4 The Silent Era

Chapter 3 The Silent Era Hitch's first completed movie as a director, The Pleasure Garden, was about two friends who have some unlikely adventures in love. Michael Balcon sent Hitchcock, along with Alma, to Germany in 1925. The cameraman warned Hitch not to tell the border patrol that he was carrying film or cameras. He would have to pay German customs officers a fee to bring them into the country.

希契作为导演完成的第一部电影是《快乐花园》，讲述了两个朋友的爱情冒险故事。 1925年，迈克尔·巴尔肯把希区柯克和阿尔玛一起送到了德国。 摄影师警告希契不要告诉边境巡逻队他携带了胶卷或相机。 他必须向德国海关官员支付一笔费用，才能把他们带进这个国家。

Hitch trembled and sweated as customs officials searched his train compartment. They didn't find the camera, but they took all the film. The next day, just as the cameraman arrived with twenty pounds of new film, their original film was returned. They had paid for twice as much film as they needed, and they still had to pay the customs fee on top of that. Hitch's first

当海关官员搜查希契乘坐的火车车厢时，他浑身发抖，汗流浃背。 他们没找到照相机，但他们拿走了所有的胶卷。 第二天，就在摄影师带着20磅新胶卷来的时候，他们原来的胶卷被退回来了。 他们已经付了两倍于所需的胶卷，除此之外，他们还得支付海关费用。 结的第一

movie was already over budget, and he hadn't even begun filming! Despite the problems, Hitch enjoyed working in Germany because German directors were making some of his favorite movies at that time. He liked the way the German filmmakers used shadows and strange scenery to tell fantastic, thrilling, and sometimes scary tales.

电影已经超出预算了，他甚至还没有开始拍摄！尽管有这些问题，希契还是喜欢在德国工作，因为当时德国导演正在制作一些他最喜欢的电影。 他喜欢德国电影人用阴影和奇怪的风景来讲述奇妙、惊险、有时甚至恐怖的故事。

In the spring of 1926, Balcon found a story well suited to Hitch's interests. The Lodger was inspired by the true crimes of Jack the Ripper. Hitch and Alma worked out the details of the

1926年春天，巴尔肯发现了一个非常符合希契兴趣的故事。 《房客》的灵感来自开膛手杰克的真实罪行。 希契和阿尔玛解决了细节问题

story together. Hitch was quickly learning that his wife-to-be was a valuable collaborator. When The Lodger was finished, it was shown to distributors who would consider booking it into their theaters. The head of the group, C. M. Woolf, said, "Your picture is so dreadful that we're just going to put it on a shelf and forget about it." Luckily for Hitch, a film critic convinced Mr. Woolf that the movie was good enough to release.

一起的故事。希契很快意识到他的准妻子是一个有价值的合作者。 当《房客》完成后，它被放映给那些愿意考虑在他们的影院预订该片的发行商。 该组织的负责人c.m.。 伍尔夫说：“你的画太可怕了，我们打算把它放在架子上，忘掉它。” 幸运的是，一位影评人说服了伍尔夫，让他相信这部电影足够好，可以上映。

The Lodger showed British audiences a whole new kind of filmmaking, one that revealed information in very creative ways. In one famous scene, the family hears their lodger—the person to whom they've rented one of their spare bedrooms—pacing in his room above their heads. This was not easy to show in a silent movie. Without being able to hear the footsteps, how could the audience understand what was going on? Hitch used a glass floor in the lodger's bedroom so that the audience could see the character's feet moving back and forth, causing the chandelier to shake in the dining room below.

《房客》向英国观众展示了一种全新的电影制作方式，一种以非常有创意的方式揭示信息的方式。 在一个著名的场景中，这家人听到他们的房客——他们租了一间备用卧室的人——在他们头顶上的房间里踱步。 在无声电影中表现这一点并不容易。 如果听不到脚步声，观众怎么能明白发生了什么？ 希契在房客的卧室里使用了玻璃地板，这样观众就能看到角色的脚来回移动，导致楼下餐厅的枝形吊灯晃动。