Hitchcock's Landmark film: "Blackmail"

Monday morning, May 5, 2008:  The 'Sound' version of Hitchcock's
"Blackmail" airs on TCM.

If "The Jazz Singer" qualifies as the first "talkie" in America (and
it's mostly a silent film with both music and title cards), why in the
world wouldn't "Blackmail" be considered the film that introduced
synchronized voice (or the "Talkie") to Britain?

Judging by Hitchcock's interview in the documentary, "Cinema
Europe," even Hitch wasn't aware of the significance when he re-shot
much of the entire (just completed) film over in sound.  He did this
even though the leading actress, Anny Ondra's voice was unsuitable to
portray a typical British girl.

Imagine what it must have been like for theatre goers i1929:

The film begins like many other silents that included synchronized
sound effects in addition to a musical score.  This was no big
surprise as audio recordings had been heard before.

Then, voices are heard; but since the actors have their backs turned
towards the camera, this was something that they had seen before
(films like "Piccadilly").
Then comes the big surprise.  As Fred meets Alice White at 'Scotland
Yard', the audience (for the first time) sees her lips moving as they
hear the words from the speakers.  The film comes alive with sound
like they have never seen before!
What they probably didn't know (and this is even more unbelievable),
the voice they hear coming so convincingly from Anny Ondra's lips
belong not to her, but to another actress talking into a microphone
(off stage) while Anny mouthed the words.

The actress's voice was the beautiful Joan Barry, who soon would be
the featured female lead in Hitchcock's early dramatic comedy, "Rich
and Strange."
What a great film "Blackmail" is.  Beginning as a traditional modern
synchronized sound silent and then progressing to a full fledged
talkie, the film is a bigger masterpiece than Hitchcock ever
imagined.

As a fan of Silent films, I still consider the original silent version
to be superior, but IMO, this is a landmark film.


At least that's my opinion.

Rich Wagner
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