Nicole C The film incorporates some of German Expressionism which was really obvious in the film. The beginning of the movie itself shows this through the use of lighting and shadows. A recurring theme is the framing of the face with a dark surround, and light shining only on the eyes. This creates a very intense and eerie sort of mood, which consolidate the theme of Expressionism. The acting is pretty good and both Anny Ondra and John Longden did well. Ondra greatly showed the expressions of a person recently exposed to trauma, and the close-ups of her occupied and fearful expressions emphasize her guilt. Longden first starts off as a pre- occupied character who doesn't pay much attention to Alice, but after the murder he becomes more concerned and does his best to keep her from confessing. I find it interesting that the film goes about different ways to silence Alice. She is never given a chance to tell her story, and hardly gets any input. The story was average for me, but I guess for that time period it could have been engaging. I felt that it lacked motivation on the part of the blackmailer (Donald Calthrop) and that his character just popped up so suddenly. The cinematography however was pretty creative. As mentioned before, there was some Expressionistic styles used in the film, and camera placements helped with that. Also, the beginning scene had a really great shot from a mirror that showed a criminal's point of view.I watched the version of this film with sound recorded, and it was pretty ingenious how sound was synchronized. The voice of Alice is from another actress, and Ondra was miming the words in the film. Though the sound at the beginning of the film is inconsistent and very much like a silent film, it got better throughout the film. Noticeably there was use of ambient noise as well as back shots of characters to eliminate sound synchronization problems. The use of sound to enhance Alice's subjective perception was also a great addition. A obvious example of this is when the neighbour starts gossiping and all Alice hears is "knife blah blah blah knife! blah blah knife!" That was pretty comedic (and annoying after awhile) but could be related to how Alice was hearing things. Read more movie reviews at: champioangels.wordpress.com

Syl Sir Alfred Hitchcock was already a well known film director mostly for his silent films. This film is his talking picture. Blackmail is a short film but worth noting in studying Hitchcock's film catalog. This film stars Anna Ondry who plays a shopkeeper's daughter. She is beautiful and charming. She gets into trouble when she defends herself by killing the artist and leaving the scene. Hitchcock's includes his favorites like Sara Allgood. The film doesn't have too much suspense but we do feel for Alice in her situation but the plot is predictable for the most part. The cast is small enough and focuses on Alice mostly.

romanorum1 Knowing that he was probably the first British director of a talkie, Alfred Hitchcock safely made a silent concurrent version of "Blackmail." No matter, as it is the talkie version that predominates today.Beautiful Alice White (Anny Ondra), whose father owns a smoke shop, is the girlfriend of New Scotland Yard detective Frank Webber (John Longden). As he keeps her waiting thirty minutes for a restaurant date, the inevitable spat occurs between our two leads. Alice winds up in the apartment of her artist neighbor (Cyril Ritchard). She is impressed with his decor. Lusting for her all along, he tries to seduce her, and, in the struggle she grabs a knife and stabs him to save her honor. The "homicide" was justifiable. Frank Webber is assigned to the case, so he has to track down his own girl. He finds one of her gloves in the flat. When he confronts Alice, the blackmailer Tracy (Donald Calthrop) comes out of nowhere waving the other glove. Now we have our primary plot. Since the unfortunate incident, the guilt on Alice's face is palpable. When she walks on the busy London streets of 1929, note the various situations that remind her of the crime scene.The ending is not happy even though the homicide case is closed (wrongly). The couple knows that the dead man, rotten as he is, did not commit the killing. Alice, and Frank too, have to live with guilt, unless of course she decides to come clean with the law. After all, there is that recurrence of the painting of the ugly, laughing jester. Hitchcockian symbolism? Attractive Anny Ondra was born in Galicia (Polish area) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire a few years after the turn of the 20th century. Because of her heavy eastern European accent, her voice was dubbed. No matter, she was slender and leggy, and was the first of many attractive blondes to work for the master of suspense. She was a decent actress and made the transition to sound. She also had the "look," and the director made sure we got long views of blonde Anny's gorgeous legs. Actors had to overact in silent movies to stress their emotions, and we see some of that here in Hitchcock's first talkie. The movie's beginning is like a silent documentary, and works very effectively. It moves along quickly, but suffers from that awful background sound and that general roughness of later 1920s pictures that were transported into the sound era. Scene endings are not always smooth, but understandable. To be fair, the available resources were minimal. By the way, that was the master on the train being worked over by the kid.

Terrell Howell (KnightsofNi11) Alfred Hitchcock was one of the more prominent directors working during one of the greatest technical innovations the cinema world ever saw. The innovation I'm referring to is, of course, sound. The jump from silent movies to talkies was a major one and not all directors could cope with the change incredibly well. Blackmail is Hitchcock's first ever talkie, and it's admittedly a bit rough, but not too bad. It tells the story of Alice White, the daughter of a shopkeeper in London. One night she meets a man who ends up inviting her into his art studio. While there this man tries to rape Alice, so she murders him. The guilt and paranoia immediately sets in as Alice's world comes crashing down around her as the cover up gets out of hand. Alice's boyfriend, Frank, is the police detective assigned to the case. He finds out about Alice's guiltiness, but so does someone else. Thus, a twisted tale of blackmail and treachery occurs. It's a tale that is simple enough, and provides for a mildly entertaining little flick.Hitchcock is obviously a very stylistic director who has his own very specific ways of going about things. He builds suspense in his own unique ways and weaves his intricate stories so carefully. When making the awkward jump to talkies Hitchcock had to change his formula up a bit with the new resources available to him. Blackmail marks his first attempt at creating his suspenseful atmosphere with sound. Thus it is a little rough around the edges and is missing that air of Hitchcockian brilliance. There isn't anything particularly special about Blackmail. It's a simple, even somewhat dull, story without a lot of complexity or sophistication. However, we can see the first inklings of Hitchcock's style begin to establish here in the way the characters banter, the way the plot tries to twist and turn, and the way the film ends. These innovations are a bit restricted here, but we all know where Hitchcock would be headed after this film.There isn't much else to say about Blackmail. It isn't a terribly engaging film and it's fairly forgettable. For die hard Hitchcock fans it is interesting to watch because of the significance of this film within his filmography. As Hitchcock's very first talkie this film is one worth noting, if only for that fact. Everything else about the film is decent, but there's nothing tremendous here.