Blackmail (1929)

They first few minutes of the film were interesting due to the fact that there was no sound. Being that this film is from the 1920’s I simply expected the rest of the film to be without audio as well, this was not the case. The remainder of the film was like any other; it consisted of dialogue that followed the course of events that took place throughout the film. With this being the case, the opening scene was that much more peculiar. Alfred Hitchcock, as sound became available during the course of filming, reshot certain scenes to include audio. While there are certain scenes in the film where there is little to no audio present, they do not stand out like the first scene. I personally feel that by leaving sound out of the opening scene it stood out like a sore thumb. Considering the fact that prior to this film Hitchcock would have never had sound available to him is amazing. He managed to use sound in incredible ways in this film while having no experience with it (with the exception of the opening scene). In particular, there is a scene in which Anny Ondra’s Alice White is getting ready in the morning and a bird chirps, repeatedly and annoyingly, in the background. I thought that the use of the bird was exceptional in helping to set the tone of the scene and to help portray the way Ondra’s character would have felt. While older films sometimes struggle to fill the audience with suspense in comparison to more modern films, I thought that, due to Ondra’s performance, there was certainly a sense of suspense present throughout the entire film. For horror, Hitchcock was with film as Poe was with words. He has a way of drawing in an audience and keeping them engaged. This film compared to other horror films of this time is amazing; Hitchcock greatly outshines other writers and directors.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019702/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3