Woman To Woman

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Graham Cutts, 1923

A British officer and a French dancer meet during the war, but are parted by accident, only to be reunited just before her death.

Betty Compson and Clive Brook as the soon-to-be-sundered lovers.

Credits

Director Production Company Producers Assistant Director Script Photography Editor Art Director	Graham Cutts Balcon, Freedman and Saville Victor Saville, Michael Balcon Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Cutts Claude L. McDonnell Alma Reville Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Betty Compson (Louise Boucher/Deloryse); Clive Brook (David Compton/David Anson-Pond); Josephine Earle (Mrs. Anson-Pond); Marie Ault (Henrietta); Myrtle Peter (Davy); A. Harding Steerman (Doctor)
7,455 feet, silent, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

Just look at the credits! This wasn't the first film on which the young Alfred Hitchcock worked, but as assistant director and uncredited screenwriter and art director it was unquestionably the most important prior to his own directorial debut - personally as well as professionally, as it was the film on which he met his future wife, editor and continuity girl Alma Reville.

Even without Hitchcock's involvement, Woman to Woman would be historically significant. It was the first feature produced by Michael Balcon and Victor Saville, both major players in British cinema, and its personnel and studio establishes it as the first production of what would shortly become Gainsborough Pictures.

All this seems to have been matched by outstanding cinematic merit, with virtually every reviewer commenting that it was a rare example of a British film that could unequivocally challenge American rivals for artistic and technical achievement. It would be fascinating to see if it stands up to that reputation today.

What's it about?

Kinematograph Weekly (15 November 1923) offers a synopsis:

In Paris in 1914, Louise Boucher, a danseuse at the Moulin Rouge, meets David Compton, a British officer on leave. She gives him her love, but on the eve of their marriage David is recalled. At the front he is badly wounded and loses his memory. Later in England he inherits his uncle's business on condition that he changes his name to the family one of Anson-Pond. He marries a society woman who has no time to give him children. Meanwhile Louise has danced her way to fame and is now appearing under the name of Deloryse in London. Mrs Anson-Pond boasts of her intimacy with the danseuse and is busy with arrangements for a ball at which she has promised to appear. David is taken by some friends to see the danseuse, and the sight of her brings back his memory. He hurries to her house, where Deloryse presents him to their son. In angush he tells her all there is to tell, and in her great love she decides she must give up the boy to the protection of his father's name. David goes to his wife, who is furious. Deloryse comes to plead and is insulted. David and she determine to go to Paris together. As they are packing, Mrs Anson-Pond arrives and, as woman to woman, admits her fault and promises to mother the child. Deloryse is heartbroken, but insists on dancing at Mrs Anson-Pond's ball. She dances and is carried out - dead.

Last seen?

Unusually for a British film of this period, it was first screened in New York, thanks to the enthusiasm of independent distributor Lewis J. Selznick (father of David and Myron), though its general US release was marred by censorship difficulties, especially in New England, where the subject matter (an illegitimate child) caused problems, leading to the creation of an alternative version in which the lovers at the start are married prior to their being parted. A bigger problem was the liquidation of the Selznick Company shortly afterwards: such failures were often accompanied by the destruction of prints to salvage their silver content.

In Britain, the film was premiered at the Marble Arch Pavilion on 12 November 1923 to coincide with British Film Week, a project designed to raise the profile of British cinema. It went on general release on 4 February 1924, but thereafter the trail goes cold.

What else do we know about it?

It was sourced from a West End stage hit by Michael Morton which, according to Kine Weekly, "had little intrinsic value as dramatic entertainment" because it "dragged its weary way to an 'after many years' scene", as opposed to the film's far more (melo)dramatic conclusion.

Director Graham Cutts optioned the rights, and approached Balcon and Saville as producers. Despite their lack of feature experience, they talked C.M. Woolf into a distribution deal and signed Hollywood star Betty Compson at £1,000 a week, pushing an already hefty budget to an alarming £40,000. (In his memoirs, Balcon mused "I suppose this was relatively worth more than Elizabeth Taylor's million-dollars-a-picture today"). She also demanded a musical trio on set to bring her to tears when required. The film was partly shot on location in France, but mostly at a converted power station in Islington, the future Gainsborough Studios.

It was a huge critical and commercial success, though its profits were swallowed by the failure of the team's second Compson vehicle, The White Shadow (1924). Balcon remained immensely proud of Woman to Woman, later citing it as an exemplar of how to make British films with genuine international appeal ("The process is expensive, but it is profitable - and much safer than pandering to Peckham"). Hitchcock, too, was clearly proud of his work: when discussing the films he worked on in the early 1920s with François Truffaut over forty years later, Hitchcock said that "Woman to Woman was the best of the lot, and the most successful."

Does anything survive?

No film materials, sadly, but the BFI holds a pressbook and some stills.

Reviews

Reviews ranged from excellent to ecstatic. Even before they appeared, Rex Ingram, director of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), announced that it was "one of the best and most sincere films I ever saw in my life."

Kine Weekly (15 November 1923) opined that it was "brilliantly told, finely acted by Betty Compson, and need fear no adverse comparison in the matter of setting, lighting or photography with the best American pictures." The Bioscope (15 November 1923) was no less keen: "Betty Compson has been provided with stronger material than hitherto, and fully rises to the occasion. In the dramatic scenes she shows considerable power of emotion, while her lighter moments are full of grace and charm."

The Motion Picture Studio (17 November 1923) echoed: "The gorgeous dance and stage settings are quite as lavish - and as daring - as any American efforts on the same lines, and they obtrude on the story far less than is usually the case", while Variety (4 April 1924) confirmed expectations that the film would travel: "There seems no evident reason for the continual antipathy expressed towards British-made films, as this assuredly must be an example of the better grade of work over here. It is unquestionably equal to a vast majority of the releases viewed in the first run houses over here and vastly superior to those witnessed in our daily change theatres."

Michael Brooke, Curator (Screenonline), BFI National Archive

You can find more about British films of the early 1920s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.