Hitchcock's "Blackmail"

The most recent film I watched is Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail," from 1929. I loved it.

There's an interesting article on it at Wikipedia. The main thing from Wiki that I want to mention is how Anny Ondra, starring in the film, comes across rather awkwardly because someone is just off camera recording her lines. They felt Anny's Czech accent wouldn't be right for the film, and dubbing wasn't possible at the time, so she is (presumably) saying her lines without being heard and this other woman is off camera saying the lines along with Anny's lips! That'd make anyone seem awkward.

It is distracting once you know about it. And it seems like, to help cue the person off camera, Joan Barry, she gives plenty of facial warning that she's about to speak. The others are speaking fairly much as normal, only Anny has this weird thing to do, as far as I know.

This was the first talkie in Britain. The talking isn't constant. There are plenty of gaps, where you'd think the people would be talking, so there's a lot of things about the film that don't seem natural.

Other than that, there's a lot of great things about this film, such as the recurring use of a painting pointing an accusatory finger, since Anny's character has killed a guy. The fact that he was killed with a knife keeps coming up, weighing heavily on her psyche. The guy doing the petty blackmailing is very menacing.

I love all the creative things that Hitchcock did with this. There's a whole scene with the guy who's about to be killed playing a song on the piano while Anny is undressing behind him. That was lovely to see. It seemed like a really long scene to do in one take, with him apparently singing live, and her undressing being done so that she would step into the scene at just the right time. Before that they're painting a picture, her and him together, and it looks pretty good. There's some sexy bits in the film. But it's nasty when he attacks her and appears to be about to rape her. That's when she kills him.

There's plenty of things to love about this film. I recommend it highly. I was engrossed in it, even with the weird timing and very deliberate pace in certain parts.