Blackmail

Blackmail

Released: October 6 1929

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Leading characters: Anny Ondra - Alice White, John Longden - Detective Frank Webber, Donald Calthrop - Blackmailer
• Crime/Thriller
• Not Rated
• #44 on list

After killing an artist in self-defense, Alice attempts to cover up her involvement. But with her detective fiancé investigating the case and a ruthless blackmailer harassing her, Alice realizes that getting away with murder won't be easy. *Taken from Netflix

John and I both really liked this movie. It's a black and white and about the first 5 min are silent picture style, but morphs into a talkie. It was Alfred Hitchcock's first venture into making films with sound and I think he did a good job.

Some interesting tidbits on the movie are that much of the film was shot silent style but some scenes were re-shot when sound became available. One problem though was that Anny Ondra (Alice) had a thick German accent and she was suppose to be British in the movie. To solve the problem they had Joan Berry stand just out of shot and read Anny's lines and she mouthed them on camera. This is now acknowledged as the first time an actor's voice was dubbed.

Also Alfred Hitchcock wanted to use the British Museum as his final chase scene but light was so bad it couldn't be filmed there so he used the Schufftan process. This is when still photos are shot of a location then reflected into mirrors with silver of the mirror scraped away where doorways/windows need to be so actors can be filmed like they're in location .

The plot in this movie was very good (Alfred Hitchcock didn't write it though, it was developed from a play) and really pulled you in. You just have to find out if Alice gets caught or not! Some of the acting is a little cheesy but back then if it wasn't full of cheese it wasn't good.

I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.