Becoming Hitchcock - The Legacy Of Blackmail

Laurent Bouzereau’s essay film is included as a welcome extra on the upcoming Studiocanal release of Hitchcock: The Beginning. Narrated by US film critic Elvis Mitchell, as its subtitle indicates, the film takes Blackmail as its jumping off point, indicating the ways in which themes and techniques Alfred Hitchcock used there would go on to reappear throughout his career, including many of his more famous works.

Bouzereau also dissects Hitch’s different approaches to sound and silent film, since both a silent and talkie version of Blackmail were shot. Using split screen, the director is able to articulate the way that the auteur grasped the opportunities that were presented to him by sound to subtly alter scenes to his advantage. An illustration using the famous “knife” scene - where he accentuates the murder weapon both visually and aurally for his silent and sound versions - is particularly informative.

Becoming Hitchcock also sets the use of sound into its historical context, including the challenges faced by directors and actors as they adapted to the new medium. The attention to detail is brought home by footage of German-Czech actress Anny Ondra, whose voice was seamlessly dubbed into Cockney by Joan Barry.

Among the themes highlighted by Becoming Hitchcock, is the recurrent “classic blonde” heroine and his preference for stabbing as an act of murder. Bouzereau also talks about the origins of Hitchcock's cameos, including the fact that he liked to get them out of the way early in the film, so that people weren't constantly looking for them. Some of the themes identified, however, are more of a reach, including a section devoted to food.

A film that should definitely be watched after Blackmail itself, since it fully dissects it, this is an enjoyable consideration of the work which allows for more careful visual examination of specific moments than a commentary track would.