Review: Blackmail (1929)

When Anny Ondra’s Scotland Yard detective beau John Longden seems more interested in work than her, she decides to entertain the interest of artist neighbour Cyril Ritchard. This turns out to be a mistake as Ritchard attempts to rape Ondra who is forced to kill the man in self defence. Longden covers it up for her, but the duo soon find themselves the target of a sleazy blackmailer (Donald Calthrop). That’s Sara Allgood as Ondra’s mother.

 

Although initially started as a silent film, this 1929 film ended up being the first ‘talkie’ from Alfred Hitchcock (“Strangers on a Train”, “Vertigo”, “Shadow of a Doubt”), who adapts the Charles Bennett (who worked on Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps”, “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, and “Foreign Correspondent”) play himself. There’s a terrific 65-75 minutes of footage here, but because it started out as a silent film, those 65-75 minutes are disjointedly bookended by silent footage of lesser interest. The finale is a long chase that does have some bearing on the plot, but a little of it goes plenty far enough thank you and the bookends really do seem jarring. If you remove the prologue and trim some of the finale, it ends up being an even stronger film, if slightly transparent in plot. As is, I enjoyed it just not as much as I would’ve liked. It’s a bit slow, with no one dead or blackmailed after 30 minutes into an 85 minute film. That 65-75 minute stretch sure is damn good though, and the story is an interesting one even if it’s predictable and the leading lady’s actions infuriate you a bit.

 

It’s also interesting that Hitchcock basically has the murder being committed off-camera. Look for an absolutely terrific shot where a shadow is cast on the side of the artist’s face that makes him look positively demonic. There’s another excellent bit where the leading lady has a noose-like shadow around her as she makes an important decision, showing that The Master was at work here, if not in full flight. We also later get a classic Hitchcock trope where the villain climbs a large building/structure. Absolute scene-stealer of a performance by Donald Calthrop as the villain. As good as Ivor Novello was in “The Lodger”, Calthrop for me was the first classic Hitchcock villain. The best thing in the film, it’s a bit of a shame he's not involved in it earlier. Australian-born Cyril Ritchard is also excellent as the creepy, lecherous artist, and Sara Allgood is wonderful as always in support. You probably saw her in “How Green Was My Valley”, but I’ll always remember her as Bessie in “Jane Eyre”. Leading lady Anny Ondra’s best scenes are the post-murder ones where she silently conveys shell-shock and guilt. She’s excellent there, though I found her character frankly not all that sympathetic from the outset. I couldn’t figure out what she thought she was doing with the artist in the first damn place. It didn’t seem credible to the character otherwise.

 

A solid, if unremarkable Hitchcock thriller but an important one in his career for being his first sound picture as well as Britain’s first ‘talkie’. It could’ve been even better with a few corrections, but it’s still worth seeing as The Master is on show here from time to time (including black comedy banter over the choice of murder weapon).

 

Rating: B-