Blackmail (1929)
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 84 minuten / 76 minuten (gerestaureerde versie zonder klank)
Country:
United Kingdom
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood and Charles Paton
IMDb score:
6,9 (12.810)
Releasedate: 28 July 1929
Blackmail plot
"Hold everything till you've heard this one!"
Alice White, Frank Webber's girlfriend, is invited by an artist to visit his studio. The man tries to rape Alice, whereupon she kills him. A criminal sees the murder and decides to blackmail her.
Actors and actresses
Alice White
Mrs. White
Mr. White
Detective Frank Webber
Tracy
The Artist
The Landlady
The Chief Inspector
The Detective Sergeant
Man on Subway (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
Collins
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- 6820 messages
- 4061 votes
Blackmail was originally intended as a silent. However, Hitchcock made it the first British sound film. The film is not completely full of sound, by the way. Entire sections of film are silent.
Take, for example, the beginning of the movie where the main characters are introduced. Much film passes without sound until the moment when both characters, sitting at a table in a restaurant, suddenly start talking to each other. Or take the thrilling pursuit of the female character Tracy, which takes place without sound. Blackmail is a sound film, but not full length.
The strength of the film does not lie in the dialogues or the background sounds. The black-and-white film is particularly strong in playing with shadows. The play of light and dark corresponds magnificently with the mental state of the characters. When character Tracy's desperation becomes so great that the thought of suicide enters her mind, the light falls on her neck and a shadow appears that looks a lot like a noose. The film has more such delightful visual details that benefit from the low noise. In fact, the film needs no sound at all.
It is these fine stylistic stagings that make the film intriguing and mouth watering. Other than that, the film offers little. Let's be honest. It's a pretty boring story. Not very exciting and also very slow. The acting didn't really warm me up either. It is logically very theatrical and involves exaggerated sign language and facial expressions. Not really for me.
Blackmail is an interesting film because of its stylistic inventions. I didn't really like him.
mrklm
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- 10103 messages
- 9238 votes
Although this has more dialogue than The Jazz Singer, this is not a full-fledged sound film either. The entire opening sequence is silent, with at most some traffic sounds (horns, roaring engines) to create the illusion of sound. The scene with the bird whistle is downright annoying. That does not alter the fact that, despite the primitive techniques, Hitchcock already makes creative use of sound technology here. The main problem, however, was that the Czechoslovak protagonist Anny Ondra had too heavy an accent to play a London woman. Joan Barry read her dialogues and Ondra had to mimic them. The silent version is therefore a lot better than the sound version. The story concerns a flirty blonde [Anny Ondra] who, on a night out, turns her friend Frank [John Longdon] off for a rendezvous with an artist [Cyril Ritchard]. When he tries to seduce her in his apartment, a struggle ensues in which she stabs him to death. And of course, Frank is put on the investigation and soon finds out what's going on. Remarkably contains many elements of what would only gain recognition as 'film noir' years later.
Fisico (moderator films)
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- 9991 messages
- 5396 votes
Seen a Hitchcock for a long time. One from the old box and probably the oldest I've seen of him. A film in which the dialogues remained limited, mainly from a technical point of view and time context. Not a complete silent movie, but with many elements of it. It takes some getting used to this approach, but the film also had something interesting to offer in terms of content.
Quite long-winded in the beginning, but the plot only really gains momentum when the love triangle between the woman, police officer and former criminal is expressed. The psychological game and the moral pressure on the woman can then really be felt.
Nice to have seen this one, but luckily Hitchcock is known from many better films.
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