Wikipedia

Blackmail(1929 film)

Blackmailis a 1929 Britishthriller[3]directed byAlfred Hitchcockand starringAnny Ondra,John Longden,andCyril Ritchard.Based on the 1928play of the same namebyCharles Bennett,[1][4]the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.

Blackmail
UK trade advert[1]
Directed byAlfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by
Based onBlackmail(play)
byCharles Bennett[1]
Produced byJohn Maxwell
Starring
CinematographyJack E. Cox
Edited byEmile de Ruelle
Music byJimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly
Hubert Bathand Harry Stafford (arrangements)
Billy Mayerl(song: "Miss Up-to-Date" )
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 28 July 1929(1929-07-28)(UK)
[2]
Running time
85 minutes(7136 ft sound)
76 minutes(6740 ft silent, 2012 restoration)[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

After starting production as a silent film,British International Picturesdecided to adaptBlackmailinto a separate sound film. It became the first successful Europeantalkie;a silent version was released for cinemas not equipped for sound (at 6,740 feet), with the sound version (7,136 feet) released at the same time.[5]Both versions are held in theBritish Film Institutecollection.[1][6]

Blackmailis frequently cited as the first Britishsound feature film.[7][8][9]It was voted the best British film of 1929 in a UK poll the year it was released. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics forTime Outmagazine rankedBlackmailas the 59th best British film ever.[7]

Plot

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On 26 April 1929,Scotland YardDetective Frank Webber escorts his girlfriend Alice White to a tea house. They have an argument and Frank storms out. While reconsidering his action, he sees Alice leave with Mr. Crewe, an artist she had earlier agreed to meet.

Crewe persuades a reluctant Alice into coming up to see his studio. She admires a painting of a laughing clown, and uses his palette and brushes to paint a cartoonish drawing of a face; he adds a few strokes of a naked feminine figure, and guiding her hand, they sign the picture with her name. He gives her a dancer's outfit and Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano.

Crewe steals a kiss, to Alice's disgust, but as she is changing and preparing to leave, he takes her dress from the changing area. He attempts to rape her; her cries for help are not heard on the street below. In desperation, Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and kills him. She angrily tears a hole in the painting of the clown, then leaves after attempting to remove any evidence of her presence in the flat, but accidentally leaves her gloves behind. She walks the streets of London all night in a daze.

When the body is found, Frank is assigned to the case and finds one of Alice's gloves. He also recognizes the dead man, but conceals this from his superior. Taking the glove, he goes to see Alice at her father's tobacco shop, but she is too distraught to speak.

As they speak privately in the shop'stelephone booth,Tracy arrives. He had seen Alice go up to Crewe's flat, and he has the other glove. When he sees Frank with the other one, he attempts to blackmail them. His first demands are petty ones, and they accede. Frank learns by phone that Tracy is wanted for questioning: he was seen near the scene and has a criminal record. Frank sends for policemen and tells Tracy he will pay for the murder.

Alice is apprehensive, but still does not speak up. The tension mounts. When the police arrive, Tracy's nerve finally breaks and he flees. The chase leads to theBritish Museum,where he clambers onto the domed roof of theReading Roomand slips, crashing through a skylight and falling to his death inside. The police assume he was the murderer.

Unaware of this, Alice feels compelled to give herself up and goes to see the Chief Inspector atNew Scotland Yard.Before she can confess to him, the inspector receives a telephone call and asks Frank to deal with Alice. She finally tells Frank the truth—that it was self-defense against an attack she cannot bear to speak of—and they leave together. As they do, a policeman walks past, carrying the damaged painting of the laughing clown and the cartoon canvas where Alice painted over her name.

Cast

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An advertisement

Production

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The film began production as asilent film.To cash in on the new popularity of talkies, the film's producer,John MaxwellofBritish International Pictures,gave Hitchcock the go-ahead to film a portion of the movie in sound. Most sources state that Hitchcock thought the idea absurd and surreptitiously filmed almost the entire feature in sound, but in reality the silent version - which was largely completed - was cleverly used for several sequences with non-synchronous sound and dialogue where the actors faces were not visible. The opening 61⁄2minutes of the sound version are silent, with musical accompaniment, as are numerous shorter scenes later, and the entire final chase sequence is from the silent version with occasional non-synchronized vocal interjections, including Donald Calthrop's last words on the dome of the British Museum's reading room. Thus it can be argued that the sound version ofBlackmail,despite BIP's publicity, is a "part-talkie".Gaumont-British'sHigh Treason,directed byMaurice Elveywas also turned into a sound film mid-way during production. Much likeBlackmail,much of the silent footage inHigh Treasonwas maintained and dubbed over for the sound version, with Elvey himself voicing some of the minor characters.[10]

Blackmail,marketed as one of Britain's earliest "all-talkie" feature films, was recorded in theRCA Photophonesound-on-filmprocess. (The first U.S. all-talking film,Lights of New York,was released in July 1928 byWarner Brothersin theirVitaphonesound-on-discprocess.) The film was shot atBritish and Dominions Imperial Studiossoundstage inBorehamwood,the first purpose-built sound studio in Europe.[11]

Lead actress Anny Ondra was raised inPragueand had a pronouncedCzechaccent that was felt unsuitable for the film. Sound was in its infancy at the time and it was not possible topost-dubher voice. Rather than replace her and reshoot her scenes, actressJoan Barrywas hired to speak the dialogue off-camera while Ondra lip-synched her lines. This makes Ondra's performance seem slightly awkward.[1]

Hitchcock used several elements that would become Hitchcock "trademarks" including a beautiful blonde in peril and a famous landmark in the finale. Without informing the producers, Hitchcock used theSchüfftan processto film the scenes in the Reading Room of theBritish Museumsince the light levels were too low for normal filming.

The film was a critical and commercial hit. The sound was praised as inventive. A completed silent version ofBlackmailwas released in 1929 shortly after the talkie version hit theaters. The silent version ofBlackmailactually ran longer in theaters and proved more popular, largely because most theaters in Britain were not yet equipped for sound. Despite the popularity of the silent version, history best remembers the landmark talkie version ofBlackmail.It is the version now generally available although some critics consider the silent version superior.[1]Alfred Hitchcock filmed the silent version with Sam Livesey as the Chief Inspector and the sound version with Harvey Braban in the same role.

Hitchcock's cameo

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Alfred Hitchcock's cameo,a signature occurrence in many of Hitchcock's films, shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on theLondon Underground.This is probably the lengthiest of Hitchcock's cameo appearances and he appears around 10 minutes after the start. As the director became better known to audiences, especially when he appeared as the host of his own television series, he dramatically shortened his on-screen appearances.

Release and reception

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First screened to press and cinema distributors on 21 June 1929 at theRegalatMarble Arch,the film premiered at theCapitol Cinemain London on 28 July 1929.Blackmailwas one of the most successful releases of that year, and received critical praise.[2]

In a public poll,Blackmailwas voted the best British film of 1929, largely on the basis of the silent version, which, as mentioned above, was more widely seen. In the same national UK poll, the best films of their respective years wereThe Constant Nymph(1928),Rookery Nook(1930),The Middle Watch(1931), andSunshine Susie(1932).[12]

Legacy

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As an early sound film,Blackmailfrequently is cited by film historians as a landmark film,[13]and is often cited as the first truly British "all-talkie" feature film.[1][8][9]Two future directors worked on this production:Ronald Neameoperated theclapperboardandMichael Powelltook on-set publicity photographs.[6]

Earlier British part-sound films include:

  • The Gentleman,a short film in thePhonofilmsound-on-filmprocess, was an excerpt ofThe 9 to 11 Revue,directed by William J. Elliott, and released in the UK in June 1925.
  • The part-soundThe Clue of the New Pin,based on the novel byEdgar Wallace,and filmed in British Phototone, asound-on-discsystem using 12-inch discs.
  • The Crimson Circle,a UK-German silent film, also based on a Wallace novel, dubbed after the fact with the Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
  • Black Waters,a British-produced sound film shot in the US with an almost exclusively American cast and crew, and released on 6 April 1929.[14]

In March 1929,New PinandCrimson Circlewere trade-shown at the same screening for film exhibitors in London.

The plot ofDownton Abbey: A New Era(2022), produced by Ronald Neame's grandsonGareth Neame,is partly inspired byBlackmail.[15][16]

Preservation status and home media

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A restoration ofBlackmail's silent version was completed in 2012, as part of theBFI's £2 million "Save the Hitchcock 9" project to restore all of the director's surviving silent films.[17]

Like Hitchcock's other British films[17][18]Blackmailhas been heavilybootleggedon home video.[19]Additionally, various licensed, restored releases of both silent and sound versions have appeared on DVD and video on demand fromOptimumin the UK,Lionsgatein the US, and others.[1]

At the beginning of 2025,Blackmailwill enter thepublic domain in the United States.

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^abcdefghi"Alfred Hitchcock Collectors' Guide: Blackmail (1929)".Brenton Film. 8 November 2018.Retrieved11 November2018.
  2. ^ab"Blackmail".Art & Hue.
  3. ^Ryall, Tom (1996).Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema.Athlone Press. p. 117.ISBN978-0-567-53416-3.
  4. ^Vagg, Stephen (25 March 2023)."A Brief History of Hitchcock Remakes".Filmink.
  5. ^Blackmail
  6. ^ab"Blackmail".Retrieved26 October2022.
  7. ^ab"The 100 best British films".Time Out.Retrieved 24 October 2017
  8. ^abRichard Allen, S. Ishii-GonzalèsHitchcock: Past and FutureRoutledge, 2004
  9. ^abSt. Pierre, Paul MatthewMusic Hall Mimesis in British Film, 1895–1960: On the Halls on the Screenp.79. Associated University Presse, 2009
  10. ^"High Treason: Looking forward to 1940 or reaching back to the Great War?".South West Silents.22 August 2016.
  11. ^Tomlinson, Richard."Borehamwood Film Studios: The British Hollywood".Herts Memories.Retrieved26 October2022.
  12. ^"SUNSHINE SUSIE".Daily News.Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 19 August 1933. p. 19.Retrieved4 March2013.
  13. ^Rob White, Edward Buscombe,British Film Institute Film Classics Volume 1,p. 111 Taylor & Francis, 2003
  14. ^Black Watersat IMDB
  15. ^"Downton Abbey:The Real-Life Hitchcock Saga That Inspired A New Era ".Vanity Fair.20 May 2022.
  16. ^"An Alfred Hitchcock film inspired a keyDownton Abbey: A New Eraplot line ".Entertainment Weekly.
  17. ^ab"Alfred Hitchcock Collectors' Guide".Brenton Film. 8 August 2018.
  18. ^"Alfred Hitchcock: Dial © for Copyright".Brenton Film. 30 August 2018.
  19. ^"Bootlegs Galore: The Great Alfred Hitchcock Rip-off".Brenton Film. 8 August 2018.

Bibliography

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