Alfred Hitchcock directed the first sound feature film produced in England — a full-sound film that was really silent with synchronized music and sound effects for the majority of its first reel. Blackmail (1929) was initiated as Hitchcock’s tenth silent feature, but the production was converted to a sound film as the new technology became available in England. The original silent version has survived (and is generally considered to be better than the sound-film version), yet it is the sound film that is commonly available on home video.

Polish actress Anny Ondra, who had starred for Hitchcock in The Manxman (1929), was a great choice for the female lead of Blackmail until the production switched to sound. Although Ondra could speak English reasonably well, her thick accent became a problem in an English language sound film. (The 1990s laserdisc release of the Criterion Collection’s edition of the film includes a sound test of Ondra.) The solution was to dub Ondra’s dialogue with another actress’s voice, but sound-film technology and techniques were still crude and dubbing could not occur in post-production. As sound retakes were being filmed, Joan Barry (later Hitchcock’s female lead in Rich and Strange [1931]) spoke dialogue into an off-screen microphone as Ondra mouthed the words. The results were passable for 1929 audiences, but are annoying today. Perhaps a better solution would have been to reshoot the sound version with Barry in the lead role and leave Ondra’s performance intact in the silent version.

See if you can count the number of times the cast says, “I say . . .” during the course of the sound version of the film.

We are patiently waiting for a quality home video edition of the silent version of Blackmail. — Carl Bennett

Amidst a sea of cheap Hitchcock editions of Blackmail, this disc is among the better of them but not great. The analog video transfer maintains a broad and balanced range of graytones, but is a little soft in its picture details. The framing of the full-frame transfer feels a little tight. The source print is reasonably clean, but there is a moderate amount of dust, speckling and minor print damage to be seen.

Hard to find today, this is the best-looking edition of the sound-film version of Blackmail we have seen on DVD home video.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This cheapy disc is OK, but — again — not great. The original video transfer has been mastered from a 35mm print, but we suspect (unconfirmed) that the transfer was lifted from the Criterion laserdisc edition of Blackmail for this disc.

The source print has some dust, speckling and fleeting print damage, but has a broad range of graytones with perhaps a little deeper shadows than preferred.

The disc is a reasonable and inexpensive substitute for a quality disc until a better edition is released (preferably with both the silent and sound versions of the film).

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

The earliest DVD edition of Blackmail is OK, but not really worth pursuing. While the full-frame video transfer has a slightly flat but broad grayscale range, the disc’s low bit-rate encoding renders a softer and less-detailed image than some newer discs. As with most of the 35mm prints utilized for home video editions of Blackmail, this one has a moderate amount of dust, speckling and some minor print damage.

Not a horrible edition of Blackmail, but there are better to be had.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Another budget edition of Hitchcock’s Blackmail yields less than average results. It appears that a 16mm reduction print has been utilized for the full-frame video transfer. Most noticeable is the lack of highlight image details, with faces and white wardrobe blasted out to white in many shots. The print’s exposure fluctuates slightly in some shots.

Easily the worst-looking edition of Blackmail that we have viewed.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

This edition may have been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD-R of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 0 NTSC DVD-R of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Other BRITISH silent era films available on home video.