Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie is an intriguing film, not entirely successful but still more enjoyable than some of the other films Hitch made around this time. The story starts with a woman cheating on her boyfriend, a Scotland Yard detective. When the man she's with tries to rape her, she kills him in self-defense. Afterwards a criminal who pieces it together blackmails her and her detective boyfriend.

A little creaky but that's to be expected under the circumstances. The film started out being made as a silent before it was decided to turn it into a sound picture. In spots it reverts back to a silent (without intertitles). This actually works in the film's favor. There are some really nicely done lengthy sequences with no dialogue, such as her walk home after she's killed the guy, punctuated by a scream. Good acting all around. Nice direction from Hitch. The museum climax is excellent; an early example of the defining set pieces that would become a Hitchcock trademark. Definitely worth a look if you're a fan. Or even if you're not, provided you enjoy pictures from this period. Not everyone does, unfortunately.

Alfred Hitchcock's first talking picture leaves one disoriented for quite a few minutes into the story before any words are spoken. There are scenes where people are speaking to each other, though no word screens appear, and this viewer was left wondering if the description on the slip cover of my DVD was in error. However, after reading other reviews of the film, it now makes sense that the film was originally commissioned as a silent, but was then given the go ahead as a talkie. Elements of the silent film style abound, and not just in the opening scenes. Prominent are the full screen facial closeups of the principal characters and the wide eyed demureness of leading lady Anny Ondra.

Ondra portrays Alice White, daughter of a shopkeeper and keeping company with Detective Frank Webber (John Longden). An admiring artist who's hand written note requests her presence at a local restaurant leaves Alice searching for ways to break off her date with Frank. I was rather amused by Crewe's (Cyril Ritchard) attempt to entice Alice with his etchings; I always thought that was a lame pick up line, and here it's being used in 1929.

What begins innocently enough quickly spirals into disaster, as Alice must fend off Crewe's advances, and with a knife at arm's reach her defense causes Crewe's death. Shades of "Psycho", the scene is conveyed off screen as an earlier silhouette shows the couple struggling wildly. That's only one of the Hitchcockian conventions used here, there's also the repeated use of a long stairway, it's downward view a precursor to what we'll see again in "Vertigo". Getting back to the knife though, perhaps it might have been too shocking for film audiences to accept back then, but after the struggle, Alice clearly displays the weapon, which has no blood on it! Also, she was wearing only a light colored slip, and there was no indication of a struggle or bloodstains to add grimace to the proceedings.

Donald Calthrop is convincing as the blackmailing schemer Tracy, whose bold plan is to extort both Alice and Frank who has been put on the case. The detective already knows who the killer is, his conflicted willingness to help Alice receives an unwitting boost when Tracy is fingered as a possible suspect in the artist's death. Taken into custody by Scotland Yard, one has to do a double take when the police van has to make a stop, and Tracy simply gets out and runs away! He receives his due though, as he meets his end falling through a skylight at the British Museum.

Loose ended plot points notwithstanding, I found "Blackmail" to be an intriguing film and a worthwhile effort from Alfred Hitchcock. It's not well known and that's unfortunate, as this early look at his directing style is peppered with elements for which he would later become famous, not the least of which is Hitchcock's own cameo on a train in the early part of the story. It's also educational, for example, I learned that in England, a police lineup is called an "Identification Parade"!

I really wish I could have seen the original silent version of this movie. I read somewhere that it does exist, but I saw the sound version marketed by Laserlight Video. And, given just how poor the print was and what a poor job the studio did in making this a "sound" film, it leaves a lot to be desired. This dual version dilemma is the same thing that occurred with the French film Prix de beauté (Miss Europe)--the movie was originally silent, but they decided to clumsily add some sound and claim it was a "talkie". Both films featured newly redone scenes where the actors talked but also many silent scenes (that were shown at a different frame-rate--thus making the silent part look too fast and jerky) and some "clever" scenes where voices are dubbed horribly over scenes which were obviously silent originally. In both films, they did this latter stunt by showing the actors from behind and sloppily pasting sound over the scene. I really wish they had either just shown the original version or re-shot the entire thing--this hybrid version isn't done very well.

The plot itself is pretty good stuff, though. A young woman is sneaking behind her boyfriend's back to see another man. Unfortunately, this other man is a total cad and tries to rape the girl! She escapes only by performing an escape highly reminiscent of Grace Kelly's in Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER. The rest of the film is awfully exciting as well, as a scumbag apparently saw something and tries to blackmail both this girl and her boyfriend--who happens to be a detective investigating the death of the cad!!! While really tough to believe, I like how this was handled--and the ending was just terrific. This excellent ending helped make up for the slow spots and roughness of the film.

Finally, for all those "Hitchcock Watchers" out there that love to spot the director as he sneaks himself into small scenes, this one features one of the best of any of his films. Look for the poor man on the subway being harassed by a little brat--that's Hitchcock!