Blackmail

The first all-talkie for both Great Britain and Alfred Hitchcock, this adaptation of a 1928 play stars Ondra as Alice White, a young British woman who is to be married to Scotland Yard detective Frank Webber (Longdon). Alice, however, is drawn to a handsome artist (Ritchard), whom she ends up stabbing when he tries to force her to model nude. Of course, she soon falls prey to the crime of the title and of course her boyfriend heads up the murder investigation.

Although BLACKMAIL was completed and released as a silent film, Hitchcock was ordered by the studio to add some dialogue sequences for a "talkie" release in some specially equipped theaters. The main probl...