Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

alexanderdavies-99382 Hitchcock began filming the movie of "Blackmail" as another silent one. However, halfway through filming, he changed his mind and began from square one in making his talkie film debut. Many of the hallmarks of Hitchcock's best work are in evidence here. The camera work that illustrates the setting of each scene by being as descriptive as possible. A murder scene which is partly fuelled by or related to some kind of sexual interaction. An innocent character who has to clear his/her name after being wrongfully accused of a crime. In London, the girlfriend of a police officer is accosted by a man who invites her back to his flat on the grounds of wanting to paint her portrait. After rejecting his advances, the man attacks the woman. To defend herself, she stabs him to death. The way Hitchcock shot this moment, was to make it suggestive. We the viewers don't actually see the weapon used. All we see is one of the woman's arms reach from behind a curtain for any means to protect herself. Thus, we are left to our imagination as to whereabouts the knife is placed and the look of agonising pain on the man's face as he dies. The woman walks the streets of the city in something of a stupor after the traumatic events. What the lady doesn't realise, is that she was seen leaving the building by a man watching her. He is the one who discovers the body and attempts to blackmail the woman. There is quite a sinister scene at the home of the woman's parents. It is breakfast time, the lady has just returned and sits down with her family. She gazes into the distance as her mum keeps repeating the word "knife" during this scene. Hitchcock emphasises the character's trauma and distress as she is being constantly reminded of what she has done. No doubt it was her conscience speaking for her but the tension in that scene is all too clear. There is some marvellous photography as the police give chase at the end. Alfred Hitchcock had successfully met the challenge of making talkie films, although the man himself often stated that he preferred silent cinema as it was more pure.

utgard14 Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie is an intriguing film, not entirely successful but still more enjoyable than some of the other films Hitch made around this time. The story starts with a woman cheating on her boyfriend, a Scotland Yard detective. When the man she's with tries to rape her, she kills him in self-defense. Afterwards a criminal who pieces it together blackmails her and her detective boyfriend.A little creaky but that's to be expected under the circumstances. The film started out being made as a silent before it was decided to turn it into a sound picture. In spots it reverts back to a silent (without intertitles). This actually works in the film's favor. There are some really nicely done lengthy sequences with no dialogue, such as her walk home after she's killed the guy, punctuated by a scream. Good acting all around. Nice direction from Hitch. The museum climax is excellent; an early example of the defining set pieces that would become a Hitchcock trademark. Definitely worth a look if you're a fan. Or even if you're not, provided you enjoy pictures from this period. Not everyone does, unfortunately.

TheLittleSongbird Is Blackmail among Alfred Hitchcock's best films? No. Is it one of his better early era efforts(pre-39 Steps)? Alongside The Lodger, yes. It isn't without flaws, John Longden's performance is rather stilted with a mixture of over-acting and under-acting, and while the dubbing is not bad at all there were times where with instances of restricted sound technique that the film may have benefited a little better by being silent instead. It looks very good, not among the most audacious of Hitchcock's films but a significant improvement over the production values of Juno and the Paycock. The expressionistic images still look great and give the film an eerie look that suits the story really well without being too obvious. The first class photography helps also, especially in the British Museum sequence. The music is generally fine too, to begin with it could have been much more subtle and been used a little less but quite quickly was much more fitting. The story is taut and suspenseful, even early in his career what was so distinctive and good about what he was most famous for comes through very strongly. It is ambiguous too, but that adds to the suspense and done in a way that doesn't feel heavy-handed. The climax is the first of his films to use a famous landmark, and is very satisfying. Hitchcock directs very assuredly, and it is in Blackmail also where he delivers one of his best cameos(they are always fun to spot). Apart from Longdon, the acting was good, sometimes a little theatrical but considering that some of the roles did need a broad approach at times it wasn't a big issue. Sara Allgood stands out in support, bringing out similar qualities to what made her the best thing about Juno and the Paycock, while the best overall performance comes from Anny Ondra who is wonderful. Overall, most interesting. 8/10 Bethany Cox

romanorum1 Knowing that he was probably the first British director of a talkie, Alfred Hitchcock safely made a silent concurrent version of "Blackmail." No matter, as it is the talkie version that predominates today.Beautiful Alice White (Anny Ondra), whose father owns a smoke shop, is the girlfriend of New Scotland Yard detective Frank Webber (John Longden). As he keeps her waiting thirty minutes for a restaurant date, the inevitable spat occurs between our two leads. Alice winds up in the apartment of her artist neighbor (Cyril Ritchard). She is impressed with his decor. Lusting for her all along, he tries to seduce her, and, in the struggle she grabs a knife and stabs him to save her honor. The "homicide" was justifiable. Frank Webber is assigned to the case, so he has to track down his own girl. He finds one of her gloves in the flat. When he confronts Alice, the blackmailer Tracy (Donald Calthrop) comes out of nowhere waving the other glove. Now we have our primary plot. Since the unfortunate incident, the guilt on Alice's face is palpable. When she walks on the busy London streets of 1929, note the various situations that remind her of the crime scene.The ending is not happy even though the homicide case is closed (wrongly). The couple knows that the dead man, rotten as he is, did not commit the killing. Alice, and Frank too, have to live with guilt, unless of course she decides to come clean with the law. After all, there is that recurrence of the painting of the ugly, laughing jester. Hitchcockian symbolism? Attractive Anny Ondra was born in Galicia (Polish area) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire a few years after the turn of the 20th century. Because of her heavy eastern European accent, her voice was dubbed. No matter, she was slender and leggy, and was the first of many attractive blondes to work for the master of suspense. She was a decent actress and made the transition to sound. She also had the "look," and the director made sure we got long views of blonde Anny's gorgeous legs. Actors had to overact in silent movies to stress their emotions, and we see some of that here in Hitchcock's first talkie. The movie's beginning is like a silent documentary, and works very effectively. It moves along quickly, but suffers from that awful background sound and that general roughness of later 1920s pictures that were transported into the sound era. Scene endings are not always smooth, but understandable. To be fair, the available resources were minimal. By the way, that was the master on the train being worked over by the kid.