Becoming Hitchcock: The Legacy of Blackmail

Becoming Hitchcock... the Making of Blackmail is a 2024 documentary I just saw on TCM.

It takes a look at the first Hitchcock talkie, Blackmail, also released as a silent film, and how he framed moments differently in each.

The documentary also traces back those Hitchcock touches and how he applied them to his various films - his use of landmarks, types of murders, food, artwork, screams, etc., all fascinating, some less obvious than others until you see them brought together in a documentary.

At one point, the narrator directed the viewer to a partial sign in one scene that read sex to come - we don't know what the rest of it said, but it was deliberate on Hitch's part.

I'd like to point out some other subtle sexual references- the obvious train going into the tunnel at the end of North by Northwest is one. However, the best is the magazine Grace Kelly is reading at the end of Rear Window: Himalayas.

In Blackmail, there is a scene where Anny Ondra is undressing as Cyril Ritchard plays the piano and sings about a date night. Very reminiscent to me of Kim Novak, now transformed back in James Stewart's vision, emerges from the bathroom. Hitch described that as a man waiting to make love to a woman.

These moments, so many captured in this documentary, help us appreciate the subtleties in Hitchcock's work, sometimes missed as we watch the attractive villain, the normal man in unusual circumstances, the bomb we but the characters don't know is about to go off.

Highly recommended.

An informative and entertaining documentary, but I can only recommend it to those who have seen most/all of Hitchcock's films, since the doc spoils many of them.

Because the doc is centered on an analysis of the movie Blackmail, I suppose one should expect the spoilers we get for it. But in the process, without warning, the program also gives major spoilers (including footage) from Sabotage, Psycho, Vertigo, Murder, and Stage Fright. (For the last two, it even gives away who the murderers are!)

From a critical standpoint, the spoilers do tie into the documentary's overall message. But it would've been a service to the audience if a warning had appeared at the beginning, especially about the last five films I mentioned.

If you've watched them and Blackmail first, you will probably enjoy coming back to see what Becoming Hitchcock (BH) has to say. Besides being a good film, Blackmail was historically important. Routinely held up as Britain's first sound film, it dramatically--and uniquely--marked Hitchcock's transition to sound, since he wound up making both the "talkie" and a silent version for older theaters.

BH compares how Hitchcock handled certain scenes differently in the two versions, based on the different technology he had available. Likewise, BH convincingly argues that Hitchcock, though highly accomplished at silent cinema, used the shift to sound to make even greater use of his genius.

In the process, BH observes how themes and techniques he used in Blackmail would resurface in his later films. E.g. The use of chases, and voyeurism. It results in a compelling case that Blackmail was formative to his career and more typical of his work than people might realize. (Blackmail was a big hit in its day and is still well-regarded by Hitchcockians. But even though it's not as obscure as the likes of The Skin Game or Mr. And Mrs. Smith, it's nonetheless overshadowed by fancier classics like Rear Window, North by Northwest, etc.) Hence the title of the documentary, and all the clips from other Hitchcock films.

Although it would benefit from a more professional narrator (film critic Elvis Mitchell doesn't sound like he's done a lot of these), BH was an enjoyable look back at our favorite Hitchcock movies, and educational about Blackmail and Hitchcock's career circa 1930. I'm glad I already watched the movies they spoiled, though!

This documentary focuses on elements of Hitchcock's style found in Blackmail, Hitchcock's and England's first talking film, and relates it to other films that Hitchcock made both before and after Blackmail.

The plot in Blackmail is pretty simple - perhaps that is why it was chosen as an example? In it, a girl has an argument with her cop boyfriend and ends up in the apartment of an artist who attempts to rape her. She fights back and ends up stabbing him to death with a bread knife. She's observed leaving the scene, and is blackmailed as a result.

By analyzing different scenes in Blackmail the narrator talks about common themes in Hitchcock films - "The Blonde", the importance of food, landmarks, artwork, etc.

Another interesting thing that this documentary does is compare the silent and sound versions of the breakfast table scene in Blackmail. In the sound version, Alice jumps at every mention the neighbor makes of the word "knife". She's discussing the murder that Alice committed, and you can't hear anything else she's saying other than the word "knife" as the camera focuses on a traumatized Alice. The silent version can't do anything nearly as artistic with this scene.

I guess one of the things I took away from this documentary that really was never directly mentioned is that, from the beginning, Hitchcock really understood how to direct talking film. That may not seem like much until you look at the early sound work of other directors, including many prominent ones such as John Ford, who seemed to forget, at least temporarily, everything they ever knew about the art of motion picture making when confronted with sound in film.

I'll admit my bias off the top: I think Hitchc0ck in England was a cinematic genius. Whereas Hitchc-ck in Hollywood was a hack. So this little documentary should interest me, yes?

Wrong.

I mean, the movie images are there.

But the writing is so dull my attention kept wandering. Yet it gets worse: the narration drove me to imdb to check whether it was generated by AI. Who talks like this? Apparently, Elvis Mitchell does.

He speaks like he's inserting random commas and periods in sentences. Very distracting.

He's also a monotone.

I'd be interested in re-watching this documentary if they re-record the narration. There might actually be something interesting here.

This is a wonderful documentary that I think Hitchcock fans will enjoy. I watched it on TCM in conjunction with watching both the silent version of Blackmail and then the talkie version and it was the ultimate set up allowing me to enjoy Blackmail in a way I wouldn't have otherwise. The clips and images in this documentary were my favorite part as the narrator cycles through the common themes of Hitchcock's films. Food, Sex, the cameo, the blond, the villains, the music, iconic locations, the big chase scene, and murder weapons...all discussed with cross film comparisons and mostly starting right here in the first Hitchcock talkie, Blackmail.

My favorite part of this documentary was the side by side comparisons between the Silent and Talkie versions of Blackmail. Absolutely worth watching.