Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Blackmail Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 13, 2025

Note: These versions of this film are available as part of the Hitchcock: The Beginning set from Studio Canal.

1934 seems to be some kind of invisible dividing line between Alfred Hitchcock's more recognized output and some of his arguably lesser remembered earlier films. The first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much was released that year, and was followed in relatively short order by at least a couple of Hitch's best remembered British productions like The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, but aside from those titles and maybe one or two others (i.e., The Lodger), even diehard film fans may be relatively unacquainted with other early (or at least earlier) films of one of the most celebrated directors in the annals of cinema. Studio Canal is helping to rectify that lack of renown with an appealing collection that aggregates ten early Hitchcock films, including one that has often been cited (rightly or wrongly) as the first British feature length sound production.

Finally.

That above expression of relief may apply to a couple of things with regard to Blackmail. First of all, for those like the demographic mentioned in the opening paragraph above who may not be overly familiar with Hitchcock's earliest films, many of which are polar opposites of his later works, Blackmail offers what might be called the first traditionally Hitchcockian film in the set, at least if you define "traditionally Hitchcockian" in terms of his better known latter day offerings. Perhaps just as importantly, though, this sterling restoration by Silver Salt corrects some rather odd errors that attended the Kino Lorber release of the film for Region A some time ago.*

For the second item above, I'll address technical merits below, but for the first item, namely something "traditionally Hitchcockian", Blackmail is rather amazingly, at least given its age, still one of the most viscerally unnerving films of Hitchcock's entire career. No, there aren't veritable Fifth Columnists, there's no murderous uncle, no kidnapped child, no larcenous woman in a shower, no rampaging avian life, but Blackmail is about as "traditionally Hitchcockian" as you can get, for at least a few reasons. First of all, there's one of the first prime examples of the so-called Hitchcock Blonde in the absolutely amazing Anny Ondra, and as some of the supplements on this disc address, you can almost feel the nascent voyeurism of Hitchcock's prying camera eye virtually from the get go. Ondra's character of Alice White is something of a coquette and flirt, something that ends up getting her in trouble with smarmy local gigolo Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard, later another notable villain, many Boomers' favorite Captain Hook).

When she's sexually assaulted by Crewe, Alice kills him but manages to ostensibly cover up her crime. Within short measure of course her police detective boyfriend Frank Webber (John Longden) is assigned to investigate the murder, and rather quickly figures out that Alice must have had something to do with it. Already the basic traditionally Hitchcockian building block of paranoia that suffuses so many other Hitchcock films is well in play here, but things then get even more serious when it turns out someone else knows Alice is involved. This is simply virtuoso filmmaking, and the incredible thing about it all is that we have two at times rather markedly different versions, since Hitch was shooting this at the veritable dawn of the synchronized sound era, and so both silent and talkie versions were done, each with some distinctive differences in takes, framings and even occasionally relatively minor plot points (the talkie version perhaps understandably exploits the idiom by having Ritchard play the piano and sing, something that may frankly undercut the tension of the attack scene).

*While the Kino Lorber release involved maybe slightly hilarious aspect ratio errors, the mere fact that they offered a release with not one but two aspect ratio error issues in a fitful attempt to set things right kind of reminded me of a veritable train wreck involving a title in my review queue back in the day, Shout! Factory's then supposedly authoritative (for its time) Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection. In that case, initial errors (in languages, if I'm remembering correctly) then had replacement discs offered with even more errors (a legacy of those foul ups can be seen in the subheading for our listing, which uncharacteristically offers a replacement set UPC).

Blackmail Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots 1 through 9 are from the talkie version. Screenshots 10 through 14 are from the silent version.

Blackmail is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Studio Canal with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1 (silent version) and 1:2:1 (talkie version). Both of these presentations have their own prefatory text cards with technical information. The silent version offers the following:

The restoration was scanned in 4K by the British Film Institute - UK, from the original 35mm nitrate negative.

Colour grading and restoration were completed by Silver Salt Restoration - UK, who dedicated over 200 hours to manually clean and carefully remove sparkle, dirt and scratches, repair of missing frames, tears.

Original musical score by Moritz Eggert.
,br> This project was brought to you by Studio Canal and supervised by Jahanzeb Hayat and Mariana Ledesma.

The talkie version offers the following:

This restoration was scanned in 4K by Silver Salt Restoration - UK, from a 35mm duplicating positive.

Colour grading and restoration were completed by Silver Salt Restoration - UK, who dedicated over 300 hours to manually cleand and carefully remove sparkle, dirt and scratches, repair of missing frames, tears and correction of severe density fluctuation.

This project was brought to you by Studio Canal and supervised by Jahanzeb hayat and Mariana Ledesma.

There are several things working for Blackmail in these Studio Canal versions. The imprimatur of the BFI on the silent version probably helped keep the Kino Lorber release for Region A from being a complete disaster, and the use of the original negative and a 4K scan by the BFI then graded and restored by Silver Salt offers a really resplendent viewing experience. While there are probably more visible variances in clarity, contrast, grain structure and consistent densities in the sound version, perhaps unavoidably given the duplicate positive source element, merely the fact that the film now has its correct aspect ratio elevates this release above the Kino Lorber. But while undeniably a bit more variant in appearance, the sound version offers at times wonderful detail levels, and any major damage has been eliminated. Hitch's technical virtuosity is firmly on display in both versions, and often at least somewhat differently in each version. The generally superb quality of both of these transfers should make any repeat viewings to compare the differences a pleasure.

Blackmail Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The silent version has a score by Moritz Eggert presented in LPCM 2.0. Moritz offers a nicely colorful orchestral score which opens with a quasi-homage to one of Hitchcock's most celebrated collaborators, Bernard Herrmann, in this case the swirling proto-minimalism of Herrmann's score for Vertigo. The talkie version features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio, and while it certainly shows signs of the then nascent technologies, it's reasonably well balanced and tends to improve as it goes along (the opening credits music is pretty crackly and tinny sounding, but some of the later cues are at least somewhat improved). Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available for the talkie version, and as with the other silents in this set, there are optional German subtitles for the intertitles on the silent version.

Blackmail Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Silent into Sound: Neil Brand on Blackmail (HD; 16:24) gets into some of the fascinating history that gave us two versions of this film.


• Anny Ondra's Screen Test (HD; 00:52)


• Extract from BEHP Interview with Ronald Neame (HD; 19:49) plays to stills.


• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas


• Hitchcock / Truffaut: Archival Audio Interview (HD; 11:31) plays to stills.


• Introduction by Director / Film Historian Noël Simsolo (HD; 6:28) is subtitled in English.


• Stills Gallery (HD)

Blackmail Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blackmail may not be the chronologically first film in Studio Canal's collection, but it might be a good starting point for potential viewers not overly acquainted with Hitchcock's pre-1934 filmography. Both versions have been curated lovingly, with generally solid technical merits and some really appealing supplements. Highly recommended.