"Blackmail" Screening

Considered by many historians to be the first feature-length talkie out of Britain, this seminal thriller from the Master of Suspense cemented Alfred Hitchcock “as the most admired British director of all time” (Mark Duguid, BFI Screenonline). Shot on location in the London Underground, at the Tea House at Piccadilly Circus, and atop the British Museum, Blackmail succeeds not just in its compelling mystery, but also in capturing the richness of life in 1920s London. A picture that could have been a simple police procedural transcends its roots in the theater to become an exemplar of cinematic formalism and a high watermark of Hitchcock’s early years, with well-timed sonic emphases that could unnerve even the steeliest of dispositions.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.

1929 | 82 min. | UK | Black-and-White | English | Not Rated

DIRECTED BY: Alfred Hitchcock.

WRITTEN BY: Alfred Hitchcock, Benn W. Levy (dialogue)  

WITH: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton, John Longden