Alfred Hitchcock's first movie for producer Michael Balcon, does not have Hitch in the director chair. However, Hitch had more than a small hand in this film. For this movie, The Master worked as a screenwriter, an assistant director and the film's art director. When Francios Truffaut asked if Hitch was the assistant director on this film, Hitch responded, "More than that! My friend the art director was unable to work on the picture. I volunteered to work as art director. So, I did all this and also helped on the production. My future wife Alma Reville was the editor of the picture as well as the script girl. In those days the script girl and the editor were one and the same person. Today the script girl keeps too many books, as you know. She's a real bookkeeper. It was while working on that picture that I first meet my wife. Then I performed these various functions for several other films. The second was The Passionate Adventure, the third was The Blackguard. And then there was The Prude's Fall." He also remembered, "Woman to Woman was the best of the lot and the most successful."
The storyline of this film begins when David Compton (Clive Brook) leaves his pregnant girlfriend, Louise Boucher (Betty Compson), to join the war. During the war he loses his memory. After the war he gets married and starts a life in London. Meanwhile she, now a single mother, thinks he is dead. She becomes a famous dancer; however, she falls incredibly ill and knows she won't live much longer. One night David is at one of Louise's performances and this causes him to regain his memory. Learning that David is married, she leaves her son in the care of him and his wife (Josephine Earle). The main writer for this film was Michael Morton, who also wrote the play that this was adapted from.
The actual director of this film was Graham Cutts, who was just beginning his career at this time. He had however previously directed Mae Marsh in Flames of Passion (1922) and Paddy the Next Best Thing (1922). With these movies he helped revitalize Marsh's career at a low point. Marsh is of course a much better-known name by film buffs with a filmography that includes such well known movies as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Great Guns (1941), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and many more. Graham Cutts however is a figure in film history that deserves more attention. He cofounded the prestigious British movie studio, Gainsborough Films and helped guide the career of Ivor Novello, a major British star of the period. He was also considered to be one of the finest British directors of his time and his movies commanded equal respect from audiences and critics. It is a shame that he is almost completely forgotten today.
Graham Cutts was also a director who knew the value of costume design. The costumes for this film were made by Dolly Tree. Fans of classic Hollywood films might recognize her name as she worked on many MGM films of the 1930's and 40's. This allowed her to design dresses for such actresses as Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Rosalind Russell, Maureen O'Sullivan and Judy Garland. The amount of sheer movie classics she worked on is incredible. For Woman to Woman, Graham Cutts made sure that Dolly Tree had every advantage to work here. Dolly definitely delivered. She had worked in Paris and had an extensive knowledge of the Parisian nightlife. This certainly helped when making a film like this. The ostrich feather dress that she wore in scene towards the end of the film was as one of the most elaborate and beautiful dresses to appear on the cinema screen. This dress supposedly consisted of 200 ostrich feathers and 1,000 pearls.
Dolly Tree's familiarity with the Parisian lifestyle is not the only factor leading to a form of authenticity. Both Cutts and Hitchcock took a trip to Paris for research.
The star of this movie is American actress Betty Compson. Despite being not as well know as she should be she has a very distinguished filmography that includes The Miracle Man (1919), Beggar on Horseback (1925), Paths to Paradise (1925), The Pony Express (1925), The Docks of New York (1928), The Great Gabbo (1929), The Spoilers (1930), A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941, directed by Alfred Hitchcock). She was paid £1,000 a week, which was considered to be a record for an actress working in a British film.
Production for this film began in April 1923 and ended by August of that year.
The film was a major box office success and was just as popular with the critics as it was with audiences. Many critics at the time hailed it as one of the best British films. A review in Variety stated, "An example of the better grade of work over there. It is unquestionably equal to a vast majority of the releases viewed in the first run houses over here." A review in Bioscope said, "This is a film of exceptional artistic and dramatic interest." Probably the most telling of reviews for this movie was from Kineweekly which stated, "Woman to Woman… does one important thing astonishingly well – it forever blasts the delusion that a production, technically perfect cannot come out of a British studio." A review in Motion Picture Studio said, "The director has certainly had at his disposal a greater latitude of treatment and an accompanying freedom in expenditure which few British directors have ever been able to experience…the gorgeous dance and stage settings are quite lavish – and as daring as any American efforts on the same lines." The critics especially praised Betty Compson's performance, many referring to it as the best performance of her career.
Betty Compson agreed to star in Woman to Woman on the condition that her contract would be for two films. However the filmmakers were so engrossed in making this film that they did not prepare for a second. When they did make the second film, The White Shadow (1924), it proved to be nowhere near the critical or box office success that this movie was.
Unfortunately, this movie is considered a lost film. However, the 1929 remake (which has Betty Compson reprising her role), with the same name, is still available to watch. It can be found on YouTube listed as this 1923 version. However, the fact that it is a talkie immediately gives away that this is not the same film.
