Monthly Archives: October 2021

Blackmail
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Charles Bennett
1929/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Gossiping Neighbour: A good clean honest whack over the ‘ead with a brick is one thing. There’s something British about that. But knives? Nope. Knives is not right. I must say, that is what I think and that is what I feel. Whatever the provocation, I could never use a knife. Now, mind you, a knife is a difficult thing to handle. I mean any knife… a knife… a knife… a knife…

Hitchcock’s first talkie is on the clunky side, but watchable.

Alice White (Anny Ondra) is a coy and flighty young woman who thinks she has it all together.  (Truth to tell, she is absolutely the most irritating heroine in the Hitchcock catalog).  Opposites attract I suppose and she is dating hunky Detective Frank Webber of Scotland Yard.  He arrives late for a date and Alice ditches him at a restaurant to go off with an unnamed artist (Cyril Ritchard).  He lures her into his studio to see his paintings.

Alice is an idiot and in way over her head.  Soon the artist takes her behind a curtain and tries to force himself on her.  She grabs a knife from a nearby table and stabs him to death.

Of course, Frank is assigned to the murder case.  He finds her glove at the scene but chooses to hide this from his superiors.  Then a blackmailer turns up….  The movie ends with a chase through the British Museum.

Sound technology was in its infancy, obviously, and the talking scenes had to be taken with a stationary camera in a soundproof booth.  The delivery of the dialogue is oddly slow and stilted.  But Hitch still gets to work his developing magic in the silent scenes.  It’s certainly not a must-see but it is of interest to those following Hitchcock’s progression into the Master he became.

Anny Ondra’s sound test with Hitch – do not miss!

The knife scene – comparison of silent vs. sound versions (in English)

Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kino-apparatom)
Directed by Dziga Vertov
Written by Dziga Vertov
1929/USSR
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I’m an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. I free myself for today and forever from human immobility. I’m in constant movement. I approach and pull away from objects. I creep under them. I move alongside a running horse’s mouth. I fall and rise with the falling and rising bodies. This is I, the machine, manoeuvring in the chaotic movements, recording one movement after another in the most complex combinations. – Dziga Vertov

My non-existent 100 Greatest Films of all time list will always include room for this one.

The film chronicles a day in the life of a Soviet city in line with the “city symphony” documentaries of the time.  However, in this case, an amalgamation of three different cities in Ukraine stands in for the city in question.  We watch the city come to life in the morning and then follow inhabitants through their everyday activities.  Birth, death, marriage, divorce, work and more work, leisure and recreation.  Everyone looks happy especially when they are working.  There are a lot of shots of machinery operating and various forms of transportation.  The only “character” is the camera man, Mikhail Kaufman, Vertov’s brother.  The film is full of editorial flourishes and fancy camerawork and we are often showed how this was accomplished.

This may sound like a propaganda piece.  Maybe it is but it is anything but dreary or bombastic.  Vertov edits with an infectious energy that can’t help elevating the spirit.  Absolutely recommended.  Some experimental films are indeed must-sees!

The film is available for free in multiple different versions on YouTube.  The big difference will be in the score.  I prefer the one by the Alloy Orchestra.

Restoration Trailer

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Real life won’t seem to leave me alone.  I’m going back to a simpler time in my movie watching.  It occurs to me that I have not posted many reviews from my 1929-1934 viewing on this blog.  So I’ll dip into that and post when I can.