In the spring of 1923 Graham Cutts announced The Prude's Fall as his next film and it was said that Alfred Hitchcock was already at work writing this adaption. However, Cutts and Hitch ended up making The White Shadow (1924) first and The Prude's Fall was held on the shelf for almost two years. A 1923 article from Pictures and Picturegoer magazine reveals that Betty Compson was planned to be the star of this movie like she was in Woman to Woman (1923) and The White Shadow. This article states, "Betty Compson expects to stay ten weeks in Europe, and will make two films. The second, The Prude's Fall, is adapted from the successful play that ran at Wyndham's Theatre, London, and is light fare compared with Woman to Woman. Betty Compson is fully equal to the demands of both roles: her early film work was done, you remember, in Lyons and Moran comedies, whilst her dancing and emotional capacities have been tested, tried and not found wanting in the many films she made for Paramount, and other companies, not forgetting the immortal Miracle Man. Betty is receiving a tremendous salary for her work this side."
Like many films that Alfred Hitchcock was working on at this time, this was very much a romantic melodrama. In this movie Betrice Audley breaks her engagement with Captain le Briquet. The captain them marries a woman named Sonia Roubetsky. Sonia had admitted to Betrice that she is a woman with a past. When the captain finds out about this, he thinks that Betrice withheld the information from him to ruin his life. Sonia feels unloved and hurt when her husband finds out about her past and she kills herself. The captain then decides to get revenge on Betrice by making her fall for him again only to reject her. When he learns that Betrice didn't tell the captain to help protect his feelings, the captain and Betrice get married and live happily ever after.
The storyline for this film was originally a stage play (of the same name) revolving around actor Gerald du Maurier. Maurier was a well-established stage actor known for his roles as George Darling and Captain Hook in the original 1904 run of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. This was not the only connection Maurier has to Hitchcock. His daughter Daphne Maurier was an author whose books included Jamaica Inn, Rebbecca and The Birds, all of which Alfred Hitchcock would later adapt into movies. The play was written by Rudolph Besier (best known for his 1930 play, The Barretts of Wimpole Street) and novelist and playwright May Edginton. These two had previously worked together on the 1922 play, Secrets. Secrets starred English actress Fay Compton, who also has another Hitchcock connection playing Countess Helga von Stahl in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Waltzes from Vienna (1934). Secrets would receive two film adaptions one in 1924 (directed by Frank Borzage and starring Norma Talmage) and one in 1933 (also directed by Frank Borzage and featuring Mary Pickford in her last movie).
Like The Blackguard (1925), this film also starred American actress, Jane Novak. Despite not being well remembered today, Novak played opposite such major movie stars as William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Alan Hale, Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone. During the silent era she was a major movie star herself and was one of the earliest movie stars to be paid a four-figure salary for one film. By time she started making talkies she was no longer as the big star she had been. However, she would appear intermittently throughout the talkie era. One of these appearances was in Hitchcock's film, Foreign Correspondent (1940) for which she had a small uncredited role. One of her costars would be another American actress, Julanne Johnston. Though she made many films, she is probably best known today for being the leading lady to Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad (1924). An article from Exhibitor's Trade Review (dated March 28, 1925) stated, "Julanne Johnson cables that the title of the production she is making aboard is 'The Prude's Fall,' from the stage play. She is in Mortiz, Switzerland adding that 'I am again playing a Russian refugee and tomorrow I fall off a precipice. If I live after this experience, will cable more details.' She returns to America late this month."
Once again, the director was Graham Cutts and Hitchcock worked as the writer, assistant director and art director. However, at this time the relationship between the two was not on the best of terms. Hitch claimed that during the making of The Blackguard he and his future wife, Alma Reville (who was essentially second assistant director on that movie) had carried the later parts of the shoot from a badly behaved Cutts.
The Prude's Fall is believed to have been rushed into production to save costs for keeping Jane Novack after already using her in a previous film. Whether this is the reason the film was shot very quickly, though post-production was done at a much slower pace. In fact, Cutts had finished another film (The Rat (1925)) before The Prude's Fall found its way into theaters. In April 1925, producer Michael Balcon gave the movie to Adrian Brunel, an owner of a Soho 'film hospital.' Brunel directed re-shoots, pad-out the film with intertitles and re-edit it. Hitchcock, while working on his directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden (1926), wrote Brunel, that he heard the movie ended up as "a new being." Despite this work, the film was barely released in Britian.
The Prude's Fall is believed to have been rushed into production to save costs for keeping Jane Novack after already using her in a previous film. Whether this is the reason the film was shot very quickly, though post-production was done at a much slower pace. In fact, Cutts had finished another film (The Rat (1925)) before The Prude's Fall found its way into theaters. In April 1925, producer Michael Balcon gave the movie to Adrian Brunel, an owner of a Soho 'film hospital.' Brunel directed re-shoots, pad-out the film with intertitles and re-edit it. Hitchcock, while working on his directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden (1926), wrote Brunel, that he heard the movie ended up as "a new being." Despite this work, the film was barely released in Britian.
Only fragments of this film survive today. Unfortunately, I was not able to view these fragments. The critical reception at the time it was released though hint that this was not exactly a great movie. Variety even referred to the movie as "film junk."
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1422807/
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
