Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Blackmail (1929)

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.

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

— Carl Bennett

This German rerelease DVD edition of Blackmail has been transferred from 35mm print materials for both the sound and silent versions of the film that are included on this disc. The sound version features a pillarboxed video transfer of very-good to excellent 35mm print that nets an approximate 1.18:1 ratio picture. The right side of the image reveals the curved corners of the camera’s original aperture matting, while the left side of the picture is matted straight where the optical soundtrack is located on the print (see above).

The silent version of the film (still frame above) has been full-frame transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm print. The original footage plays better here at a silent-speed of approximately 20 frames per second, resulting in natural pacing of the action. It is the slower frame rate that allows this shorter version of the film to run at approximately the same time length as the longer sound version. There is the usual amount of speckling and dust to be seen in the source print.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition. This rerelease is likely to be identical to the 2002 Arthaus edition noted below. With it sporting the same catalog number as the earlier release, but released with a different cover.

At the moment, this is our recommended home video editon of Blackmail (both versions).

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Amidst a sea of cheap Hitchcock editions of Blackmail, this DVD edition is among the better of them but is still not great. The analog video transfer maintains a broad and balanced range of greytones, 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 previously was the best-looking edition of the sound-film version of Blackmail we had seen on DVD home video.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This cheapy DVD edition 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 Collection laserdisc edition of Blackmail for this DVD edition.

The source print has some dust, speckling and fleeting print damage, but has a broad range of greytones 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).

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from the American Amazon site. Not a huge loss, but why?

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The earliest DVD home video edition of Blackmail is OK, but not really worth pursuing. While the full-frame video transfer has a slightly flat but broad greyscale 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.

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from the American Amazon site. Not a huge loss, but why?

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been transferred from a very-good 16mm reduction print.

The film is accompanied by its original synchronized soundtrack.

Not a recommended home video edition of the film when the Arthaus editions noted above are available.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has likely been transferred from a 16mm reduction print.

The film is likely to be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been repackaged from the 2007 Mill Creek edition noted above, which has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print.

The film is presented with the original synchronized soundtrack from the sound release version of Blackmail.

The supplementary material includes a ‘documentary’ The Story of Alfred Hitchock in 16:9 widescreen (22 minutes) and a collection of Hitchcock film trailers (39 minutes).

The results are not great and this is not a recommended home video edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This budget DVD edition has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print.

The film is accompanied by its original synchronized soundtrack.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Another budget DVD 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 to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from the American and United Kingdom Amazon sites. Not a huge loss, but why?

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from the American Amazon site. Not a huge loss, but why?

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 2 PAL DVD edition is . . .

Other BRITISH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.