“HITCHCOCK’S
EARLY SOUND GEMSâ€
By
Raymond Benson
Alfred
Hitchcock’s early British period of work (1927-1939) has been in the public
domain and/or out of copyright and available in poor quality renditions online
and cheap home video bargain collections for many years. Most of these are
unwatchable, not due to the films themselves, but because of the wretched
condition of the images. Granted, not everything the Master of Suspense did
during these years is up to par with his later Hollywood output that most of us
know. Nevertheless, of the 25+ films Hitch made then (nine of them silent),
there are indeed some select winners (The Lodger, The Man Who Knew
Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage, and The Lady Vanishes
all come to mind).
There
are also a handful of other admirable and worthwhile gems from the British period,
and Kino Lorber has recently issued new high definition restorations of two
that have been crying out for facelifts for some time.
Blackmail
(1929)
is touted as Britain’s first talkie, although it really isn’t. Nevertheless, as
audio commentator Tim Lucas says, we’re not going to argue with that notion. Blackmail
was such a step forward in technical innovation with its inventive use of sound
that the picture deserves to be recognized as, at least, the first British
talkie that did sound well. Interestingly, the film exists as a silent
film, too. As in the USA, many cinemas across Britain were not yet wired for
sound, so Hitchcock made two versions—a silent and a talkie. Originally, the
silent picture was longer than the sound version, but some of that material is
lost. A recent restoration brings the silent entry in at around 75 minutes,
whereas the talkie is roughly 85.
It’s
a rather sordid story (then again, it’s Hitchcock!). Alice (gorgeous Anny
Ondra) is angry at her police detective boyfriend, Frank (John Longden), so she
goes out with an artist, Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard). Crewe attempts to rape
her, so Alice murders him with a knife. Unfortunately, shifty street bum Tracy
(Donald Calthrop) figures out she’s the one who did it, and he attempts to
blackmail both Alice and Frank. Without giving too much away, let’s just say
the picture ends with a moral ambiguity.
For
an early sound motion picture, Blackmail is surprisingly engaging and
suspenseful. Hitchcock’s playful use of the technology (such as in the
now-famous scene in which Alice hears the word “knife†repeated and loses her
cool over it) is apparent throughout. The picture is also notable for the director’s
first big climactic sequence at a famous landmark (in this case, the British
Museum).
That
said, film buffs may very well find that the silent version of Blackmail to
be superior. There is an economy to the purely visual storytelling that the
sound entry subtly lacks. They’re both terrific, though.
Note: Although the packaging does not adequately
make it clear, Blackmail comes with two Blu-ray disks. The first
contains the silent version and the sound edition in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. On
the other disk is the sound version in 1.20:1 aspect ratio, which is apparently
closer to what the movie was when first released. There is some speculation
online regarding the accuracy of these two aspect ratios (see the discussion at
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/a-few-words-about-blackmail-in-blu-ray/),
but these eyes can find no egregious fault with either presentation. Compared
to what we’ve had before with Blackmail, the Kino Lorber release is a
godsend. Ironically, the silent version looks the most pristine. Supplements
include the previously mentioned audio commentary by Lucas (always listenable),
an intro to the film by Noël Simsolo, an audio
portion of the conversation between Hitchcock and François
Truffaut conducted for the Hitchcock/Truffaut book, Anny Ondra’s
celebrated brief screen test, and trailers for this and other Kino Lorber
titles.