Blackmail

BFI Film Classics

by Tom Ryall

Blackmail was the first major British sound film. Tom Ryall examines its unusual production history, and places it in the context of Hitchcock's other British films of the period. Each volume in the "BFI Film Classics" series contains a personal commentary on the film and a filmography.

Genres: Film

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 27, 1993

Reviews

[Tonymess · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Slightly disappointed as I thought there would be a critical comparison between the silent & talkie versions of the film. (As the blurb implies). However there is good background as to historical context & the production of a film on the cusp of talking pictures.
Having watched the silent version of the film this adds some great analysis.

[Russio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Ryall taught me for a term when I was at Sheffield Hallam Uni, and lit the fuse in me for a lifetime of educated film viewing. I remember his lionisation of Hitchcock in particular, explaining how in every film he made, he innovated. This book makes the case for Blackmail as being the work of a director who saw the future and was already several steps ahead of received wisdom. It also makes the case for the film being a blueprint of what was to come next, rather than just 'the British film with the sound.'

[Michael Goth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative and interesting look at Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 film Blackmail, not only an early classic for the master of suspense but a landmark in British cinema as the first "talkie " produced in England.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-3.5...