...And now our feature presentation

Cast                                                                               Credits
Anny Ondra . . . . . .Alice White                                      Studio. . . . . . . . . . . British International                                                                                                                        Pictures
Joan Barry. . . . . . . Voice of Alice White                         Director . . . . . . . . .Alfred Hitchcock
John Longden. . . . . Frank Webber                                  Based on play by .  Charles Bennett
Donald Calthrop. . . Tracy                                               Cinematography. . . .Jack E. Cox
Cyril Ritchard. . . . . .The Artist                                        Edited by . . . . . . . . Emile de Ruelle
Sara Allgood. . . . . . Mrs. White                                      Art Direction . . . . . .C. Wilfred Arnold
Charles Paton  . . . . .Mr. White                                       Music by. . . . . . . . . Hubert Bath
                                                                                         
                                                           Run Time: 86 minutes

   Abysmal. Complete trash-- bad acting, writing, cinematography, etc.

   Bomb. One or two redeeming qualities, but inferior overall.

    Average. Not outstanding in most respects, but worth checking out.

    I had a ball. Solid acting, writing, cinematography, etc. Superior in many respects.

Excellent. A true classic. Few, if any, flaws.

BOOMER'S REVIEW

If you watch Blackmail somewhat closely, you just know that this is a Hitchcock film. Even if nobody told you, you would know that this is a Hitchcock film. It is a far less polished precursor to his later work. The "feet scene" from Strangers on a Train is here. The scene where we first meet Uncle Charley from Shadow of a Doubt is here. The staircase scene from many, many films is here. The Hitchcock Blond is here. Undeniably, Hitchcock's vision and unmistakable trademark touches are all here. This film is the twinkle in his eye that we later see fully realized in the stylish films mentioned above and many, many others not mentioned. For this reason alone Blackmail is worth watching. But, there is another reason that you should see this movie; it is one hell of a good story.

The story is simple enough. Alice White (Ondra) goes to "The Artist's" (no, not Prince) apartment to look around. However, Alice White is a very beautiful lady, and The Artist would like to, shall we say, get to know Alice a bit better. Soon, seduction becomes an attempted rape, and Alice looking for a way to protect herself from this monster, reaches for a knife and plunges it into the assailant, killing him. The logical thing to do would be to go to the police and explain what happened, but this never happens in hitcock's world. Rather, she attempts to cover-up the crime and sneek out. The problem is that there are two other people that know about the crime, one of which she can trust, the other she cannot. The one she can trust is her boyfriend, Frank (Longden), who just happens to be a policeman at Scotland Yard. The man she cannot trust is a small time thug, Tracy (Calthrop), who decides to blackmail (thus the name of the film) Alice and Frank. the police soon get a tip from The Artist's landlady that a man, Tracy, was hanging around the building the night of the murder. The police assume that Tracy is their man, and Frank and Alice (although less so than Frank) are perfectly willing to let this "innocent" man go down for the murder. That is all you need to know about this film for our purposes. the ending is rather good, and I will not spoil it.

Above I catalogued how this film visually is very simialr to many other films. Blackmail is also very similar in tone and theme. Nobody is innocent in Hitchcock's movies. We (I include the audience because Hitchcock very plainly points an accusing finger at the audience. The best example of this is Rear Window) are all guilty. we have all done things which are not totally honest and which inculpate us in some way in the subject crime. this film is a very striking example of this almost Puritanical view of the world. Who is innoecnt here? The Artist? He tried to rape an innocent woman; Alice? She is willing, although reluctantly, to allow Tracy, who had nothing to do with the murder, take the fall; Frank? He discovered the evidence that proves Alice is the killer, and yet, he hides this evidence and is willing to sell tracy out also. Tracy? He is also obstructing justice with his little blackmail scheme. Nobody is innocent, and yet almost reflexively, we will surely side with Alice and Frank. Probably most of us would have no compunction about doing so, and their lies out guilt. It is this moral dichotemy which makes this film so interesting and elevates it beyond merely a good suspense movie.

It would have been easy enough to set up a story where nobody is innocent and make a commentary on human nature; however, Blackmail goes beyond this. Hitchcock never forgets that we are paying to see a film and not just his editorial regarding our own blackened souls. To that end, he gives us great character development. We get to see Alice struggle with what she has done. The effects are devestatingto her. Clearly, Alice will never again be the same. It is this character development that provides the dramatic push (as opposed to the suspense element which the murder and chase alone provide plenty of) of this film. It is what holds our attention and makes us care enough to become engrossed in these peoples' lives. Without this dramatic element, the suspense would seem contrived and fall flat.

Not only is the writing in Blackmail first rate, the film succeeds on just about every other level as well. The acting is uniformly very good. This was the first British talkie (orignally shot as a silent and later dubbed over), but the acting is very much of the silent era--over exaggerated expressions abound here. However, even though there is some overacting, it is not so bad as to become distracting. A note about Alice White. Alice is played by Anny Ondra, a German actress. When the film was made over as a talkie, they needed to have her voice dubbed because of the German accent. Joan Barry got the call to provide the voice. The dubbing is excellent and almost not noticeable at all.

I believe that I have probably spoken too much about the direction of htis film, but I will make a few additional comments here. Hitchcock was know for pushing the envelope visually, and this film is no exception. There is a pretty fair use of special effects here. The marquee scene is very well done are the scenes in t he museum. Even though Hitchcock always emphasized the visual, the story is not left behind. The direction is crisp and clean and mixes the visual effects into the story development nicely. The result is a well rounded, stylish (although a bit immature compared to his later works) film that does not seem a bit dated.

This is a great film. My rating:

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