''The First Born'' is a 1928 British silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Miles Mander Miles Mander (born Lionel Henry Mander; 14 May 1888 – 8 February 1946), was an English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist. He was sometimes credited as Luther Mile ...

and starring Mander,

Madeleine Carroll Edith Madeleine Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress. Carroll is rememb ...

, John Loder and

Ella Atherton Ella Atherton (11 September 1905 – May 1995) was a Scottish-born actress, fashion model, horse breeder, and Socialite, who married an Indian maharaja, Vijayasinhji Chhatrasinhji in 1940. After marriage, she was also known as Ila Devi Rajpipl ...

. It was made by

Gainsborough Pictures Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The com ...

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Wilfred Arnold Wilfred Arnold (1903–1970), also known as C. Wilfred Arnold, was a British art director.Ryall p.98 He was prolific contributor to British films, designing the sets for more than a hundred. His brother Norman Arnold was also an art director. ...

Production background

The screenplay was also written by Mander (based on his own novel) in conjunction with

Alma Reville Alma Lucy Reville, Lady Hitchcock (14 August 1899 – 6 July 1982), was an English director, editor, and screenwriter. She was the wife of the film director Alfred Hitchcock. She collaborated on scripts for her husband's films, including '' Sha ...

. ''The First Born'' enjoys a good critical reputation, being seen as stylistically inventive and one of the best examples of a trend in British cinema in the last years of the silent era. This trend was towards a more mature, sophisticated and naturalistic presentation of dramatic material, eschewing the tendency in earlier silent films towards overly stagey and melodramatic acting styles involving wildly exaggerated gestures and facial expressions.

Plot

Would-be politician Sir Hugo Boycott (Mander) and his wife Madeleine (Carroll) have an unhappy marriage. Madeleine is aware that Hugo is a serial philanderer, and their problems are exacerbated when she fails to produce the heir he wants. After a particularly serious quarrel, Hugo storms off to North Africa and one of his mistresses. In his absence, Madeleine drifts around in London society where she is courted by Lord David Harbrough ( John Loder). She rebuffs his advances, but finds him sympathetic as an individual and agrees that they should remain friends. Madeleine learns that her manicurist is expecting a baby and is in a desperate state as she is unmarried and facing shame, the loss of her job and destitution. Madeleine offers to adopt the baby when it is born, which the manicurist gladly accepts. Hugo later returns from Africa and is delighted with the new son and heir which he assumes is his. Relations between the couple improve for a time, and Madeleine gives birth to her own baby. Hugo makes progress in his political ambitions and is invited to stand for parliament in an upcoming General Election. His political associates and potential constituents are charmed by Madeleine. It has not taken long however for him to revert to his womanising ways, and he becomes involved with the devious Nina (

). As the election approaches, Hugo finds out that the older boy is adopted, not his own child. He and Madeleine have a furious argument and he leaves to stay with Nina. On election night he is in a state of tension. He now quarrels with Nina also, stomps out of her apartment in a temper, and in a moment of inattention steps into an empty liftshaft and falls to his death. After his death, Madeleine receives a letter from the manicurist who has met a man who is willing to take on her and her son, she also unknowingly reveals in an ironic twist that Hugo was actually Stephen's father. In the wake of Hugo's death and the new revelations, Madeleine resolves to rekindle her romance with Lord David in the hope that she can finally find happiness.

Cast

as Madeleine, Lady Boycott *

as Sir Hugo Boycott * John Loder as Lord David Harbrough *

as Nina de Lande * Margot Armand as Sylvia Findlay *

Ivo Dawson Ivo Dawson (13 December 1879 - 7 March 1934) was a British actor. Dawson was born in Rutland, England, UK and died in Los Angeles, California, USA, age 54. Selected filmography * ''The Miracle of Love'' (1919) * '' The Broken Melody'' (1919) * ...

as Derek Findlay * Marjorie Roach as Phoebe Chivers * John St. John as Dicky *

Naomi Jacob Naomi Eleanor Clare Ellington Jacob (1 July 1884 – 27 August 1964), also known by the pen name Ellington Gray, was an English writer, actress and broadcaster. Biography Early life Naomi Jacob was born in Ripon in the West Riding of Yorkshir ...

as Dot * Bernard Vaughan as Butler * Walter Wichelow as Impitt * Theodore Mander as Stephen Boycott

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:First Born, The 1928 films 1928 drama films British drama films British silent feature films Gainsborough Pictures films British black-and-white films Films directed by Miles Mander Films set in England Films set in London Films shot at British International Pictures Studios 1920s British films Silent drama films 1920s English-language films