Cinema
Blackmail
Alfred Hitchcock · 1929
Synopsis
Alice White, the daughter of a London shopkeeper, quarrels in a tea room with her boyfriend Frank, a Scotland Yard detective, and leaves with a painter she had arranged to meet. He takes her up to his studio, has her try on a dancer's costume, then throws himself on her; she seizes a bread knife. Frank, sent to investigate the case, finds a glove at the scene that he recognises. A man who saw her leave the building holds the other one and comes to find her.
Context
Shooting began as a silent film; the producer had sound equipment brought from America and a temporary stage built, and most of the film was reshot. A silent version also circulated, and it was more successful: most cinemas were not equipped. The lead actress was Czech and her accent impossible for the role of a Londoner; as dubbing did not exist, she was made to act while another actress spoke the lines off-screen, live, beside the camera. An entire sequence is built on a word repeated at breakfast by a talkative neighbour, which the sound editing isolates until it becomes unbearable.
Who it is for
About one hour twenty-five in English, subtitled, for the sound version; the silent version runs one hour sixteen. Both were restored in 2024.
Prizes and reception
Shot at Elstree studios and presented on its release as the first British talking film, it was a critical and popular success.
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