The Cool Channel DVD Review: Easy Virtue Posted by J.D. Dunn on 06.22.2006
This will be what Paris Hilton's life is like one day.
Easy Virtue (1928)
D:Alfred Hitchcock W:Eliot Stannard, from a play by Noel Coward Starring:Isabelle Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Robert Irvine, Eric Bransby Williams and Violet Farebrother MPAA: NR Runtime: 79m.
The Film:
Scandal! It's something that fuels western societies' popular culture, especially if those societies have a wide gap in their social classes. Americans have always had their celebrity scandals from Elizabeth Taylor on through Paris Hilton. The British love to follow the latest ins and outs with their royal family. Even the word "paparazzi" was invented by Italians, so there is no doubt that this phenomenon is confined to just one country or culture. We love to be in each other's business.
It should come as no surprise then when our fascination with celebrity and scandal becomes fodder for entertainment. Alfred Hitchcock's "Easy Virtue" is certainly not his best work. In fact, it's not a project he chose for himself. The studio assigned it to him, and he does an admirable if uninspired job with the material. It's odd because you would think Hitchcock and dry-witted playwright Noel Coward would make natural collaborators.
"It should come as no surprise when our fascination with celebrity and scandal becomes fodder for entertainment."
Isabel Jeans stars as Larita Filton, a beautiful young model married to a rich, abusive husband (Dyall). He drinks and is prone to jealous raves, but in the days of post-Victorian England, she is left with little recourse. Without proof, she has no grounds for divorce.
She takes to modeling for a young artist friend (Williams), and that's where the scandal begins. The artist grows quite fond of her, and she of him (albeit in a more platonic way). Her husband's jealousy grows, leading to a violent incident between the artist and her husband.
When her husband demands a divorce, Larita finds herself (like many Hitchcock leads) as a victim of circumstantial evidence. No one will believe that she and the artist were just friends. The artist, after all, pitied her and asked her to leave her husband, even going so far as an offer to take her in. "Do you wish the jury to believe that the co-respondent never kissed you?" asks Mr. Filton's attorney. While they can't prove that she kissed the artist, she certainly can't prove that she didn't. The most damning piece of evidence comes in the artist's will, which leaves a staggering amount of money to Larita each month.
Needless to say, the jury finds Larita guilty of misconduct and grants her husband a divorce free of fault on his part. Stigmatized by her past, Larita leaves England for the south of France where no one knows her. There, she meets John Whitaker (Irvine), a rich, handsome Englishman. He falls madly in love with her and asks her to marry him.
The proposal scene is beautiful rendered. Instead of showing the two lovers hemming and hawing around the question of marriage, Hitchcock shows the reaction of the operator who connected their call as she listens in. The operator goes through such a range of emotions that we get the idea of the back and forth that is occurring.
John takes her back to England to meet his family, and therein lies the tragedy of lovers. John's mother (Farebrother) takes an immediate dislike to Larita. Although no one knows of her past life here, Mrs. Whitaker certainly suspects something about her and seeks to ruin the marriage from day one. She even invites his former girlfriend Sarah (Enid Stamp Taylor) to their homecoming dinner and sits her in between the newlyweds.
"Many critics would call Mrs. Whitaker a template for future Hitchcockian domineering mother figures such as Anna Sebastian, Mrs. Danvers and, of course, Mrs. Bates. It's not off-base, but it does oversimplify Hitchcock's view of motherhood."
Mrs. Whitaker's hatred and mistrust of her daughter-in-law drives a wedge in between the couple. So weak-willed is John that he allows himself to be manipulated by his mother's suspicions. John's father (Frank Elliott) is kindly, but also weak and ineffectual against Mrs. Whitaker's will.
John begins to think the marriage was a mistake, but Sarah, of all people, plays peacemaker between them. Of course, the Whitaker's find out about Larita's past and realize what a scandal she's brought down upon them.
Mothers
Many critics would call Mrs. Whitaker a template for future Hitchcockian domineering mother figures such as Anna Sebastian, Mrs. Danvers and, of course, Mrs. Bates. It's not off-base, but it does oversimplify Hitchcock's view of motherhood. For every Madame Sebastian, there is an Emma Newton, and for every sinister Mrs. Danvers, there is a doting Stella.
But the mother figures that dominate Hitchcock tend to boil down to the malignantly dominating or the blithely ignorant with very little middle ground. Certainly, Hitchcock is setting up the controlling mother paradigm that he would later revisit with Sebastian and Danvers. One can even see similarities in the shots between the introduction of Mrs. Whitaker and Danvers. Both women stare accusingly into the camera (representing the point-of-view of the heroine).
While "Easy Virtue" fails on many accounts, it does unearth a goldmine of Freudian conflict that Hitchcock would mine again in "Rebecca," "Notorious," and "Marnie."
Failures
While no Hitchcock film is all bad, there are cases where he simply decided to mail it in. This is one of them. Many of the scenes bear Hitchcock's directorial touches. The courtroom scene is one, the aforementioned proposal scene, and Larita's introduction to the family. Many of them ring emotionally hollow, though. Very little is added to the courtroom scene by the judge watching through his looking glass. The shot is just there for Hitchcock to say, "Look what I can do." Rarely is Hitchcock so self-indulgent as to ignore story in favor of great shots.
Part of the problem comes in Larita herself. There's nothing particularly appealing about her. She vacillates between pouting and scowling while going through cigarette after cigarette in virtually every scene. She may have been done wrong early in the film, but her actions after the trial leave little to cheer for. John isn't much better. He's a mere cardboard cut out, lacking the complexity for the audience to care about his manipulation. The film's lone successful character is Sarah who plays another of Hitchcock's roles — that of the idealized, doting friend. She may be in love with John, but she treasures the concept of Love more than her own selfish desires.
Video
Apparently, Hypercube has restored the film quite nicely (and it runs an extra 10 minutes in that version). The Laserlight version still contains a high amount of grain and scratches. If you go looking for the film, definitely consider the Hypercube version over this one.
Audio
In addition to restoring the film, Hypercube also commissioned a new recording of the score. The Laserlight version score is fine, but I'm not sure that it's the one that was intended to match the film.
The 411: Even when Hitchcock dogs it, he still brings a certain energy to a film. I can't recommend "Easy Virtue" on its own merits, but for Hitchcock connoisseurs, it serves as a precursor to later, much better, films like "Rebecca" and "Marnie." It may be worth it just to check out the evolution of those themes. C
