Abwärts

.. based on a play by star Ivor Novello. He plays Roddy Berwick, the big man on campus at a prestigious private school. He enjoys rugby and spending time with his best chum Tim Wakely (Robin Irvine). Tim has a dalliance with a girl of "low morals", and when she becomes pregnant, she spitefully blames Roddy, who out of loyalty to his buddy Tim accepts the blame is expelled from school. This sets him on a path "downhill" away from his promising future, towards a wretched existence as a bit actor and male prostitute.

This is rather corny and overlong, although those interested in Novello, a huge star of stage and screen in the UK in first half of the 20th century, will most likely get more out of it. Hitchcock shows off a few camera tricks and artistic shots, like a lingering scene of Novello descending an escalator into the Underground rail as a symbol of his societal descent. I also thought it rare to see a male prostitute in a film of this era, even though female pros seem to figure into every other silent film.