Hitchcock Chronology: 1927

Month by Month

January

• Upon returning to the UK from their honeymoon in St. Moritz, Alma and Alfred Hitchcock move into their their new house, 153 Cromwell Road, Kensington, London, where they occupy the top two floors.
• Gainsborough Pictures announces that Alfred Hitchcock will direct Downhill.
• 17th - Pre-production begins on Downhill.
• 17th - The Lodger premiers to the public at the Marble Arch Cinema on Oxford Street. Partly due to Ivor Novello's sizeable fan base, the film is a success and is carried over into a second week.
• 18th - The Times reviews The Lodger and complains that "the spirit of a good tale must perish so that the camera be not denied its close-up kisses."
• 24th - The Pleasure Garden is finally released.
• 29th - Eden Phillpotts' comic play The Farmer's Wife ends it's highly successful run at the Court Theatre in London after 1,329 performances. The press reports that box office takings for the run were in excess of £200,000.

February

• Eliot Stannard completes the script for Downhill.
• 14th - The Lodger goes on general release in London, with screenings at five cinemas.
• 27th - After attending the theatre, Hitchcock spends the night filming scenes with Ivor Novello at Maida Vale Tube Station for Downhill.

March

• Filming continues on Downhill, starring Ivor Novello.
• 30th - The Hitchcocks depart from London for Nice and the French Riviera to film location footage for Easy Virtue.

May

• 23rd - The Mountain Eagle is finally released.
• Downhill is screened for press and trade.

June

• 2nd - Speculation as to who will direct the screen adaptation of Eden Phillpotts' highly successful comic play The Farmer's Wife is ended when British International Pictures announces that Hitchcock will direct after completing The Ring.
• 7th - Hitchcock films the polo match in Easy Virtue at the Roehampton Club.
• 11th - Writing in The Guardian newspaper, film critic C. A. Lejeune calls Hitchcock "Britian's Baby" and argues that when he "sets to work on real film material, real artist's material, there will not be more than half a dozen producers in the world, who will be able to beat him. There are none in England now."
• Hitchcock leaves Gainsborough Pictures and signs a new contract with British International Pictures.

July

• Filming starts on The Ring, Hitchcock's first film for British International Pictures, starring Carl Brisson and Lillian Hall-Davis.

August

• Filming for The Ring is completed.

September

• The Ring is screened for press and trade.

October

• 12th - The Times newspaper reviews Downhill and says that Hitchcock "tells the story clearly and with humour, and, in most cases, the characters are drawn with great skill."
• 14th - British International Pictures holds a press luncheon in London where chairman John Maxwell announces that actress Betty Balfour has signed a two-year contract to the company and her first role will be in Hitchcock's Champagne.
• 25th - The Ring is screened for trade and press at the Majestic Theatre in Leeds, Yorkshire.

November

• Several British and Australian newspapers report on Hitchcock's new contact with British National Pictures (which soon becomes British International Pictures) on a salary that is set to rise to £17,000 a year. Presumably based information contained in a studio press handout, they claim Hitchcock entered the film industry as a teenager — in reality he began working for Famous Players-Lasky in 1921, aged 21.

December

• Mrs Lucy Baldwin, wife of the British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, visits British International Pictures' Elstree Studios and watches Hitchcock at work filming The Farmer's Wife.

See Also...

• articles from 1927
• births in 1927

Notes & References

Hitchcock Chronology
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