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Blackmail (1929 film)

 Blackmail 

theatrical release posterDirected by Alfred Hitchcock

Produced by John Maxwell

Screenplay by • Alfred Hitchcock (adaptation)

• Benn W. Levy (dialogue)

Based on  Blackmail (play)by Charles Bennett

Starring •• Anny Ondra•• John Longden•• Cyril Ritchard

Music by Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly

Cinematography Jack E. Cox

Editing by Emile de Ruelle

Distributed by • BIP (UK)

• Sono Art-World Wide Pictures (USA)

Release date(s) • 30 June 1929 (UK )

• 6 October 1929 (US )

Running time 84 minutes(6740 ft silent, 7136 ft sound)

Country United Kingdom

Language English

 Blackmail  is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John

Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the play  Blackmail by Charles Bennett, the film is about the daughter of a

London shopkeeper whose boyfriend, a Scotland Yard detective, seems more interested in police work than in her.

The woman secretly arranged to meet another man and agrees to go to see his studio, where the stranger tries to rape

her. The woman defends herself and kills the attacker with a bread knife. Her boyfriend is assigned to investigate and

soon determines that his girlfriend is the killer.

After starting production as a silent film, British International Pictures decided to convert  Blackmail into a sound

film during filming. A silent version was released for theaters not equipped for sound (at 6740 feet), with the soundversion (7136 feet) released at the same time.[1] The silent version still exists in the British Film Institute

collection.[2]

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Plot

Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) escorts his girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra) to a tea

house. They have an argument and Frank storms out. While reconsidering his action, he sees Alice leave with Mr.

Crewe (Cyril Ritchard), a painter whom she had earlier agreed to meet.

Crewe persuades a reluctant Alice into coming up to see his studio. Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the

piano, and she admires a painting of a laughing clown. He steals a kiss, then attempts to rape her. In desperation,Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and stabs him to death. She punches a hole in the painting of the clown, then leaves

after attempting to remove any evidence of her presence in the flat, but leaves her gloves behind. She walks the

streets of London all night in a daze.

The next day, Frank is assigned to the case and finds one of the gloves. He realizes it belongs to Alice after he

recognizes the dead man, and conceals it from his superior. He goes to speak with Alice at her father's tobacco shop.

Tracy (Donald Calthrop), the model for the clown, saw Alice go up to Crewe's flat. He attempts to blackmail the

couple, showing that he has the other glove. Frank tells Tracy his attempt will fail, and sends for policemen.

The tension mounts. When the police arrive, Tracy's nerve finally breaks, as he has a criminal record. He flees.

When he is spotted, he seeks refuge in the British Museum. During the pursuit, he climbs down a rope or chainbeside an enormous stone statue of a head. Eventually, he clambers onto the domed roof of the British Museum

Reading Room and dies after falling through a glass panel.

Unaware of this, Alice feels compelled to give herself up and goes to New Scotland Yard. She sees the Chief 

Inspector, but before she can bring herself to confess, the inspector receives a telephone call and asks Frank to deal

with Alice. As they leave, Crewe's painting of the laughing clown is carried past them.

Cast

• Anny Ondra as Alice White • Johnny Ashby as boy (uncredited)

• Sara Allgood as Mrs. White • Joan Barry as Alice White (voice, uncredited )• Charles Paton as Mr. White • Johnny Butt as Sergeant (uncredited)

• John Longden as Detective Frank Webber • Alfred Hitchcock as man on subway (uncredited)

• Donald Calthrop as Tracy • Phyllis Konstam as gossiping neighbour (uncredited)

• Cyril Ritchard as Mr. Crewe, an artist • Sam Livesey as the Chief Inspector (uncredited)

•• Hannah Jones as the landlady • Phyllis Monkman as gossip woman (uncredited)

• Harvey Braban as the Chief Inspector (sound version) • Percy Parsons as crook (uncredited)

Production

The film began production as a silent film. To cash in on the new popularity of talkies, the film's producer, John

Maxwell of British International Pictures, gave Hitchcock the go-ahead to film a portion of the movie in sound.

Hitchcock thought the idea absurd and surreptitiously filmed almost the entire feature in sound (the opening 6 and a

half minutes of the sound version are in silent with musical accompaniment), along with a silent version for theatres

not yet equipped for talking pictures.

 Blackmail, marketed as one of Britain's earliest "all-talkie" feature films, was recorded in the RCA Photophone

sound-on-film process. (The first U.S. all-talking film,  Lights of New York , was released in July 1928 by Warner

Brothers.)

Lead actress Anny Ondra was raised in Prague and had a heavy Czech accent that was felt unsuitable for the film.

Sound was in its infancy at the time and it was impossible to post-dub Ondra's voice. Rather than replace her and

re-shoot her portions of the film, actress Joan Barry was hired to actually speak the dialogue off-camera while Annylip-synched them for the film. This makes Ondra's performance seem slightly awkward.

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Ondra's career in the UK was hurt by sound. She returned to Germany and retired from films after making a few

additional movies and marrying boxer Max Schmeling in 1933. However, an amusing test film has survived of 

Hitchcock "interviewing" Ondra, in which the director teases the actress and asks her some personal questions.

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 the Schüfftan process to film

the scenes in the Reading Room of the British Museum since the light levels were too low for normal filming.On this production, future directors Ronald Neame worked as a "clapper boy" operating the clapperboard and

Michael Powell took still photographs.[3]

The film was a critical and commercial hit. The sound was praised as inventive. A completed silent version of 

 Blackmail was released in 1929 shortly after the talkie version hit theaters. The silent version of  Blackmail actually

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 of  Blackmail.

It is the version now generally available although some critics consider the silent version superior. 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

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 the London Underground. The small boy was Jacque Carter. This is probably the

lengthiest of Hitchcock's cameo appearances in his film career, appearing from 10 min. 24 sec to 10 min. 44 sec. 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.

Role in UK film history

As an early "talkie", the film is frequently cited by film historians as a landmark film,[4] and is often cited as the first

truly British "all-talkie" feature film.[5][6]

Earlier British sound films include:

• The Gentleman, a short film in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process, was an excerpt of  Nine O'Clock Revue,

directed by William J. Elliott, and released in the UK in June 1925;

• The part-talking The Clue of the New Pin, based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, and filmed in British Phototone,

a sound-on-disc system 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 all-talkie production shot in the US and released on 6 April 1929.[7]

In March 1929, Pin and Circle were trade-shown at the same screening for film exhibitors in London.

In a public poll, Blackmail was voted the best British movie of 1929. In the same national UK poll, the best films of 

their respective years were The Constant Nymph (1928),  Rookery Nook  (1930), The Middle Watch (1931), and

Sunshine Susie (1932).[8]

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References

Notes

[1] SilentEra entry (http:/   /  www. silentera. com/  PSFL/  data/  B/  Blackmail1929. html)

[2] BFI Database entry (http:/   /  ftvdb. bfi. org. uk/  sift/  title/  26110)

[3] BFI Database entry (http:/   /  ftvdb. bfi. org. uk/  sift/  title/  26110)

[4] Rob White, Edward Buscombe British Film Institute film classics, Volume 1 (http:/   /  books.  google. com/  books?id=V96tee1l2q8C&

pg=PA94&  dq=blackmail+ first+ british+ sound+  film& hl=en&  ei=0Vw9TNbHDJK24AaswIDGAg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result&

resnum=1& ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=blackmail first british sound film&  f=false) Taylor & Francis, 2003

[5] Richard Allen, S. Ishii-Gonzalès Hitchcock: past and future (http:/   /  books.  google. com/  books?id=cFEYI_wNKAcC& pg=PR15&

dq=Blackmail+ (1929),+ is+ regarded+ as+ the+ first+ British+ sound+  feature,& hl=en&  ei=2k49TOa-G6KI0wT0ubTIDg& sa=X&

oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=8& ved=0CE0Q6AEwBw#v=onepage& q& f=false) Routledge, 2004

[6] St. Pierre, Paul Matthew Music hall mimesis in British film, 1895-1960: on the halls on the screen (http:/   /  books.  google. com/ 

books?id=AvxgFdRJ66kC&  pg=PA79&  dq=blackmail+ first+ british+ sound+  film& hl=en& ei=cQ0UTZnuMsSwhQebkrG3Dg& sa=X&

oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CDQQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage& q=blackmail first british sound film& f=false) p.79.

Associated University Presse, 2009

[7]  Black Waters at IMDB (http:/   /  www. imdb. com/  title/  tt0019700/  )

Bibliography

• Ryall, Tom, Blackmail (London: British Film Institute, 1993)

External links

•  Blackmail (http:/   /  www. imdb.com/  title/  tt0019702/  ) at the Internet Movie Database

•  Blackmail (http:/   /  www. rottentomatoes.com/  m/  1002540-blackmail/  ) at Rotten Tomatoes

•  Blackmail (http:/   /  tcmdb.com/  title/  title.jsp?stid=5899) at the TCM Movie Database

•  Blackmail at SilentEra (http:/   /  www. silentera.com/  PSFL/  data/  B/  Blackmail1929.html)

•  Blackmail at BFI Database (http:/   /  ftvdb. bfi. org. uk/  sift/  title/  26110)

•  Blackmail (http:/   /  www. allrovi.com/  movies/  movie/  v5977) at AllRovi

•  Blackmail (http:/   /  www. screenonline.org. uk/  film/  id/  437722/  ) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline

•  Blackmail at Eyegate Gallery (http:/   /  www. eyegate.com/  cine/  Blackmail/  )

•  Blackmail Sound Test at YouTube (http:/   /  www.youtube. com/  watch?v=zl6SMOSXa7A)

• Copyright Catalog (http:/   /  cocatalog. loc.gov/  ) at Library of Congress; select "Document number" and type "V8003P432"

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Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and ContributorsBlackmail (1929 film)  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=559740567 Contributors: AdamSmithee, Andrzejbanas, Arrecife, Aspects, Bede735, Before My Ken, Bensin, BeyondMy Ken, Bibliomaniac15, Bovineboy2008, BrownHairedGirl, C. A. Russell, Caiaffa, Celuici, Clarityfiend, Cooksi, Darev, Davepattern, David Gerard, Dl2000, Dutchy85, Dutzi, Error, Felix derGlückliche, Ferrie, Feydey, Florian Huber, Gaius Cornelius, Garion96, George Ho, Hu12, Iantresman, IllaZilla, JFBridge, JGKlein, Jay-W, Jh1888, Jihg, JiltoMiles, Jpm2112, JustAGal, Kafziel,Kookyunii, Kusma, Lockley, Lord Cornwallis, Lugnuts, M-le-mot-dit, Mallanox, Melaen, Miami33139, Mikomaid, Nedergard, Noirish, Odie5533, PM800, Philbertgray, Plasticspork,Radicalworld, Red Director, Rlquall, Robert Fraser, Sallyrob, SamuelTheGhost, Skier Dude, Smith03, SplendidPerformance, Sreejithk2000, Stevouk, Suduser85, Th1rt3en, The Evil Spartan,Tjmayerinsf, Tuesdaily, Tír na nÓg 1982, VampWillow, Varlaam, Venomviper, Vobor, Volatile, Who, Wmahan, Woohookitty, Xezbeth, 44 anonymous edits

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