Alfred Hitchcock's final silent film is an adaptation of a then-popular novel about a love triangle. This is the second film adaptation of that novel. Basically it's a soaper that begins with a tired premise. Two boys from opposite sides of the tracks are friends and both fall in love with the same girl. That's routine enough but the plot takes some twists and turns to keep things from being too predictable. The trade-off for those twists, however, is the characters become less likable as the movie goes on. By the end I was not invested in who wound up with who. I was kind of hoping for a triple suicide.
It's not a bad film by any stretch. Hitch certainly gives it a professional polish. It's a very nice-looking picture. The performances are all good, as well. It's just pure melodrama with characters I didn't really like that much. Add to that the feeling it goes on too long and it becomes a chore to sit through. Still, it's Hitchcock so you should probably watch it at least once just for that.
It's not a bad film by any stretch. Hitch certainly gives it a professional polish. It's a very nice-looking picture. The performances are all good, as well. It's just pure melodrama with characters I didn't really like that much. Add to that the feeling it goes on too long and it becomes a chore to sit through. Still, it's Hitchcock so you should probably watch it at least once just for that.