THE RING (1927) B/W "silent" 73m dir: Alfred Hitchcock

w/Carl Brisson, Lilian Hall Davis, Ian Hunter, Forrester Harvey, Harry Terry, Gordon Harker, Billy Wells, Clare Greet, Eugene Corri

From Hitchcock: The First Forty-Four Films by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol: "The plot of The Ring is very similar to that of other sports-related films of which audiences at the time were so fond. It has every appearance of a classic and commonplace love triangle. Jack Sander, a midway boxer, is engaged to the ticketseller of the attraction, Nelly, whose flashing eyes bring the rubbernecks in. One of these --- Bob Corby, an Australian champion --- knocks out Sander and profits from his victory to make love to Nelly. In order to keep her close at hand, he makes Sander his trainer. It is Sander, however, who marries Nelly, and Corby arranges some minor matches for him. But on the evening of one fight, Nelly leaves Sander to join Corby. ...

"The plot is obviously very commonplace, but Hitchcock has never feared commonplace plots. Like most of his great successes, The Ring has appearances against it. At first glance all it has going for it is the virtuosity of its technique, which is extraordinary for the time and a considerable advance over that in his previous films. There is a masterful use of ellipsis, but this technique was current. What was not current was the sense of the camera's movement and its integration into the montage. What was not current was the way the scenes were thought out, in dramatic and dynamic terms, as parts of a whole and not as a succession of plastic shots. All in all it was a conception of cinema diametrically opposed to that of E.A. Dupont in Variety. From this point of view, as André Bazin has noted, The Ring makes us think of Renoir.

"But even the scenario should not be too quickly dismissed. It permits Hitchcock a very subtle treatment of a theme that is dear to him: adultery. Beneath the surface of popular melodrama, the work is rich in original observations and striking symbols. The title can be understood in several senses: 'the ring' is a bracelet that Bob Corby gives the young woman and which all during the film will symbolize adultery. Many effects underscore Hitchcock's intention: depending on the state of her relations with her husband and her lover, Nelly either hides this bracelet or flaunts it, sometimes ashamed, sometimes cruelly triumphant. But a 'ring' is also a wedding band, and at one point in the film Hitchcock, who never hesitates to follow through on his symbols, shows Sander taking the bracelet and slipping it onto Nelly's finger as a wedding ring. In an especially fine touch, the bracelet is a representation of a coiled serpent; for the Catholic Hitchcock, adultery is identified with Eve's original sin.

"The dazzling ideas sown through this film could be endlessly enumerated. When the husband rips his wife's dress, she covers her breast with a photograph of her lover; when Sander comes home after a bout and organizes a party, champagne flows into glasses, Sander notices his wife's absence and understands that she is with her lover: a close-up of a glass of champagne gone flat.

"The carnival with which the film opens is treated at length. Like the good creator of atmosphere that he is, Hitchcock takes his time and multiplies the visual 'gags.' Not a single grotesquerie escapes him --- neither the stupefied aspect of the people milling about the fairground like sleepwalkers nor the obscenity of the swings. He concludes the sequence with two shots of open-mouthed people and a carnival Aunt Sally.

"It was with The Ring that Hitchcock found 'his' chief cameraman, Jack Cox, who was to shoot all his films until 1933. Hitchcock's style is based on precision. The least falling off between the conception and the realization can be fatal. Hitchcock therefore always tried to form an ideal 'team,' which he attempted to keep together from film to film. From this point of view his work can easily be divided into three periods, each of which corresponds to the perfection of a style. Jack Cox was to be replaced by Bernard Knowles during the Gaumont-British period. During the American period Hitchcock was to take nine years to find his ideal man (though one may note a slight preference for Joseph Valentine). Now [1957] this period has 'its' cameraman, Robert Burks, with whom he has worked since Strangers on a Train. The quality of Jack Cox's work in The Ring is beyond question. It is characterized by the precision of the frames, by their simplicity, and by the harmony between the grays and whites that was dear to Hitchcock during this period.

"It is clear that The Ring does more than simply mark the transition from one company to another. It is a veritable turning point: the young hope becomes the accomplished auteur whose youth does not preclude mastery. He is famous in Great Britain, and the proof of his fame is that company publications unhesitatingly say: 'publicity factor --- Hitchcock's name.' As we will see, however, his talent has not yet reached its maturity --- far from it. Though technique no longer has any secrets from him, he is still incapable of creating a true work. He is still searching."