10. Blackmail (1929) - Silent Version

Hitchcock began his next work after The Manxman as a silent, but in 1929 talking pictures became the newest craze and British International Pictures had him turn this picture (based on the play The Last Hour by Charles Bennett) into a talkie. However, many theaters in England were not equipped for sound, so a silent version was released concurrently with its sound version. So this week, I'll be talking about the silent version and next week, the sound equivalent.

Blackmail's plot involves Alice White (Anny Ondra), daughter of London shopkeepers and in a relationship with Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) of Scotland Yard. Somewhat unhappy in her relationship, she goes out with an artist (Cyril Ritchard) who takes her back to his studio. After receiving an offer to pose for him, Alice is taken advantage of and forcibly raped. Trying any means to defend herself, she picks up a knife off a bedstand and stabs her abuser to death. Alice does her best to wipe all traces that she was in the studio and manages to make her way back to her family's flat. When Scotland Yard investigates, Webber recognizes the victim as Alice's date and finds one of her gloves at the scene. He hides the evidence and goes to Alice to find out what happened. Unfortunately for our protagonists, a petty criminal Tracy (Donald Calthrop) has the other glove and plans to milk the situation for all its worth. When the evidence can be reversed to frame Tracy (who'd it appears had been stalking the artist), he flees with Webber and Scotland Yard chasing him through the British Museum, while Alice wrestles with her guilt and wonders what to do next.

After a few duds, Hitchcock returns to the suspense genre that gave him his first success with the Lodger probably giving him his best film (in my opinion) up to this point. Hitchcock gets the most tension out of every scene leaving the audience on the edge of their seats. Ondra gives a great performance running the gamut with every type of emotion her characterization calls for at the given time. Calthrop is also fantastic as the grubby blackmailer making himself both despicable but compelling to follow. I do think Longden is a bit stilted in his performance, but the rest of cast does offer fine support.

Despite the novelty of the sound version, the silent had a longer run in British theaters (not sure about the US where major studios were phasing exclusively into sound pictures in 1929) and was quite the success. As mentioned before, Hitchcock started this film as a silent and it still can be evident in several scenes. Hitchcock often during his silents abstained the overuse of intertitles and here there are still a good deal of moments where there's obviously no dialogue passed between characters or its use would have spoiled the scene, most notably right after the stabbing scene. The photography and camerawork are magnificent and could top the majority of films being released worldwide at the time.

The film's resolution is probably its weakest point by not really giving full resolution to the situation that has been created, but it could have been intentional not exactly having a happy ending. I'll forgo external reviews here since the majority of them referred to the sound version.

Hitchcock gives himself a long cameo scene (his first since the Lodger - Easy Virtue's cameo appearance is in dispute) being pestered by a bratty kid on the subway.

Both versions of Blackmail have been restored and released by Kino Lorber on DVD and Blu-Ray which can be purchased here.