“The pairing of Hitchcock and Novello seemed so profitable that the following year the Gainsborough company was to entrust Hitchcock with the cinematographic adaption of a theater piece written by Novello, Downhill (1927), in which the popular actor was obviously to have the lead role. For the critics of the time, it was a great delusion. Objectively, their judgement seems severe and unjust. It would seem right to say that those critics had gotten a wrong idea of Hitchcock (it certainly would not be the last time!) and criticized the director to prove their point. In effect, seen today, Downhill exhibits numerous qualities and there is nothing to prevent it from being preferred to The Lodger.

First of all, it is important to note that the subject – whatever its value – possesses no police story or distressing traits. After the success of The Lodger it would have been easy for Hitchcock to become a specialist in this genre. He preferred, instead, to turn elsewhere. For him, Downhill was the opportunity to work three sequences to perfection, flaunting his skills as a creator of atmosphere, as the satirical observer and as virtuoso of the movie camera. […]

Above all, Hitchcock proved himself as a skillful painter of turpitude and depravity. In this regard, the scene in the Parisian nightclub presents a gallery of portraits of terrifying precision and cruelty. The faces of those withered women with eager eyes and flacid cheeks deserve a terrm like misogyny, a term often used when speaking of Hitchcock.

(Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, Hitchcock, Venezia, Marsilio, 1986)