Hitchcock and Horne, London Film Festival - The Manxman (1929)

This was the final restoration premier for the Hitchcock Nine and the BFI series went out with a bang... a piano, fiddle, oboe and two harps! Presented as the London Film Festival‘s archive gala, the screening took place at the Empire Leicester Square, a former music hall where the Lumière brothers staged the first commercial projected film shows in 1896.

Now it’s one of the cinemas of choice for blockbusting premiers so, there could be no bigger or better venue for the culmination of the BFI Hitchcock project.

The Manxman was Hitchcock’s last purely silent film (Blackmail was made in both formats… although it’s better as a silent in my opinion) and as Robin Baker, the BFI’s Head Curator, said in his introduction, showed the director’s mastery of the form.

Malcolm Keen and Carl Brisson

The restoration team had the benefit of the original negatives amongst others and their thousands of hours of labour showed in yet another crisp print projected into the Empire’s huge screen. The restoration process has been painstaking and as Baker said, it has taken longer to restore than films than Hitchcock took to make them.

And, what can you say about the new score from Stephen Horne? Having blown us all away with his music for The First Born at last year’s archive gala, he repeated the trick this year… adding appropriately Celtic touches to reflect the dramatic landscapes of the Isle of Man.

Randie Ayrton confronts Carl Brisson

Inventive, controlled and passionate the music was performed by Stephen with an expert ensemble made up of Jennifer Bennett (fiddle/viola), Joby Burgess (percussion), Janey Miller (Oboe and the aptly-named Oboe d’Amore) and Ruth Wall (Lever Harp/Wire Harp and a passing resemblance to Anny Ondra...).

This was the fifth of the nine restored Hitchcocks I have seen and whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed the new music placed against the other films, Horne’s score was the most sympathetic. This is very much Stephen’s “day job” and it really showed as his music offered gentle support to the story, anticipating mood changes and helping the viewer interpret the meaning and feeling. He’s spent decades dueting with the directors of silent film and so his mastery of collaboration-after-the-fact should come as no surprise.

Here his music played a major part in turning this event onto a memorable occasion, making the very best of a film of great visual flair but low-level dramatic impact.

The boys argue over who buys the next round...

The Manxman was based on a highly-successful 1894 novel from Manxman, Hall Caine and dealt with social norms of the Isle of Man a semi-autonomous island that even in the twenties was still mildly out of step with mainland Britain (even now…?). The social pressures on the main protagonists would have been a curiosity then and they certainly are now. The characters’ motivations therefore seem obscure and fathomless… which is where the music comes in helping to fill the cognitive gaps and anchor the heartbreak in terms we can better understand.

The story is a love triangle based in a small fishing port where a poor fisherman, Pete Quilliam (Carl Brisson) is best friends with a lawyer, Philip Christian (Malcolm Keen). The two men, from different ends of the social scale, are as close as brothers and pursue the same causes with Philip helping the fishermen fight for their rights.

But they also have other interest at heart. Pete is in love with Kate (Anny Ondra) the daughter of the local pub landlord and so, we soon discover, is Philip.  But when her father, Old Caesar (Randie Ayrton wearing two impressive earrings), rejects the fisherman as not being worthy he pledges to make his fortune overseas and return to marry Kate.

Dad watches Kate as she weighs up the options...

She pledges to wait for him and he asks Philip to watch over her. Pete leaves and via clever use of Kate’s diary, Hitchcock shows the developing feelings between her and Pete’s best mate… out of sight, out of mind.

Pete is reportedly killed and the two are free to pursue their affair but her returns unharmed and enriched, to claim his bride. Philip will not stand in his buddy’s way and, with his career on the rise, has other issues of standing to consider.

Pete marries Kate but they are doomed to unhappiness even after the birth of a baby… Will true love out or will society force them to persist in their sad compromise?

It’s a slow-paced film but Hitchcock puts as much emotional spin on things as he can but this sometimes means that the actors seem to be over-reaching. All three are very skilled but I struggled to view Malcolm Keen as genuine romantic competition to Carl Brisson (sorry mate!) – he is very expressive but hasn’t got leading man good looks. Besides, Anny Ondry can’t hide her earthy qualities and you instinctively feel that she’d be better off with the swarthy Dane.

Hitchcock’s camera spends a lot of time on Miss Ondry and you can understand why he chose her for Blackmail, she… radiates!

Can you spot Anny in this picture?

Also stunning is the north Cornwall scenery that stands in for the Isle of Man, you can see the director really enjoying himself with some shamelessly gratuitous shots of the cliff sides, forests and brooding  skies…usually with Anny skipping across them!

I shall really miss the Hitchcock premiers but these films will run and run. Robin Baker said that The Pleasure Garden had recently been shown to a crowd of 6,000 on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro… now there’s a great venue for silent film!

The Manxman is currently available as part of the Silent Hitchcock collection but, as I’ve said before, it’s worth waiting until the restored version is made available, hopefully complete with Mr Horne’s superlative score. The BFI are working on it…

There she is!

The Ring (1927) with Soweto Kinch, Hackney Empire, London

Lilian Hall Davis and Carl Brisson

This extraordinary event was the third in the BFI’s season of restored Hitchcock silent films and it’s going to be hard to better. A packed audience in the Hackney Empire -one of London's finest Victorian theatres - witnessed the rebirth of The Ring with a thrilling new jazz score from the Soweto Kinch Sextet.

I’m not sure whether it’s a stylistic thing or whether British films just feel closer to me as a native, but The Ring offers a grittier, more prosaic contrast to many Hollywood films, with characterful – ordinary - English faces and much imperfect dental work on display. The world of The Ring doesn't feel so far away.

English folk at the fair...

The fact that we were in Hackney, a stone's thrown from Alfred Hitchcock’s home turf helped in this reconnection. It’s a vibrant place with a rich cultural mix - earthy as well as intellectual - the perfect setting for this pugilistic tale.

The evening was introduced by representatives of the BFI who explained the restoration work performed on what was nearly a lost film. The team had to work with severely warped and deteriorated stock and also to painstakingly recreate the inter-titles. The result is a stunningly clear new print that was all the more impressive on the big screen. Most of the screen shots here are from previous versions and they bear no relation to the new version – there are a few shots from that which highlight the massive improvement.

Carl Brisson, Lilian Hall Davis and Ian Hunter

The BFI gave us a questionnaire to complete before and after the film and one of the questions was whether we enjoyed the film or the music the most. This was impossible to answer as the score from Soweto Kinch and his sextet infused the film with life and new feeling as well as embellishing the existing narrative… A new experience based in equal parts on both elements.

This exuberant groove was mixed with older sensibilities to create a thoroughly modern mood – Hackney past and present collapsed into one exhilarating mix.

Cutting a rug...

As for the film, it was one of three that Hitchcock made in 1927 and is the only one he directed from his own script.  It is very well made with directorial influence from expressionist cinema as well as Gance and Epstein (shots in the fair are similar to Cœur Fidèle, with the camera strapped into a ride as lovers are thrown about). Hitchcock was intent on showing interior dialogue and feeling as well as external action.

The opening sequence is probably the best in the film, directed with a sure hand throughout and showing the excitable chaos of the fairground. Here we find 'One-Round' Jack Sander (lissom Carl Brisson) who takes on all-comers and easily beats them.

He operates from one of the tents from which the exuberant Showman (Harry Terry) calls out to the public to try their hand as his trainer (Gordon Harker) holds up the placard proclaiming his ability to knock out opponents in “One Round”.

Lilian Hall Davis

There’s a pretty girl selling the tickets, Mabel (Lilian Hall Davis), who looks on bored… Her eye catches that of a tall man in a bowler hat and he comes over to chat. He is Bob Corby (Ian Hunter) who, unknown to all, is the Heavyweight Champion of Australia.

Accompanied by his manager/promoter James Ware (Forrester Harvey) the two enter the tent to watch Jack in action. Here the action is expertly mixed with the reaction of the audience. Hitchcock marshals a cast of extras who are striking in their ordinariness… men build up the courage to get in the ring but all are easily and comically despatched.

Ian Hunter

Bob climbs into the ring and suddenly things change and we see him and Jack trade blows of equal skill and force. Bob wins and Jack faces the consequences of the end of his act. Yet Bob wants him for his sparring partner and his manager sees potential in this new find.

Manel and Jack have been saving up to get married and this new career offers them the chance to realise this dream…yet Bob has taken a shine to the girl and makes advances from the outset, buying her a bracelet with his winnings. This becomes the symbol of their relationship as well as a ring that mirrors the boxing ring and the marriage ring.The ring represents conflict as well as binding love; it always means that you have to fight to win out.

Jack wins his first professional bout and marries the girl on the proceeds. There’s a great scene as the fairground freaks arrive for the wedding and then a marvellous wedding party at which Jack’s trainer gets so drunk his viewpoint is shown as blurred and distorted…we’ve all been there.

Bob has lost the initial round for the girl but Jack will need to be wary and to meet his adversary on equal terms if he is to keep his love.

In parallel we are shown the development of Jack’s boxing career, as he moves higher up the billings, whilst at the same time his wife is being wooed by Bob and taking part in London’s unrelenting nightlife. There are some great party sequences which worked spectacularly well with Kinch’s music: making us want to dive off to the nearby Vortex club for some after-show freestyle Charleston!

Gordon Harker and Carl Brisson

The closer Jack gets to boxing success though, the more it seems his wife is off gallivanting… he earns the right to challenge Bob for the British title but his wife leaves him and is seemingly on his opponent's side: has it all been in vain, can Jack win the fight and win back his wife?

Carl Brisson and Lilian Hall Davis

Needless to say, Hitchcock handles the finale with panache, staging the fight in the Royal Albert Hall (or what he makes look like the RAH) with much tension between the three main characters. It’s one of the first films to use a boxing match as the dramatic centre and, whilst we have become used to this over the years, the denouement is no less exciting for this. Again the score worked superbly well by building up the beat alongside the contest and ensuring that the primal reaction to watching a fight left us all shuffling in our seats!

Carl Brisson had been an amateur boxer and his moves are sure footed against the heavier Ian Hunter. Both act well and strikingly, Hunter’s character isn’t really a “baddie” just a rounded human being looking for the right girl.

Lilian Hall Davis

That girl is exceptionally well played by Lilian Hall Davis who gives a subtle and believable portrait of someone caught between two destinies. She kept on reminding me of Kiera Knightley for some reason – similar features – and is the main face of the film. She is superbly naturalistic and doesn’t overplay some of the overt symbolism.

She was also to feature in Hitchcock's The Farmer's Wife (1928) but died tragically young. There are details on the BFI website.

The Ring is available in so-so quality on DVD and also on the Internet Archive but for the real deal best wait for the restored edition whenever it comes... it'll be worth the wait.

Details of Soweto Kinch are on his website from which you can download his latest album  The New Emancipation.