One of Hitchcock's finer films, the silent Blackmail does him great justice. The film moves rather slowly at first but then picks up enough to hold your interest and makes you cheer for Frank til the end.
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Alice White, a newsagent’s daughter, is going out with Frank Webber, a detective whose work prevents him from seeing Alice as much as she’d like.
In a spectacularly disagreeable beef, she drives Frank away one night so she can see another man, the rascally artist Crewe.
Frank sees them leave however, and they are also noticed by a shadowy figure entering Crewe’s apartments.
Once upstairs, Crewe is pleasant enough, and shows her his paintings, but he then persuades her to get into a sort of glorified tutu costume so he can paint her and at his mercy, he attempts to rape her.
In the ensuing struggle she picks up a knife from the bedside table and stabs him repeatedly.
After a few slow moments she finally realises that the state of her reputation is at stake even if she pleads self-defence, she could easily be convicted of murder. Suddenly in a moments notice, she recovers from the inherent shock and makes her way outside. However, the shadowy man is still outside and sees her leave…
Blackmail is unusual in many ways, not least in that the killer in the movie is not the villain, the greasy scum of a blackmailer is.
Ondra’s heroine is a victim but leaves you with the understanding that she is in fact just a flirtatious little tease who pays a horrible price for her selfishness.
8 out of 10 Scarecrows
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Alice White, a newsagent’s daughter, is going out with Frank Webber, a detective whose work prevents him from seeing Alice as much as she’d like.
In a spectacularly disagreeable beef, she drives Frank away one night so she can see another man, the rascally artist Crewe.
Frank sees them leave however, and they are also noticed by a shadowy figure entering Crewe’s apartments.
Once upstairs, Crewe is pleasant enough, and shows her his paintings, but he then persuades her to get into a sort of glorified tutu costume so he can paint her and at his mercy, he attempts to rape her.
In the ensuing struggle she picks up a knife from the bedside table and stabs him repeatedly.
After a few slow moments she finally realises that the state of her reputation is at stake even if she pleads self-defence, she could easily be convicted of murder. Suddenly in a moments notice, she recovers from the inherent shock and makes her way outside. However, the shadowy man is still outside and sees her leave…
Blackmail is unusual in many ways, not least in that the killer in the movie is not the villain, the greasy scum of a blackmailer is.
Ondra’s heroine is a victim but leaves you with the understanding that she is in fact just a flirtatious little tease who pays a horrible price for her selfishness.
8 out of 10 Scarecrows
