Blackmail (1929)

Originally posted to Facebook on 3/26/2018

Blackmail was our first film from 1929, which we saw out of sequence because it was shown directly after The Lodger during the AFI Silver Theater's run of silent films last fall, again with live accompaniment. Ben actually nodded off towards the end of the film, but I think that was more due to the fact that it started at 9:30 PM than a reflection on the film itself.

Like The Lodger, it is an Alfred Hitchcock film, the second of his that we've seen. It was made in the dying days of silents, and was released in two versions -- the silent that we saw, and a sound version. The film is recognizably Hitchcock's, alternating between playfulness and suspense as in almost all of his films. The key sequence, early in the film, during which the film's lead (Anny Ondra) is assaulted and defends herself, is excellent and, I think, deserves to be as well known as the Psycho shower scene, or Cary Grant being attacked by a crop duster, or any number of other canonical Hitchcock sequences. After the movie, I googled the equivalent scene from the sound version of Blackmail, and it was nowhere near as effective -- the shot sequence is different, and some of the sound doesn't match the events that are ostensibly occurring.

That scene sparks the blackmail from which the film gets its title. The rest of the film has a few other strong set-pieces, but also has some undermining flaws. Probably the biggest logical problem with the film is that if the immediate response to the inciting incident was for Ondra to hire a lawyer and go to the police, most likely everything would have been cleared up in short order. Another problem is that, near the end of the film, the antagonist (played by Donald Calthrop) flees into The British Museum, for no other reason than to provide a pretext for him to be chased through a variety of interesting sets. This too is a signature of Hitchcock in a way -- entertaining and incredibly contrived, not unlike, say, a shoot-out on Mt. Rushmore.

Our next film, Wings, was also part of the AFI's series, and was our third film from 1927. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT