After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.
Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop
- The Detective Sergeant
- (as Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop - Late C.I.D. Scotland Yard)
Johnny Ashby
- Boy
- (uncredited)
Joan Barry
- Alice White
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Johnny Butt
- Sergeant
- (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock
- Man on Subway
- (uncredited)
Phyllis Konstam
- Gossiping Neighbour
- (uncredited)
Sam Livesey
- The Chief Inspector (silent version)
- (uncredited)
Phyllis Monkman
- Gossip Woman
- (uncredited)
Percy Parsons
- Crook
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMuch of this movie was originally shot silently. When sound became available during the course of shooting, Sir Alfred Hitchcock re-shot certain scenes with sound, thus making it his first talkie. There was one complication with this change, however. Leading lady Anny Ondra had a thick Czech accent which was inappropriate to her character, Alice White. Joan Barry was chosen to provide a different voice for her, but post-production dubbing technology did not exist then. The solution was for Barry to stand just out of shot and read Alice's lines into a microphone as Ondra mouthed them in front of the camera. This is generally acknowledged as the first instance of one actress' voice being dubbed by another, even though the word "dub" is technologically inappropriate in this case.
- GoofsWhen Alice "unlocks" the door to the building where she lives, it starts to open as soon as the key reaches the door. It was clearly not only not locked, but not even latched. However, she goes through with the motion of unlocking it.
- Quotes
Alice White: You and your Scotland Yard. If it weren't for Edgar Wallace, nobody'd ever heard of it.
- Alternate versionsOriginally filmed as a silent movie, running 75 minutes; Hitchcock later added newly shot scenes and had other existing footage dubbed to create a talkie version, running 86 minutes.
- ConnectionsEdited into Der Zinker (1931)
- SoundtracksMiss Up-to-Date
(1929) (uncredited)
Words by Frank Eyton and music by Billy Mayerl
Performed by Cyril Ritchard
Featured review
Britain's first talkie, the 1929 "Blackmail," is directed by Alfred Hitchock, and even back then, it has many of his touches. The stars are Anny Ondra, Cyril Ritchard, John Longden, and Sara Allgood.
A young woman (Ondra) two-times her Scotland Yard inspector boyfriend (Longden) and goes out with an artist (Ritchard). Things get rough in his apartment, and he forces himself on her. She kills him (a la Dial M for Murder). Her boyfriend finds her glove in the apartment and realizes she did it; the other glove was found by a criminal hanging around the artist's apartment building, and he decides to blackmail the inspector.
Hitchcock more than appears in this film; he has a bit with a little boy on a subway. The film is strange in that the beginning is silent with no title cards. Then suddenly, there is sound. It moves quite slowly, with not much in the way of action. The story builds slowly, and the scene in the artist's apartment is quite long before anything happens.
Nevertheless, the Hitchcock touches are there. A pivotal scene happens at the British Museum - Hitchcock's upheaval in familiar places. And in the jail scene, there's a sound the director often described as being terrifying in his childhood when his father had the local police teach him a lesson - the jail door closing.
The very pretty Ondra, wife of boxer Max Schmelling, is dubbed here. Ritchard in 1929 is not recognizable as Captain Hook.
Worth seeing - it's early Hitchcock and it's an 80-year-old movie. Mind-boggling.
A young woman (Ondra) two-times her Scotland Yard inspector boyfriend (Longden) and goes out with an artist (Ritchard). Things get rough in his apartment, and he forces himself on her. She kills him (a la Dial M for Murder). Her boyfriend finds her glove in the apartment and realizes she did it; the other glove was found by a criminal hanging around the artist's apartment building, and he decides to blackmail the inspector.
Hitchcock more than appears in this film; he has a bit with a little boy on a subway. The film is strange in that the beginning is silent with no title cards. Then suddenly, there is sound. It moves quite slowly, with not much in the way of action. The story builds slowly, and the scene in the artist's apartment is quite long before anything happens.
Nevertheless, the Hitchcock touches are there. A pivotal scene happens at the British Museum - Hitchcock's upheaval in familiar places. And in the jail scene, there's a sound the director often described as being terrifying in his childhood when his father had the local police teach him a lesson - the jail door closing.
The very pretty Ondra, wife of boxer Max Schmelling, is dubbed here. Ritchard in 1929 is not recognizable as Captain Hook.
Worth seeing - it's early Hitchcock and it's an 80-year-old movie. Mind-boggling.
Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $160
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
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