Featuring Nabil Azzouzi! Just to put it out front: THE PLEASURE GARDEN isn't a mystery, thriller, or horror film. It has its moments (it's even funny sometimes, which is awe-inspiring for a 90-year-old movie to pull off), but being Alfred Hitchcock's first feature, it's most interesting to watch in the context of his filmography. It's got the corrupting influence of power; it's got love and lust; it's got men (even the "good" ones) being really terrible people. In that way, it's kind of a proto-proto-Hitchcock movie – like seeing the outline of a movie he would've scrapped later in his career. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
