Blackmail (1929 Film)

Blackmail is an Alfred Hitchcock film from 1929, adapted by him from a Charles Bennett play. A thriller and Hitchcock's first talking picture, it is also considered the first British feature film with sound. It starred Anny Ondra, John Longden, Cyril Ritchard and Donald Calthrop.

Ondra's East European accent might have posed a problem for the film's audience, but Hitchcock solved it by having Joan Barry deliver the role's lines from outside the view of the camera.

Having had an argument with her boyfriend Detective Frank Webber (John Longden), Alice White (Anny Ondra) retaliates by flirting with an artist, Crewe (Cyril Ritchard) and going up to his studio. While she is changing dresses to pose for Crewe, she has to deal with his propositioning, and in the ensuing scuffle, kills him. She tries to rid Crewe's apartment of any signs of her presence, but forgets a pair of her gloves. She is also seen in the apartment by a petty thief Tracey (Donald Calthrop) who picks up one of the gloves.

The police are alerted to the murder and the case is picked up by Webber. He discovers a glove in the apartment that he recognizes as Alice's. Tracey finds Alice in Webber's company when he drops in to blackmail her.

Meanwhile, Crewe's landlady has reported Tracey's presence in the vicinity to the police and the latter suspect him to be Crewe's murderer.

• Anny Ondra as Alice White

• Sara Allgood as Mrs. White

• Charles Paton as Mr. White

• John Longden as Detective Frank Webber

• Donald Calthrop as Tracey

• Cyril Ritchard as Mr. Crewe

• Hannah Jones as Mrs. Humphries

• Harvey Braban as the Chief Inspector

• Ex-Detective Sergeant Bishop as The Detective Sergeant

"Blackmail is most draggy. It has no speed or pace and very little suspense. Everything's open-face. It's a story [from the play by Charles Bennett] that has been told in different disguises." — Variety Magazine, January 1929http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117789317.html?categoryid=31&cs=1