Easy Virtue 1928

     This film is adapted from a play written by Noel Coward.  Larita Filton is named as correspondent in a scandalous divorce case.  She flees to France to rebuild her life and she meets John Whittaker.  Later they are married but John's well-to-do family finds out Larita has a secret?  This is one of Hitchcock's earliest films.  It is a silent film, so if you do not enjoy silent films I would give this a pass. 

     Supposedly, Larita is a notorious woman and she is blamed for her lover’s suicide plus she is divorced by her husband.  She falls in love, marries and everything is fine until they return to England.  She meets the new in-laws and her mother-in-law takes an instant dislike Larita.  When all the juicy  details come out, it doesn’t help Larita’s status or situation!!  There is a remake of this film from 2009 with Ben Barnes and Jessica Biel.  

80 min Romance directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Noel Coward and Eliot Stannard with Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyhall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter, Robin Irvine, Violet Farebrother, Frank Elliott, Dacia Deane, Dorothy Boyd, Enid Stamp-Taylor.

Note:  Imdb 5.7* out of 10* with 2544 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 67% with 9 critic reviews 26% audience scores with 500+ ratings, Amazon 3.9* out of 5* with 19 ratings, Letterboxd 2.6* out of 5*.

Special Note:  The play opened in London and New York City in 1925.  The New York City production began on December 7, 1925 and had 147 performances with Jane Cowl as Larita, Robert Harris as John and Halliwell Hobbes as Colonel Whittak.  For their advertisements at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival sponsor McRoskey Mattress Company used the distinctive photo from this movie of Isabel Jeans in bed with her arms raised.

Mistakes:  While sitting with Larita after she is hit with the tennis ball, John's sitting position changes between shots.  When Larita's hurt face is being tended to by a nurse, Larita's hand jumps from being in her lap to near her face between shots.  John's distance from Larita changes dramatically after she finishes shaking her cocktail at the other table then suddenly is next to Larita's table?  When Sarah and Larita first meet, John stands in between them.  But in the next shot he is shown on the far left of the women?