Yorkshire Post (17/May/1927) - The Cinema World

Details

• article: The Cinema World
• newspaper: Yorkshire Post (17/May/1927)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Downhill (1927), Gainsborough Pictures, Ivor Novello, River Thames, London, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

Article

The Cinema World

Surrey versus California.

A large number of other British films are now in the making, twice as many at least, 1 should think, as there were a year ago, and most of them have sound backing and are employing the best talent they can find — a welcome advance on the "fit-up" methods of a year or two back. I hear good accounts of Mr. Archibald Nettle fold's "A Daughter in Revolt," in spite of the hackneyed sound of its title, and "Downhill," which Mr. Alfred Hitchcock recently finished for Gainsborough, with Ivor Novello in the chief part, is said to be a worthy successor to "The Lodger," which definitely marked a turning point in

British film technique.

"A Daughter in Revolt has been made at Walton-on-Thames, and Mr. Nettlefold is enthusiastic over the scenic resources of the district, which, he claims, "surpass in national advantages anything Hollywood can show." Certain exterior scenes were allowed to be taken at a near-by country mansion offering a remarkably wide choice of architectural background. Most of the house itself was built in the time of Henry VIII.: it has an Italian Renaissance porch, old English and Italian gardens, Elizabethan bowers, and a "priest's hole" added during the reign of Queen Mary.

Along the Thames itself there are beaches of sand and shingle quite close to Walton. There are flora of all climates at Kew, historical settings at Hampton Court, water-front scenes at Richmond, deer in Richmond Park, old thatched cottages on the river shore, caves and quarries at Dorking. Only the Caliornian sunshine seems to be missing, and with modern photographic resources a director cares very little for its absence. In fact, the variety of an English sky has nowadays many advantages over Hollywood's unaltered blue.