Customer Reviews

Easy Virtue

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Noel Coward wrote EASY VIRTUE, his 16th play, at age 25. It ran on Broadway for 147 performances between Dec. 1925 and April '26, then went in London. As originally presented, this was a three act melodrama with a few witty dashes.

Alfred Hitchcock kept the original outline but darkened the story. He eliminated all but two lines of the play script. The movie opens with Larita's divorce trial, a suit brought by her brutish husband after Larita's lover commits suicide. The jury finds for the plaintiff. She leaves for the south of France and meets the man who will be her second husband.

Larita's in-laws resent her from the beginning. They treat her like a dog privately but put on phony happy faces for their friends. The mother-in-law is particularly caustic and she turns her son against his wife. When news clippings of the sensational trial surface, he scorns Larita and the story ends with a divorce notice after she leaves the family's country estate.


Long believed lost, a copy of "Easy Virtue" turned up in the 1970s. It's interesting primarily in reference to Hitchcock's body of work, especially his pre-Hollywood films. Although evidence of the director's future style is everywhere, acting in this silent film is hammy, especially from leading lady Miss Jeans. Two versions exist: this 79 minute one and an 89 minute restoration. (Director cameo: Hitch ambles past the tennis court with a walking stick.)


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.8) Easy Virtue (UK-1927) - Isabel Jeans/Franklin Dyall/Eric Bransby Williams/Ian Hunter/Robin Irvine/Violet Farebrother/Frank Elliott/Darcia Deane/Dorothy Doyd/Enid Stamp-Taylor

This is a very early Hitchcock film. It is a silent film with all the hallmarks of the genre. The male stars wear lip stick. The film only reveals part of what the people say. The camera dwells on the faces of the actors overlong. Nevertheless, it is fun to see how movies have developed since that age.

The story is about a woman who is found guilty of having an affair while married. The trial was famous and the woman ran to France to escape from people. There she meets a man. The two fall in love. She fails to tell him about her past. When he takes her home, his family is shocked because they know who she is.

Actually, this 1927 Alfred Hitchcock version of Noel Coward's play is close to the book but annoying having to keep up with the screen cards. They do not look like they match the verbiage. In addition, this version is much darker than the newer film version. I suggest you read the play first.

We start with the trial and flash back to where a woman (Isabel Jeans) hides her sordid past from her new husband and family.

We learn what easy virtue really means.

A fun sideline is trying to figure out where you have seen the actors before.

Easy virtue,: A play in three acts

Easy Virtue [Blu-ray] ~ Jessica Biel

Based on a play by Noel Coward, EASY VIRTUE is a silent movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film follows Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans). Larita is accused by her husband of having an affair with an artist hired to paint pictures of Larita. Ultimately Larita rejects the artist in favor of her husband. However, the artist kills himself and her husband seeks a divorce.

Rejected and despised, Larita takes a new identity and leaves England. She moves to France and meets a charming rich young man named John Whittaker (Robin Irvine). The couple fall in love and John seeks to marry Larita. However, even though Larita is completely charming and pleasant, John's family, particular his mother (Violet Farebrother) despise Larita. She seems to think Larita is a girl with easy virtue and seeks out to unravel the shadows of Larita's past.

I typically enjoy watching silent films and I love watching Alfred Hitchcock's movies. However, I have to admit that I had a difficult time watching EASY VIRTUE. The film is well acted and directed and some of the set pieces are fantastic. However, for me the movie just seemed a bit long and the story wasn't interesting enough. Perhaps part of this is because I am unable to figure out why everyone was so harsh to Larita. I really felt sorry for her; if she were a real life figure today, she would not be ostracized and would probably be a celebrity with several million dollars in endorsement deals and a starring role in a movie. I realize that was probably part of Coward's intention in writing the play, but the satire is lost in the silent film.

Therefore, even though this is a Hitchcock picture and has some nice moments to it, it's just slightly better than an average silent movie. Three and a half stars.

Oh, and be sure to look for Hitchcock's cameo in the film. He shows up on the tennis courts in France passing by with a walking stick.

I have to admit that I toyed between rating this movie a "3 star" or a "4 star" and I deferred to 3 star. I've seen too many movies over-rated and I must admit that there were times I wondered how much longer this movie would go on. I never did get any actual time on the movie but it seemed to run about 2 hours (I took time out from the DVD for dinner so I didn't have a good read on the time). I thought the movie was a bit long but, on the other hand, it seemed to me to be well put together. It is a morality play written by Noel Coward. It tells of a society lady who goes through a scandalous (by the English standards of the times) divorce. The noteriety she receives from the press causes her to leave for the south of France. There she meets a young(er?) English man and they fall in love. They return home to his parents remote rural estate. Father-in-law is impressed but mother-in-law is definitely not and she isn't afraid to let her son (as well as the rest of the world within earshot) know it. Life is tough for our lady of the "easy virtue but I won't elaborate further. The script, directing and the acting are well-done.

For the record, this is a silent movie which delivers some challenges to viewers not accustomed to these early films. I have generally appreciated the special talent that goes into making a good silent movie. The interruptions for titles need to be kept to a minimum or else we spend more time reading than watching (and that might give us ideas). In "Easy Virtue" the titles were surprizingly few yet always helpful when they appeared. The credit for this, I believe, can be shared by actors and director alike. The acting is very good in "Easy Virtue". The names are not familiar but the talent seems like it came from the English stage. Hitchcock deserves accolades for focussing on expressions of emotion that tell most of the story as we go along. There are also some uniquely Hitchcockian touches the best of which happened when the young Englishman was asking our heroine for her hand in marriage. She told him that she would think it over and call him that night with her answer. We see the scene where the young man is pacing and looking at the clock and then we see an operator putting through the call and listening in on the conversation. As the camera stays with the operator, it is through her varied emotional reactions we know just whose call it was and the exact moment she said "Yes".

I was a bit surprized at the sets. They went from the south of France to an impressive country estate to an indoor scene where mother-in-law walks into the room from a backdrop so cheaply two-dimensional that I could have probably drawn it better myself. The picture is understandably faded a bit but not enough to interfere with our viewing. All in all, a professional production that merely lacked a storyline strong enough to maintain our attention for the full time it ran. The more I write about it, however, the more I'm inclined to change my rating from 3 to 4 stars. I guess I better quit before I do.

What a stunning film! Silent films were really a truly different art form than films we see today. It amazes me that they are able to convey the story with so little dialog on screen. Far more pronounced gesticulations in some cases and longer, lingering cameos but also more nuanced in a way. I love that this 1928 film doesn't really have costumes - just people wearing clothes of that era. I've been scanning in piles of family photos from the 1920s of my grandmother in her late teens/early 20s and its pretty amazing to see all the same sorts of dresses, hair styles and hats and the way that they move

Format: Movie
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Distributor: Sono Art-World Wide Pictures
Release Date: March 5, 1928

Easy Virtue is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films. It follows Larita Filton who at first is married to a drunk but starts to fall for a painter. When they get filed for divorce her husband brings her to court for adultery, believing that she was cheating on him with the painter. She eventually goes to France and marries a man named John Whittaker but she also attempts to hide her past from him. But when John's family starts to find out a few things about Larita's past her relationship with her new husband starts to become strained. Does her relationship survive? So basically I find it a very interesting and entertaining plot which keeps the viewer entertained all the way until the end where the film seems to end very abruptly. This makes me wish that the film had a little bit better closure and had gone on for just a little bit longer.

All of the actors in the movie do a great job with Isabel Jeans playing Larita with true excellence. She seems to act very naturally instead of the typical exaggerated expressions that you see in most silent films. John's disapproving and unhappy mother is played very well by Violet Farebrother who gets her anger and disapproval across very well. Robin Irvine manages to do a nearly perfect job as John so basically all of the actors are great including minor ones.

Each and every one of the sets in this film are great and the only noteworthy special effects shot, a man firing a gun, is done very well for the time. The soundtrack for the film fits it very well even if some of it has already been used in earlier Hitchcock films.

This is a movie that really caught me off guard with its high level of quality and entertainment value. The plot is based off of a 1925 play and it ends up working very well here in the movie, the film is a pretty good length although it could have used a little bit more footage at the end, the acting is stupendous, the music is great and fits the movie well, and finally the special effects are great. So this is an excellent film from the silent era and a classic that should be watched and enjoyed by everyone.
Score: 9/10