Old Film Review. Hitchcock Series: ‘The Pleasure Garden’ (1925)

photo edited by Laura Lai

by Laura Lai/Review 

Film’s Title: The Pleasure Garden

Lead Actors: Patsy (Virginia Valli), Jill (Carmelita Geraghty), Levet (Miles Mander), Hugh (John  Stewart)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Based on the novel The Pleasure Garden by Oliver Sandys

 

The Pleasure Garden is the first movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a silent movie and, theoretically, a black-and-white one, but this link provides a kind of tinted version of it.

            This movie is the story of a woman and of a man searching for and finding each other. Hugh (John Stewart) was initially the fiancé of Jill (Carmelita Geraghty) – a popular cabaret dancer. Jill’s friend, Patsy (Virginia Valli), rushed into marriage to Levet (Miles Mander) a work colleague of Hugh that she met through Jill and Hugh. Both men were detached by the company to an overseas plantation for a period of two years. It is during this time that Hugh read in the newspaper that Jill would marry somebody else and Patsy – making all the effort to come to this plantation – discovered that Levet was not the man she thought she married.

From an artistic point of view, Hitchcock chose to unfold the plot with both indoor and outdoor scenes – he found great spots to film both the plantation and the honeymoon of Patsy and Levet to Italy, without actually having traveled there. Furthermore, he made an interesting choice of characters when deciding on Virginia Valli and Carmelita Geraghty for the roles of Patsy and Jill, because these two friends look alike, but they have opposite behaviors, mentalities, and, consequently, opposite choices they make for life.

From a technical point of view, the movie is silent but appropriate music (composed and performed by Lee Erwin) accompanies the viewers all along the movie. Hitchcock succeeded in his first movie to catch on camera man's hypocrisy - on the one side, the desire in men’s eyes as spectators to this cabaret and, on the other side, men's arrogance toward women: 

‘Folks, I have a great artist here, who has never been on stage in her life but is sure she can show us how to dance’ – a humiliating line addressed to Patsy who was looking for a job at the cabaret where Jill was working. 

And speaking of lines, there is an original point to be stressed here. The slides with the characters’ lines that are typically for a silent movie were added an originality note by Alfred Hitchcock. Those at the beginning of the movie that introduces the characters, they also introduce the actor performing that role – which is something I have never seen in any other silent movie. 

My favorite scene is from the end of this 1-hour movie when Hugh is ‘brought in’ to save Patsy from the madness of her husband – an original way to bring in an ill man! In terms of characters, my favorite is Cuddle, the dog living with Patsy. For this role of the most intelligent of all characters, Hitchcock chose a lovely and playful stray dog. So playful that it also chewed cables in the last scene - a fun and brilliant choice made by the film director.

Enjoy the movie!

P.S.: See you in the next film review of this Hitchcock series! J

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