Blackmail

Director- Alfred Hitchcock

Starring –Anny Ondra, John Longden

Country of Origin- U.K.

Distributor - Kino Lorber

Number of Discs - 1

Reviewed by - David Steigman

Date- 09/17/2019

Nobody delivered suspenseful thrillers like the great Alfred Hitchcock. His directing style has arguably never been matched by any other director, although many have come close, there always will be only one Hitchcock. In the movie Blackmail from 1929, we get a look at one of the director’s early works.

Blackmail is the story about a woman Alice White (Anny Ondra) kills an artist she befriended, Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard) after he tries to rape her. Her boyfriend, who happens to work for the police, Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) is assigned to the case and in the process tries to help Alice by concealing evidence, which in this case is a glove. Despite being protected by her boyfriend, a man, Tracy (Donald Calthrop) was at the murder scene has found the other glove, proving that she is the murderess and plans to use it, if she doesn’t meet his demands, financial or otherwise.

Blackmail is another compelling early Hitchcock film with some memorable moments. Among the highlights is a behind the curtain stabbing, a great chase scene on the roof of a building. Be it the silent or talkie version the acting Blackmail is top notch with a great cast, backed by a superb story and Hitchcock’s masterful direction. Anny Ondra’s facial expressions of the great amount of guilt she feels is priceless. The cinematography by Jack E. Cox is also excellent, capturing some great outdoor shots, most notably during the films’ finale.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release of Blackmail is overall satisfactory, even though there are some issues that could have been improved upon. This release, which is a two-disc set, contains three different versions of the film. Disc 1 has the 76 minute version, along with the sound version running 25 minutes longer and with different sequences. Both of them are in the 1:33:1 aspect ratio. Disc 2 has the sound version presented in the 1:20:1 aspect ratio. The silent version on disc 1 was restored by BFI, and does tend to look much cleaner, sharper and most attractive than the other cuts of the film. The talkie version looked clear, but not quite as polished. The image also has balanced grey scale and black levels; however some print damages and debris are also visible. The characters are noticeably horizontally stretched on the sound version. The second disc with the sound version in the 1:20:1 aspect ratio also looks good but this time the characters are vertically stretched. In a nutshell the best way to view Blackmail is the silent version on the first disc.

All three cuts of the film receive DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track area slightly different with the musical score by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra for the silent version sounding perfectly crisp and clear. The audio for the two talkie versions are serviceable with the 2.0 mono track, with the dialog sounding inconsistent. There are moments where the sound is clear, but then there are moments where the voices of the characters are faint or sound scratchy with some minor hissing occurring but nothing all that major or distracting. It could have been better, but at the same time it could have been far worse. This is still leagues better than any DVD Alpha Video or any other public domain company has issued for their library of films from the same era. Optional English subtitles are available.

There are some cool extras for this release. To being with there is an audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas. As with his commentaries, he goes into great detail with his knowledge about the history of Blackmail, Hitchcock and the cast. His commentaries are always a must listen.

Hitchcock/Truffaut: Icon Interviews is an audio interview featuring Hitchcock discussing himself progressing as a filmmaker.

Introduction by Noel Simsolo is an interview about the production of Blackmail which shares information about the film that fans should find interesting.

Anny Ondra's Screen Test shows lead actress doing screen tests for Blackmail.

There is a trailer for Blackmail and trailers for the other Kino Lorber Hitchcock releases: Murder!, The Paradine Case and Under Capricorn.

While Blackmail may not be the dream come true release for fans of the film, the release is packed with some fantastic extras and it is an opportunity to see the differences of the film. I would recommend the silent version in terms of the viewing it for the best audio and video experience. Even the sound versions, even if they are stretched are still fascinating to watch and listen to. There is no reason to hold onto any of those shoddy DVD releases of the film.