Easy Virtue

Name: Easy Virtue
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Genre: Romance, Drama
Released: 1928
Duration: 1 h 10 min
Cast: Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter, Robin Irvine

1928 Romance Drama 70 minutes (2012 restoration) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

About Easy Virtue

In 1926 Larita Filton is divorced after a studio fight. Painter Claude Robson, in love with her, is killed. Her husband Aubrey, a drunk, wins the case. She goes to the French Riviera as Larita Grey. At a tennis match John Whittaker hits her in the eye with a ball, courts her, and marries her. His mother, Mrs. Whittaker, turns the house against her. A sister finds a newspaper photograph that names Larita as the former Mrs. Filton. At a family party Larita walks in anyway and then leaves John so he can divorce her. From the gallery she watches the uncontested case. Outside, facing cameras, she says, "Shoot! There's nothing left to kill."

Cast & crew

More about Easy Virtue

Alfred Hitchcock directed. Eliot Stannard adapted Noël Coward's play. Michael Balcon and C. M. Woolf produced, uncredited. Claude L. McDonnell photographed it, Ivor Montagu edited, and Clifford Pember was the art director. Gainsborough released it on 5 March 1928. The 2012 restoration runs 70 minutes.

Themes

A divorce court
A concealed past
The mother's house
Larita Filton
John Whittaker
French Riviera
tennis
Noël Coward

Look

Claude L. McDonnell shot the divorce court, the Riviera hotel, and the tennis match.

Preservation

The BFI restored it in 2012. Elephant Films in France issued that version on DVD and Blu-ray. It is in the public domain in the United States as of 1 January 2024.

Notes

Isabel Jeans plays Larita. Franklin Dyall plays Aubrey Filton. Eric Bransby Williams plays Claude Robson. Robin Irvine plays John Whittaker. Violet Farebrother plays Mrs. Whittaker.
About 21 minutes in, Hitchcock walks past a tennis court carrying a stick.
The 2012 restoration was part of the BFI project Save the Hitchcock 9.
In the United States the film entered the public domain on 1 January 2024.

Scenes

A tennis ball from John Whittaker hits Larita in the eye.
She makes her entrance at the family party after being told to stay in her room.
Photographers wait outside the second divorce court.

Influenced by

Noël Coward's play Easy Virtue

Also available

Internet Archive (EasyvirtuealfredHitchcock-1928SubEsp)

Quotes

Shoot! There's nothing left to kill.