Blackmail - 1929

[Ethan Bentley]

A great Hitchcock film but perhaps under-rated. It was his first "talkie" and I believe one of the first, if not the first, talkie that was made in the UK.
One interesting not is that it's shot as if it was a silent film but with dialogue. In the way that the acting and the shooting tell most of the story. Has anyone else noticed this with early talkies?

I really enjoyed and any film that ends with a climax chase through The British Museum is good in my book.

Has anyone else seen this? Thoughts?

 

[dhermann1]

Yes!

It's a long long time since I saw it. Apparently it was begun as a silent film, then the studio told Hitchcock to redo it as a talkie. So the sound is often muddled. And I believe the famale lead, Anny Ondra, had to have all her dialog dubbed because her German accent was so think. It startled me to see the man who will always be Captain Hook as far as I'm concerned, Cyril Ritchard, playing the wealthy playboy cad murder victim.
The film brings up all sorts of interesting moral issues, and as it progresses, and you realize how it's going to end, it shakes up your ideas of right and wrong a little bit. Those very early Hitchcock films are so wonderful.

 

[blacklagoon]

paul merton is discussing the film: blackmail,in a documentary on hitchcock on BBC 4.It's called: Paul Merton Looks At Alfred Hitchcock.I saw it the other night,and it was wonderful.Paul interviewed cameramen that were still alive,and they gave some incredible descriptions of what they had to endure,like being locked in a booth most of the day,because the cameras made too much noise for the NOW new microphones sound needed in the studio.Even the old lights had to be changed,due to the noise they made.The new sound microphones picked up everything.One of the unpleasant side effects of this camera booth,was the crews sense of humour.They would go inside to help or dicuss something,then.....Fart.The second they had farted,they would run out and close the door,leaving the cameraman stuck inside.Outside,the crew would all be laughing at the cameraman inside.They subjected the cameraman to this treatment.time and time again.He said it was awful!
Another cameraman,filming a train sequence running along a track,said he was tied to a tall contraption,in order to film someone running along the carriages,from an above angle,on top of the train.He said he started to panic inside,as he knew low tunnels were on the track,so asked a guy to stop the train using an emergeny cord.when the train stopped,it emerged they were about 100 yards away from a low tunnel.
It is a wonderful documentary,and lovely to watch.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Blacklagoon, thanks very much for the tip. I've enjoy a couple of his other film documentaries. I'll check for this one on BBC iPlayer.

Thanks again - Ethan

 

[LizzieMaine]

Excellent demonstration of adapting silent techniques to the demands of early sound technology. There was actually very little of this going on in US films at the time -- early US talkies tended to be extremely stagey -- so Hitchcock was clearly forging his own path.

Trivia -- Anny Ondra was married to German heavyweight boxer Max Schmeling.