Genre: Thriller
/ Drama
Tagline: See and Hear It - Our Mother
Tongue As It Should Be Spoken
Plot Summary: Alice White is the
daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920's London. Her
boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who
seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank
takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged
to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go
back to his flat to see his studio. The man has other
ideas and as he tries to rape Alice, she defends herself
and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is
discovered, Frank is assigned to the case, he quickly
determines that Alice is the killer, but so has someone
else and blackmail is threatened.
User Comments: Hitchcock's first
talkie, and one of his best films!
User Rating:
7.0/10 (1,179 votes)
|
|
| Anny Ondra |
.... |
Alice White |
| Sara
Allgood |
.... |
Mrs. White |
| Charles
Paton |
.... |
Mr. White |
| John
Longden |
.... |
Det. Frank Webber |
| Donald
Calthrop |
.... |
Tracy |
| Cyril
Ritchard |
.... |
Mr. Crewe (the artist) |
| Hannah
Jones |
.... |
Mrs. Humphries (the landlady)
|
| Harvey
Braban |
.... |
The Chief Inspector |
| Ex-Det.
Sergt. Bishop |
.... |
The Detective Sergeant |
Runtime: 84 min
Country: UK
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Certification:
Canada:PG (Ontario) /
Argentina:13 /
Australia:PG /
Germany:12 /
Spain:T /
UK:A (original rating) /
UK:PG (video rating) (1989) /
Iceland:L
Trivia: Generally acknowledged as the
first British talkie.
Goofs: Revealing mistakes: When the
artist is talking to Alice (Anny
Ondra), he calls her Annie at one point, before
correcting himself.
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|
User
Comments:
11 out of 11 people found the following comment
useful:-
Hitchcock's first talkie, and one of his best
films!, 28 December 1998
"....knife....knife...knife....(etc.)" -this is
probably the most celebrated line of dialog from early
Hitchcock. In 1929, Alfred Hitchcock was halfway thru
production of "Blackmail", a silent film, when the
studio told him to remake the film at once as a talkie.
He did, and it became the first films to boldly
experiment with the art of talking pictures.
The plot is so simple, it's almost boring: a
detective and his girlfriend, Alice, argue during a
dinner date and go separate ways. She goes off with an
artist to his loft, where he tries to rape her. In self
defense, she stabs the artist to death. A local neer-do-well
(Donald Calthrop in a fine, sleazy performance!) goes to
blackmail her and her cop boyfriend. The police
accidently blame the blackmailer for the murder. After a
chase thru the British Museum, the blackmailer falls to
his death. The police close the case, and the girl and
her boyfriend have to live the feelings of guilt.
"Blackmail" abounds with the Hitchcock touch. It begins
with a silent, detailed study of a typical arrest,
letting us know, Scotland Yard is a fearful force not to
be messed with. When Alice leaves the artist's corpse in
his loft, the streets are filled with gruesome reminders
of the crime. In her eyes, a neon advertisment showing a
cocktail shaker becomes a hand holding a dagger,
whenever anyone extends a hand in the street, it reminds
her of her victim's extended dead hand, and there's the
most famous scene from this film: a neighbor gabs on and
on about the murder, repeating the word knife. Hitchcock
had the entire gabbing reduced to a low mutter except
for the oft- repeated word knife, which is made louder.
The chase thru the British Museum seems to be an early
rehearsal for all the other Hitchcock films where
somebody is chased thru a famous landmark. "Blackmail"
is credited as the first British talkie. It solidified
for the then 30 year old Alfred Hitchcock that thrillers
were his territory.
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