This is one of Hitchcock's best pictures, as well as the first talkie to scale he heights of artistic greatness (The Jazz Singer is competent and pleasing, but too sentimental to be a masterpiece).
Hitch really showed his skill in the new medium by using an expressionistic to sound - very famous is the section where the guilt-ridden Alice hears a jumble of incoherent words punctuated by "knife...knife...knife". Hitch had learned visual expressionism in Germany, where he had made his first complete films e.g. The Pleasure Garden; he uses it to good effect here, as we see a neon-sign morph from a cocktail-shaker into a plunging knife.
The characters are complex and well constructed. The detective is something of a lout concerned to impose his will on everybody; this makes him a ruthless detective, but has no qualms about covering up for his girl when he finds out her part in the murder... not so much because loves her, but because it puts her absolutely in his power.
The blackmailer seems to be as slimy as they come, until we realize that he's dirt poor and only wants some breakfast, some pocket-money and the occasional cigar. Despite the title, he's a minor character, but his acting is wonderful.
Anny Ondra as Alice White is the heart and soul of the picture. It's doubtful whether any English actress of that era could have portrayed the range of emotions (and skin) demanded of the character, so Hitch was right in using her - but her Czech accent was so thick they had to use a primitive form of dubbing. She starts out being jolly and slightly mischievous, but events change her into someone overwhelmed by guilt and paranoia. She really just wants to be loved, but the guys available to her range from domineering to disgusting. (The end of the movie suggests that she will live under the total domination of Frank, consumed by fear and guilt.) Some of the technical details are a bit primitive (this is 1929), but the acting and artistry certainly make up for that. My only big objection is to the title - the blackmail is a minor sub-plot, the real theme is the destruction of a woman's personality.
PS Does anybody know of other full-length talkies made between The Jazz Singer and Blackmail? I haven't found any.
Hitch really showed his skill in the new medium by using an expressionistic to sound - very famous is the section where the guilt-ridden Alice hears a jumble of incoherent words punctuated by "knife...knife...knife". Hitch had learned visual expressionism in Germany, where he had made his first complete films e.g. The Pleasure Garden; he uses it to good effect here, as we see a neon-sign morph from a cocktail-shaker into a plunging knife.
The characters are complex and well constructed. The detective is something of a lout concerned to impose his will on everybody; this makes him a ruthless detective, but has no qualms about covering up for his girl when he finds out her part in the murder... not so much because loves her, but because it puts her absolutely in his power.
The blackmailer seems to be as slimy as they come, until we realize that he's dirt poor and only wants some breakfast, some pocket-money and the occasional cigar. Despite the title, he's a minor character, but his acting is wonderful.
Anny Ondra as Alice White is the heart and soul of the picture. It's doubtful whether any English actress of that era could have portrayed the range of emotions (and skin) demanded of the character, so Hitch was right in using her - but her Czech accent was so thick they had to use a primitive form of dubbing. She starts out being jolly and slightly mischievous, but events change her into someone overwhelmed by guilt and paranoia. She really just wants to be loved, but the guys available to her range from domineering to disgusting. (The end of the movie suggests that she will live under the total domination of Frank, consumed by fear and guilt.) Some of the technical details are a bit primitive (this is 1929), but the acting and artistry certainly make up for that. My only big objection is to the title - the blackmail is a minor sub-plot, the real theme is the destruction of a woman's personality.
PS Does anybody know of other full-length talkies made between The Jazz Singer and Blackmail? I haven't found any.