4 out of 5

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

The climb through Alfred Hitchcock’s early films can be a difficult one: the want to see the auteur in more work-for-hire type projects often stymied; literally watching as visual trickery surpasses the need for making the content entertaining; and a wandering focus around genre far away from the thrillers that would be Hitch’s legacy. Setting aside how this might’ve felt as a contemporary viewer, looking back, it is very much a pursuit done for educational purposes – there are historically important films, but not as many that I think are easy to point to outside of the Hitchcock context as classics.

Still, it is generally a climb upwards in competence: the overall movies are up and down in enjoyability, but Hitch’s blending of visuals and storytelling got better; his command of his actors got better; the editing and cinematography, etc. For Blackmail, his first (sorta) talkie, I was truly excited to experience another step forward, encouraged by the critical and commercial success at the movie’s time, and modern praise for the film, and a story that was suggestive of the Hitchcock to come.

I am a bit of a stick in the mud at the best of times, so bear the in mind, but Blackmail – the talkie version – was the first time in a chronological viewing of Hitchcock’s work that I’d felt like the upwards climb took a pause, and even headed a bit downward. I’ve reviewed that edition and so no need to rehash in full, but the summary is that it felt like a hodgepodge: more truly a partial talkie, with scenes reshot for sound or dubbed over, big chunks of the movie come across as clunky, making the whole viewing drag, and feel amateurish at points.

So then I was curious: as there was a whole silent version shot – truly, with only a few scenes (the ones eventually dubbed) matched 1:1 with the talkie – how might that stack up? Happily – very well. Blackmail, the silent version continues that upward trajectory: not only is it undoubtedly the most polished of all of Hitch’s silent era films, it is legitimately a movie I’d stand by outside of the director’s legacy.

Running shorter by about ten minutes, my suspicion that some scenes were allowed to go on to absorb the novelty of sound seems confirmed; the silent sequences are so much tighter and more effective, making the film’s transitions from chase sequences to playful flirtations to sudden dangers and tense character square-offs pretty seamless. While there’s still some overreach with the visuals – Hitch tries out a trick with showing folks talking on a phone in a single shot, and it is visually neat but narratively pointless – and whether in the talkie or silent version I cannot figure what the point of the opening sequence is (it’s a relatively fair amount of time spent on a character who doesn’t matter at all), the movie on the whole is a ride, start to finish, able to go big and small with equal effectiveness.

Especially interesting is the acting, as Hitch had gotten more skilled at “naturalistic” direction with some of his last few flicks, and applying that to a thriller is brilliant stuff, making a lot of use out of silent stewing and patiently panning the camera around a scene to keep or distract our focus. Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Donald Calthrop are so good, given space in the scenes and between title cards to give the camera the exact amount of play needed to communicate the emotions of a scene. Why this is interesting is because these same actors in the same scenes but given sound… overact. Which is generally what silents are accused of, especially if you’re not use to them!

Further details about story are in the review for the talkie; this is the same movie, but its telling of its tale and how it’s presented are vastly superior. Blackmail – in its silent version – is Hitch’s silent masterpiece, in my opinion. It seems like the sound take is the more available one, which is kinda too bad; it’s worth hunting down this edition, if only just to compare the two and see how much difference there is. I wouldn’t fault someone for preferring the other to this one, but I think that they are very distinct experiences makes checking out both worthwhile.