Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail with Live Score at The Old Woolen
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
A tale of murder, intrigue and mistaken identity, 1929’s Blackmail has all of the ingredients you might expect in a classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller. Based on a play by Charles Bennett, the film tells the story of Alice White (Anny Ondra), a woman who is blackmailed after killing an artist who coaxes her to his studio and attempts to assault her.
Blackmail has a fascinating history, in that it started production as a silent film, before technological advancements and the success of talking pictures in America led to the film’s producer, John Maxwell, instructing Hitchcock to switch to sound production. While the film was well received as one of Britain’s earliest talkies, not all cinema were equipped to show it this way, and so a silent version was also produced.
This is the version that is showing at The Old Woolen this May, as accomplished silent film pianist Jonny Best provides live improvised music to accompany Hitchcock’s images on the night.
