time and get to know her, but John is insistent and he brings her home to his family. John's mother (Violet Farebrother) takes an immediate dislike to her saying she's not right for her son, but what will happen when she finds out Larita's past?
The movie is a real let down mainly because the overall plot from the play doesn't date well. (Larita's back story is not featured in the Coward play which begins from the point where John brings Larita home). There is some creativity in the edits early in the film with Hitchcock focusing on an object before dissolving into a flashback, but it does appear tiresome after the 4th time we see this. The latter half of the movie doesn't offer much to keep the viewer interested, perhaps until Jeans makes her appearance at the party, which is a great scene.
The standout scene in the film (and one that Hitchcock was more than glad to describe to Francois Truffaut) was when John proposes to Larita over the telephone and we are only conveyed this message by watching the expressions of the switchboard operator (played by Benita Hume) as the conversation progresses. I think this scene wouldn't haven't been as effective if it were in a sound film.
Hitchcock also liked one of the opening scenes in the film where the judge in the case focuses his monocle on the plaintiff's lawyer and focusing in on him in an uninterrupted take. However it did seem that Hitchcock was dismissive of the movie (also saying the last title card in the film was the worst he had ever written) and critics were in agreement. The Manchester Guardian said despite its cleverness it's not a good film and Bioscope said that the play was not something that translated to the screen well, even though the critic did praise Isabel Jeans performance (which I will have to say was well done, as was Farebrother's).
Reportedly Hitchcock made his trademark cameo as a passerby in the tennis courts around 20 minutes into the film, but the British Film Institute has cast some doubt on that.
in 2012, the British Film Institute began a project on restoring all of Hitchcock's existing silent films. Easy Virtue was the hardest task considering the movie was lost until a discovery in Australia in the 1970's and all that print is incomplete. The movie is in the public domain so it can be viewed on many streaming and online video sites, as well as can be released on DVD by any one who wants to, but beware the quality.
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