Based on the play by John Galsworthy, this early Hitchcock film explores themes of social class conflict and industrialization, focusing on the feud between the Hillcrist (C.V. France and Helen Haye play the elder Mr. and Mrs. Hillcrist, and Jill Esmond appears as their daughter, Jill) and the Hornblower (Edmund Gwenn, John Longden, and Frank Lawton) families. Despite being a member of the working class, Mr. Hornblower plays the skin game: buying up land under false pretenses, claiming he’s allowing tenant farmers to remain, then booting them out, and then constructing factories. The Hillcrists learn of this and regret giving him land, as he plans to transform their gorgeous views into smoke and industry.

The Hillcrists respond to this by muckraking up some gossip about the sordid past of Hornblower’s now pregnant daughter-in-law Chloe (Phyllis Konstam), wife of Charles, who learns the secret — she was a sex worker — before Chloe can explain, and she drowns herself, highlighting the tragic consequences of societal judgment and personal secrets.

When Truffaut spoke to him about this movie, Hitchcock said, “I didn’t make it by choice, and there isn’t much to be said about it. We shot with four cameras and a single soundtrack because we couldn’t cut sound in those days.” This reflects the stage play origins and the technical limitations of early filmmaking, which contrast with Hitchcock’s later innovative style.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.