Chantage

Original title: Blackmail

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Police Procedural Psychological Drama Psychological Thriller Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

13K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins total

Photos181

Top cast17

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Anny Ondra

Alice White

John Longden

Detective Frank Webber

Sara Allgood

Mrs. White

Charles Paton

Mr. White

Donald Calthrop

Tracy

Cyril Ritchard

Mr. Crewe, an artist

Hannah Jones

The Landlady

Harvey Braban

Chief Inspector Wald (sound version)

Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop

The Detective Sergeant
(as Ex-Det. Sergt. Bishop - Late C.I.D. Scotland Yard)

Johnny Ashby

Boy
(uncredited)

Joan Barry

Alice White
(voice)
(uncredited)

Johnny Butt

Sergeant
(uncredited)

Alfred Hitchcock

Man on Subway
(uncredited)

Phyllis Konstam

Gossiping Neighbour
(uncredited)

Sam Livesey

The Chief Inspector (silent version)
(uncredited)

Phyllis Monkman

Gossip Woman
(uncredited)

Percy Parsons

Crook
(uncredited)

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Numéro 17

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Much of the filming originally was shot silently. When sound became available during the course of shooting, Sir Alfred Hitchcock reshot certain scenes with sound, thus making it his first talkie. There was one complication with this change, however. Leading lady Anny Ondra had a thick Czech accent which was inappropriate for her character, Alice White. Joan Barry was chosen to provide a different voice for her, but post-production dubbing technology did not exist then. The solution was for Barry to stand just out of shot and read Alice's lines into a microphone as Ondra mouthed them in front of the camera. [This is a major plot point of Chantons sous la pluie (1952), which is set in the era of movie studios moving from silent pictures to talkies.] This generally is acknowledged as the first instance of one actress' voice being dubbed by another, even though the word "dub" is technologically inappropriate in this case.

Goofs
When Alice "unlocks" the door to the building where she lives, it starts to open as soon as the key reaches the door. It clearly not only was not locked but also not latched. However, she goes through the motions of unlocking it.

Actually, all she does is insert the key into the lock, and the door pushes open. As Alice steps through the door, it can be seen that the key is still in the same position as when it was inserted into the lock.

Quotes
Alice White: You and your Scotland Yard! If it weren't for Edgar Wallace, no one would ever have heard of it.

Alternate versions
Originally filmed as a silent movie, running 75 minutes; Hitchcock later added newly shot scenes and had other existing footage dubbed to create a talkie version, running 86 minutes.

Connections
Edited into Der Zinker (1931)

Soundtracks
Miss Up-to-Date
(1929) (uncredited)
Words by Frank Eyton and music by Billy Mayerl
Performed by Cyril Ritchard

User reviews121

Featured review

7/10

OK story with great cinematography.

The film incorporates some of German Expressionism which was really obvious in the film. The beginning of the movie itself shows this through the use of lighting and shadows. A recurring theme is the framing of the face with a dark surround, and light shining only on the eyes. This creates a very intense and eerie sort of mood, which consolidate the theme of Expressionism.

The acting is pretty good and both Anny Ondra and John Longden did well. Ondra greatly showed the expressions of a person recently exposed to trauma, and the close-ups of her occupied and fearful expressions emphasize her guilt. Longden first starts off as a pre- occupied character who doesn't pay much attention to Alice, but after the murder he becomes more concerned and does his best to keep her from confessing. I find it interesting that the film goes about different ways to silence Alice. She is never given a chance to tell her story, and hardly gets any input.

The story was average for me, but I guess for that time period it could have been engaging. I felt that it lacked motivation on the part of the blackmailer (Donald Calthrop) and that his character just popped up so suddenly.

The cinematography however was pretty creative. As mentioned before, there was some Expressionistic styles used in the film, and camera placements helped with that. Also, the beginning scene had a really great shot from a mirror that showed a criminal's point of view.

I watched the version of this film with sound recorded, and it was pretty ingenious how sound was synchronized. The voice of Alice is from another actress, and Ondra was miming the words in the film. Though the sound at the beginning of the film is inconsistent and very much like a silent film, it got better throughout the film. Noticeably there was use of ambient noise as well as back shots of characters to eliminate sound synchronization problems. The use of sound to enhance Alice's subjective perception was also a great addition. A obvious example of this is when the neighbour starts gossiping and all Alice hears is "knife blah blah blah knife! blah blah knife!" That was pretty comedic (and annoying after awhile) but could be related to how Alice was hearing things.

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