The sex lives of the upper classes come under scrutiny in this sophisticated melodrama, a tour de force of silent cinema starring Miles Mander and Madeleine Carroll. A philandering politician, double standards of the upper classes, jealousy and a generation torn between centuries of tradition and a more modern morality...the plot feels like a lost episode of Downton Abbey. However, the film was expertly co-scripted by Alma Reville (Mrs Alfred Hitchcock) and it's hard not to see her influence in raising it beyond old-school melodrama to be a tour de force of late silent British cinema. With thanks to BFI Archive for this restoration of a lost British classic.

With live accompaniment by Stephen Horne.