The Passionate Adventure (1924) Gainsborough (Gaumont). Producer: Michael Balcon. Director: Graham Cutts. Assistant Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Scenario: Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Morton. Art director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Alice Joyce, Clive Brook, Lillian Hall-Davies, Victor McLaglen, Marjorie Daw, J.R. Tozer, Mary Brough, John Hamilton. 6 reels?

A copy of this film is located at the National Film and Television Archive (35 mm., 5875 ft.) with German intertitles. It is an early credit for the soon-to-be-famous Alfred Hitchcock. Marjorie Daw, the co-star in this film, married Myron Selznick, the future business partner of Alice Joyce's brother, Frank.

French article from Cine Miroir (thanks to Derek Boothroyd)

Review from Variety, June 17, 1925

Distributed here by Lee-Bradford, but produced in England by Graham Cutts for A.C . and R.C. Bromhead. Scenario by Alfred Hitchcock and directed by Cutts. Marjorie Daw and Alice Joyce feature. At the New York, June 13. Running time, 68 minutes.

This British film, distributed here by Lee-Bradford, is a serious sex play of high order in that its direction and action seem both concentrated on the story itself rather than on the proposition of emphasizing whatever of sex is contained therein. In brief, the proposition is that the sex-starved husband of an aristocratic family comes through the war to find that his wife is still cold to him. On a remarkable trip to the slums he finds a beautiful girl there. Protecting her, he is knocked out, but, taken to her flat unconscious, revives, and, in a struggle with her "man," a brute, kills him. That is all smoothed over and the girl serves as the medium for making the wife realize her shortcomings in their married state.

For a British production, this is up to the American standard of high-grade program releases. The direction is excellent, the continuity air-tight, and the acting up to scratch. Alice Joyce is the cold wife, Marjorie Daw make an appealing slum girl, while Clive Brook gives his usual finished performance as the husband. There are several excellent minor characters, all well played, while the scenes of homecoming from the war, etc., bear pathos.

"The Passionate Adventure" isn't trashy, though the title may sound that way. That title is based on the saying of Oscar Wilde that passion is the only serious thing in life (a belief that got Wilde into plenty of trouble). It is a high-grade film for high-grade audiences, and the theme is inoffensively handled so that censorial trouble will hardly result. It was made during the recent stay of the Misses Daw and Joyce in Europe, before the time Mr. Brook became such a prominent figure of the American screen.

Cast and Credits from The British film catalogue, 1895-1970 / by Denis Gifford

THE PASSIONATE ADVENTURE (7923) (A)
Gainsborough (Gaumont)
P: Michael Balcon
D: Graham Cutts
S: (NOVEL) Frank Stayton
SC: Alfred Hitchcock

DRAMA Rich man leaves wife, poses as a coster, and saves factory girl from crook.

Last revised December 27, 2018