Solidly made/location shot (coastal Cornwall subbing for The Isle of Man), Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate silent (BLACKMAIL/’29 was both a final silent and a first Talkie) was assigned rather than chosen; no doubt explaining Hitch’s lack of interest in discussing the film much in his many interviews. (The classic conversation book, HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT, ticks it off in cursory fashion.) Yet what a neat piece of filmmaking it is, showing Hitch working to great effect on the kind of romantic triangle story he was rarely drawn to (the unsatisfactory UNDER CAPRICORN/’49 may come closest) and a delicate subject matter (out-of-wedlock pregnancy) that often has to be indicated rather than confronted. With situations only moving to melodrama near the end when the Hall Caine novel it’s adapted from goes all SCARLET LETTER on us. Anny Ondra (Czech actress famous for being ‘live’ dubbed in BLACKMAIL) is the local beauty with a fiercely protective father being wooed by rough, manly fisherman Carl Brisson (a Lars Hanson/Charles Farrell type) and his upper-crust childhood pal Malcolm Keen, now on the fast track for county judge. Affianced before his latest voyage, Brisson charges Keen to watch over Ondra, but she falls for the guy when Brisson is mistakenly reported killed at sea. Returning very much alive, Brisson accepts the child as his own; it’s Ondra who wants out . . . permanently. Charged with attempted suicide; brought before Judge Keen’s court; the secret of the child’s parentage revealed to a disbelieving Brisson; Hitchcock plays most of ths very close to the vest, helped by his regular cinematographer at the time Jack Cox. All this drama successfully brought off with minimal surtitles which helps to hold down the temperature. Hitch should have been proud of this road-not-taken effort.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Hitch’s previous film with Brisson, THE RING/’27, and his following one with Ondra, BLACKMAIL, both excellent. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-ring-1927.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/10/blackmail-1929.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: One of Hitchcock’s greatest shots is hiding in here, but lasts only half a second. (About 10 frames at silent speed.) It’s when Ondra returns to take her child back from Brisson and their actions are watched by a crowd of faces looking thru a large window of many panes; one gossiping head in every pane.
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