Movies - Blackmail

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Blackmail (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the first British films with sound.

The film was not originally intended to be a talkie and began production as a silent film. However, the film's producers, British International Pictures, decided part-way through the production to make the film Britain's first sound film. This has several implications on the film. A significant amount of footage had been filmed without sound before the decision was made. Some of these scenes were re-shot with sound, though some remained without sound, as shot.

Additionally, the lead actress Anny Ondra was from (modern-day) Poland so had a strong accent which would clearly not fit the part. So, it was decided that, since some scenes had been shot already, Ondra would still act in the film but she would mouth all of her lines while her words would be dubbed in by an off-screen actress Joan Barry. The technology for dubbing synchronized dialogue after shooting did not yet exist. Needless to say, this makes Ondra's performance seem slightly awkward. While the talkie version of this film is most famous and is the one generally available for home viewing, a completed silent version of Blackmail was released in 1929 shortly after the talkie version hit theaters. In fact, the silent version of Blackmail actually ran longer in theaters and proved more popular in its time, largely because most theaters in England were not yet equipped for sound at the time of the film's release. Despite the popularity of the silent version, however, history best remembers the landmark talkie version of Blackmail. The silent version is rarely seen nowadays, although both versions were released on a German DVD in 2002 (ArtHaus).

The plot concerns a woman named Alice White, a newsagent's daughter in East London, whose boyfriend Frank Webber (John Longden) is a policeman. Alice is bored with Frank, and secretly meets another man (an artist named Crewe, played by Cyril Ritchard), who tries to rape her. She defends herself, and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is discovered, Frank is assigned to the case and realises that Alice killed Crewe, but then a local 'sponger' named Tracy (played by Donald Calthrop) tries to use blackmail. When Crewe's landlady identifies Tracy as having been at the scene of the crime, Frank tells Tracy his blackmail attempts will fail. Tracy flees, chased by the police through London, into the British Museum and up to its domed roof. Tracy falls through the glass and dies. Meantime Alice feels guilty, goes to Scotland Yard and tries to turn herself in but is dissuaded by Frank.

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Movies - Blackmail

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