Blackmail (1929) Director: Alfred Hitchcock
“Whatever the provocation, I could never use a knife… knife… knife…”
★★★★★
In the mold of an Greek tragedy, or perhaps a psychological murder tale a la Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929) stands head and shoulders above many other films in the 1920s. Blackmail was initially intended to be a silent film, however Hitchcock worked it out with the studio who demanded that it be a “talkie.” As per usual with Hitchcock, the influence of late German Expressionism holds a particularly high place in the creation of this film.
The film opens with the spinning wheel of a squad car, as a pair of policemen slowly make their way up an Expressionistic staircase to a flat where a criminal is lying in his bed. The man in question tries to reach for his gun but he is immediately arrested. Later at the police station, Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) leaves work for the day with his flapper girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra), though she is upset that he has kept her waiting for several hours. As they ride the train in silence, we are treated to Hitchcock’s delightful cameo as he is seated aboard the train and a little boy stands on a nearby seat and tugs at his hat. Frank and Alice head into a London cafe and they continue to quarrel, in this case over whether or not to attend the pictures. Alice accidentally leaves a glove at a nearby table and asks Frank to retrieve it while she opens her bag to reveal a secret note stating that someone else will be meeting her at this cafe at 6:30 –who could it be? As Alice flippantly equivocates over attending the pictures with Frank, in a rage, Frank storms out of the cafe leaving Alice to secretly leave with another man, an artist named Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard). She joins Mr. Crew to visit his upper flat art studio and paint over a picture of a sad clown together while he plays piano and she seductively changes clothes into a fancy dress. They sign her name on the clown painting and, much to her disgust, he steals a kiss. As Alice attempts to leave, Crewe steals her dress and tries to rape her, but she stabs him to death offscreen (notably the murder takes place offstage a la an ancient Greek tragedy). She rips a hole in the painting and then leaves the flat in a daze, wandering the streets at night. Although she believes she has removed all traces of her presence in the flat, in truth, she has accidentally left behind her glove (the same one she asked Frank to retrieve for her in the cafe). Frank is then assigned to the murder case, but when he realizes the situation at hand, he and Alice are blackmailed by a conniving man named Tracy (Donald Calthrop) who has discovered the glove. Frank then double-crosses Tracy who wrongfully blames him for the murder to the police. As the tension builds, Alice decides to turn herself in. But before she can confess the whole truth, Tracy flees to the rooftop above the British Museum where he falls through the glass crashing to his death. The police assume he was the true killer, and Alice and Frank leave the police station together as a policeman carries Crewe’s infamous painting past the screen.
I love a good Hitchcock movie –even these early ones. In Blackmail, Anny Ondra’s performance is simply striking –at one point she is seductive, the next she is haunting. And Hitchcock’s signature touch, as well as the German Expressionist influence, is apparent throughout the film. The use of celebrated public landmarks like the British Museum is early foreshadowing of classic American landmarks which are later featured in Hitchcock’s movies like: Mount Rushmore in North By Northwest (1959) and the Golden Gate Bridge in Vertigo (1958). Blackmail is another triumph from the master of suspense!
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Credits:
- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Screenplay by: Alfred Hitchcock (adaptation) and Benn W. Levy (dialogue)
- Based on: “Blackmail,” a play by Charles Bennett
- Produced by: John Maxwell
- Starring:
- Anny Ondra
- John Longden
- Cyril Ritchard
- Cinematography: Jack E. Cox
- Edited by: Emile de Ruelle
- Music by: Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly, Hubert Bath and Harry Stafford (arrangements), Billy Mayerl (song: “Miss Up-to-Date”)
- Production Company: British International Pictures (BIP)
- Distributed by: Wardour Films (UK) and Sono Art-World Wide Pictures (US)
Other Notes:
- Hitchcock Cameo: occurs near the beginning of the film wherein a young boy pesters Hitchcock on the London Underground subway while he reads a newspaper.