London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.
La muchacha de Londres, Kiristys, Alice White-saken, Szantaż, 恐喝(ゆすり), ゆすり, 블랙메일, Erpressung, Ricatto, Chantage, Chantaje, Chantagem, Шантаж, Její zpověď, Șantaj, Chantagem e Confissão, Zsarolás, Utpressning, 讹诈, 협박, Şantaj, Pengeafpresning, סחיטה, Σκότωσα για την Τιμή μου, 恐喝, Puhtauden lunnaat
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FinlandK-7
UK12
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Brazil12
Germany
Brazil
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Hitchcock finds himself caught in his own handcuffs with “Blackmail.”
He’s saved in an astonishing magic act by a single word, perhaps the most important one ever uttered in British cinema:
“Knife. Knife. Knife. Knife. KNIFE!”
The single syllable, repeated again and again in the background babble of a scene of “Blackmail,” terrorizes a woman who has just committed murder. And, Hitchcock’s employment of that sound defined how sound itself could be used in all cinema to come.
Much of the rest of “Blackmail,” however, is drowned in the din of the birth of the talking picture.
Arrested by studio expectation to create one of Britain’s first sound features, the director cedes style to formality in “Blackmail.” The work has…
45/100
An awkward and glacial early-Talkie by the great Alfred Hitchcock. A sharp and vicious opening leads to a film that is built out of flashes of brilliance and prolonged stretches of frazzled, diffuse dialogue. Not his best work by any means, but his cameo is particularly fun.
Today, I ended up seeing the sound version of Blackmail. I know the silent movie version probably has the better reputation, and maybe I'll try to see that one someday, but the sound version has enough of that fun Hitchcock style it still ends up being fun.
There are undoubtedly more dramatic and suspenseful Hitchcock movies, but it's still got a fun spirit to it that it makes up for it and ends up being a good movie.
Plus at 84 or so minutes it's reasonably fast paced, but it's one that never feels rushed or one that feels like they left much on the cutting room floor that could be used to flesh out the plot or characters.
So in the end, it's fun, fast paced and has a good spirit to it. A good movie overall.
not bad, but not good either… I don't know. I lost it before we even got to the blackmail part, and even though this particular part was, indeed, interesting, it was pretty hard to get back to the story.
Great performances, and Hitchcock is a master of his work, that's for sure. Even when this movie was first silent and only then dubbed, Hitchcock managed to make some interesting sound design with this. The thriller aspects are also here, but it goes nowhere compared to 'Psycho' or 'Rope'.
Questionable ending for me, but I respect Hitchcock very much, so it's always a pleasure to watch your favorite director's first works. Even if their quality isn't the best.
A key early work. Everything from the meeting until the murder is one of Hitchcock’s better sustained sequences with first rate framing and editing. The precision is Langian, if the morality much less punitive. The remaining film is rather good as well. One of Hitchcock’s most preposterous plots for sure, but it serves him very well in how it allows the film to movie among key motifs (man’s conscience, society’s law, god’s place as mediator). His use of sound, particular how he wave near silent passage and off-screen sounds is very good as well.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail stands as a pivotal work in the evolution of British cinema, notably for its dual existence as both a silent film and an early sound picture. This 1929 thriller illustrates Hitchcock’s burgeoning mastery of suspense, a theme that would define his illustrious career. The silent version of Blackmail impresses with its visual storytelling. Hitchcock employs innovative techniques, such as expressive close-ups and dynamic camera movements, to convey the protagonist’s internal turmoil. The absence of synchronised sound compels the viewer to engage deeply with the actors’ physical performances and the meticulously crafted mise-en-scène. The film’s striking imagery, particularly in the climactic scenes, showcases Hitchcock's ability to manipulate visual narrative to evoke tension and emotion. The silent form allows the…
Screened at Ebertfest in the silent version, with live accompaniment by the Anvil Orchestra. Absolutely incredible visual storytelling by Hitchcock, already a master of suspense at 30 years old. The use of inserts to move the plot forward is so smart and effective; letters, notes, hands, gleaming knives. Very few scenes need intertitles at all.
Today, Blackmail almost plays like Hitchcock’s greatest hits, because it contains so many of the themes that would recur in the film after film, and they are all here: Paranoia about the police, fear of incarceration, the wrongfully accused, a glamorous blonde, suspense, MacGuffins. One of the more interesting choices here is there are almost two Hitchcockian “wrong man” figures here - and both them…
I can't recall ever being as uninterested in a Hitchcock film as I was with this (and possibly The Birds)—great Hitchcock cameo, though. So, there's that. It definitely feels like a film caught between the silent and talkie eras—he certainly wasn't the master of suspense just yet. Although I do need to watch the silent version, as I imagine it’s more favourable.
Review In A Nutshell:
Before watching this, I did some minor reading on this film and it seems that Blackmail was Hitchcock's first film to use sound. Blackmail's plot is quite simple, it is about a married woman who decides to spend some time with another man, which eventually led her to go up with him in his apartment. From then on the man tried to rape her but through self-defence, she murdered him with a bread knife. I could go on detailing the plot of the film, but I think that would have ruined for you the first hour of the film. The film's story could have actually been told in about 50-60 minutes, and I think the film…
Great cameo from Hitchcock in this one where he gets his ass kicked by some random kid on a train
It features some of the greatest signatures from its iconic director as mcguffing, the use of dialogue to built tension, among other things. Also the film has some history of its own as an archivement for "talkies".
However, the tension building that we all love from the Hitchcock it's still not fully there and even with its short runtime, the pacing becomes slower and slower midway the second act, making the film a bit dull.
All in all, for fans of Hitchcock, this is definitely a must watch.
