tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214297712303916286.post4000132460923364666..comments2008-10-10T16:30:06.824-04:00T.S.noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214297712303916286.post-32462588763581273252008-10-10T14:16:00.000-04:002008-10-10T14:16:00.000-04:00I have a copy of the silent, which was sent on to me from Allan Fish in the U.K., and it IS better than this version, although you are right to pair it with THE LODGER as the very best of the early films. There was a remarkable Criterion laserdisc of this film with a terrific commentary by the then 90 year old-screenwriter. Your review is one of the best you have written for this series, but no wonder!Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214297712303916286.post-66302869709577588882008-10-05T03:42:00.000-04:002008-10-05T03:42:00.000-04:00Hi! T.S.<BR/>I do own Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 film <B>Blackmail</B> but I have never watch it before...well it looks like that is about to change. I guess that I will try to watch it tomorrow.<BR/>Speaking of, audio transition I like the way director Stanley Donen, may have used it in his "homage" to Hitch in his 1963 film <B>Charade</B> (One of my favorite films) when the maid find the dead body of actor arthur kennedy, had drown in bed with his pajamas on.(She screams, and the scene immediately "cut" to the police office.)I think very similar to the scene from Hitch's film <B>The 39 Steps</B> when the landlord finds the body of the dead woman in actor Robert Donat apartment.darkcitydame4ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06369967577590947967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8214297712303916286.post-60418331865247837302008-10-04T08:27:00.000-04:002008-10-04T08:27:00.000-04:00I haven't seen Blackmail in a while. I mostly remember the obsessive visual and verbal treatment of the knife later in the movie, but it would be fun to trace the many film techniques that Hitchcock used later. You mention the "obsessive task of cleaning a crime scene." A variation on the long scene of Norman cleaning up the bathroom in Psycho? <BR/><BR/>Also, isn't the audio transition of the scream used in a similar way in The 39 Steps when the landlord finds the body?<BR/><BR/>Blackmail sounds a bit like Tim Burton's Frankenweiner in the way you can see much foreshadowing of the director's later career.FilmDrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03073505923746994988noreply@blogger.com