ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Blackmail (1929)

Hitchcock scored a triumph with his gripping talking picture debut in 1929. Adapted by Charles Bennett from his own play, Blackmail had been performed on the stage by Tallulah Bankhead, who was a London stage actress at the time. The female character in the picture kills a suitor of hers who tried to rape her; but, is it self defense or murder? Should she have gone to the gentlemen's flat by herself after only just meeting him? Was he expecting a tryst? Should she have expected that? These are not easy questions to answer while watching Blackmail. The characters in Blackmail are not black and white and there is no happy ending for any of the principal performers. While all of his movies up to this were well made and enjoyable, this is the first Hitchcock thriller since The Lodger, and it is much more darker about humanity.

Hitchcock opens the movie with the police working the beat: arresting and booking a criminal. Once the female character, played by Anny Ondra, commits murder she stumbles around the streets of 1929 London shocked and disoriented. Will she be taken in like the criminal in the opening scenes? Is that  why Hitchock showed us the policeman's routine? There's a catch: the murderess also has a detective boyfriend. And, of course, he is assigned to the case of the murdered suitor, who was an artist. Will he turn Anny Ondra in? Finally, someone else knows Ondra was at the scene of the crime, hence the movie's title, Blackmail.

Hitchcock shot Blackmail as a silent except for the last reel. He was encouraged to make it all sound, but he wanted the film to be shown in cinemas that weren't equipped for sound technology which were a good bit as this was the early years of talking movies. Eventually, he reshot scenes with sound, but, unfortunately, his leading lady, Anny Ondra, who appeared in Hitchcock's The Manxman, was Czech and not fluent in the English language. Her line readings were provided by actress Joan Barry who read the lines off camera into a microphone while Ondra mouthed the words. It's not as awkward onscreen as one would think, but Barry's voice doesn't exactly fit Ondra. Barry would later work with Hitchcock again on Rich and Strange.

Anny Ondra has the distinction of being played by Britt Ekland in a 1978 telefilm, Ring of Passion. Besides being an actress Ondra was married to boxer Max Schemling who fought Joe Louis in a 1938 boxing match that was labeled "the most important sporting event in history." It was on the eve of WWII and the match become symbolic in terms of race and history. It became sociopolitical. Joe Louis won. A black man beating a white man, German one, in 1938. However, Schemling wasn't political and didn't consider himself a Nazi, and though he was in the German army, after the war he was cleared of any Nazism.

Cyril Ritchard, who plays the horny suitor was known for appearing in musical comedies and had a  distinguished stage career spanning England, America, and Australia. He appeared most famously alongside Mary Martin in Peter Pan in which he played Captain Hook. He won a Tony for the role.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: The Ring (1927)

Excellent silent from director Hitchcock who came up with the scenario: a melodrama set in the boxing world of London. Gritty fairground scenes are staged with real glimpses of ordinary working-class people shown among the crowds. The fun comes from watching actual people, not just the performers, circa 1927; their manners and clothes and hairstyles.

The leads are played by Carl Brisson, Lilian Hall-Davies, and Ian Hunter.

Leading lady Lilian Hall-Davies is the standout: she has a hard edged Joan Crawford look. A child of the working-class like Crawford, her father was a cab driver. Lilian was a popular performer in silent movies but with the advent of talkies her career tapered off; sadly, she committed suicide in 1935. But in The Ring she's alive as ever - she and Brisson have a sexual energy onscreen and one doesn't believe she would actually see Ian Hunter on the side. Brisson is so much more sexier and alive! Her affair doesn't ring true; it comes across as a plot contrivance.

The story is basic melodrama through and through, but with Hitchcock's technical flourishes the viewer becomes involved in the movie and doesn't realize the blandness of the story until afterwards. Expertly shot, there are several stand out scenes including a 1920's roaring house party with a Louise Brooks look-alike kickin' up her heels. The party is cut with scenes of Brisson meeting his handlers in the next room - edited together to contrast the stuffiness of his office with the party going on in the living room whilst his wife chats up rival Ian Hunter.

Hitchcock alone is credited with the script and story. Perhaps this explains the less than original plot: Hitch always worked better with writers brainstorming ideas than completing a shooting script himself. By and large, the technical aspects of film-making were his forte. It would be the last movie he directed where he received sole screenwriting credit.

"The Ring" is part of a DVD collection of 20 Hitchcock British era films I own.