Hitchcock uses the Schufftan process in the film, which was popular at the time. The climax of the film, taking place at the British Museum, is pretty exciting as well.
This kind of innovative filmmaking foreshadows how he would manipulate the medium in the future. At breakfast the next morning, Alice keeps hearing the word knife and her family’s butter knife torments her. Hitchcock externalizes Alice’s guilt into the outside world. The sequence is a hazy urban nightmare, with everything reminding Alice of her deed. One of my favorite sequences in the film is Alice’s walk home from Crewe’s apartment after she kills him. That ironic ending would be a terrific Hitchcock finale, one that would fit right into his later films. Hitchcock wanted the ending to mirror the wordless opening section, with Frank booking Alice for the killing. Perhaps he wanted to ease his viewers into a talkie, but now the opening of the film-showing a police arrest and booking-reads more like a stylistic choice to show the daily grind of police work. Originally the idea was that only the last act of the film would be a “talkie.” Hitchcock rightfully balked at the idea for the odd switch, but the first sequence in the film is almost completely devoid of dialogue. Hitchcock started production on Blackmail as a silent film, but the studio decided that it should be in sound. In both films, simple household items can be transformed into weapons when the circumstances require it. In Dial M for Murder, it was a pair of scissors, whereas in Blackmail, Alice uses a butter knife. Both films even feature the unforgettable image of the woman’s arm reaching around for any kind of weapon. Both films feature a sexual assault in an apartment, with the victim killing her attacker in self-defense. While revisiting Blackmail, I was reminded of Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Dial M for Murder. But his penchant on thrillers means that women have to survive some torment. He usually features woman in leading roles, often with other women in supporting roles. Whether Hitchcock leans more feminist or misogynist is not cut and dry. Hitchcock really puts the poor woman through the wringer Alice experiences a horrible event then has to deal with the crushing guilt that follows. The story itself is really shocking the sense of dread during Alice’s scenes with Crewe is completely unsettling and unbearable, as Hitchcock punishes Alice for going home with a shady man. Alice and Frank are then blackmailed by an eyewitness Tracy (Donald Calthrop).īlackmail really surprised me by how radical it is and not just in terms of its visual language. Alice kills Crewe in self-defense, and Frank is assigned to the case. She follows him to his home to see his studio, and he attempts to rape her. They separate, and Alice meets up with an artist Mr. Frank Webber (John Longden) while out on a date. Alice White (Anna Ondra) has a row with her boyfriend Det.
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