When the Hitchcock Nine restorations were premiered through 2012 this is one I managed to miss – the big one! The film was screened with a full orchestra playing Neil Brand’s score at the British Museum but I was on holiday… I thought about cancelling, but, you know…
Anyway, patience is its own reward, especially if a second
chance comes your way, which is why I set off in search of Saffron Walden (no, you
can’t really turn straight off the M11, you need to go via Stansted Mountfitchet… or at least print out a map Paul!) to see the film being screened
with Timothy Brock conducting the mighty BBC Symphony Orchestra in playing Mr
Brand’s score and… I don’t think things could have been any better at the Museum.
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| Impressive, isn't it? |
Saffron Hall is a purpose-built concert hall tacked onto Saffron Walden County High School; it has a generous stage with more than enough room for an
80 plus piece orchestra, excellent acoustics – we were wrapped in sound – and very
comfy chairs. We kicked back and re-watched Blackmail
in a new context as Anny Ondra’s gaze drew us in once more.
Blackmail shows
how massively an evening can go wrong and how anyone can be dragged into a new
world in an instant - a world that floods your very being with the sickness of
guilt and the dread of consequence. It is also clearly about desire – Miss Ondra
is at the centre of almost the whole story – and the danger of following you
primal heart too far, as Cyril Ritchard’s character, the artist Mr Crewe, finds
out.
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| Every aspect of Alice's life is changed... |
It is also a morally open film that challenges the audience
to adjust their expectations even 86 years after release – we’re all guilty and
complicit by the end with the director putting us all in the picture.
We root for
Anny’s character Alice White (see what he did..?) and we hope she and her
policeman Frank (John Longden) will find themselves after the twist of hate
that leaves the more clearly-defined bad-guy, Mr Tracy, the blackmailer of the
title, conveniently in the frame. But the ending is purposefully ambiguous –
you can escape “justice”, even get away with murder but in the end, the characters
will judge themselves and each other. That much is clear when Frank’s
previously supportive hand, drifts slowly away from Alice’s hand…
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| Tracy applies the pressure... |
The restoration is of course superb leaving the images as
spic and span as when they were first projected and from our vantage point we
were eye-level with the sequence of marvelous location shots, close-ups and interplays that
make this film one of Hitchcock’s most visually pleasing. Everything that was to come is pretty much in
this film and it is one of the most disciplined of British silent films that
almost needs no titles cards to explain itself.
All of which has been a gift to Neil Brand and his composition manages to amplify the film’s emotional content whilst carefully
under-scoring the narrative by matching the director’s pacing. There are powerful
Herrmann chords and huge emotional shifts that well up in tune with the tears
at the corner of Anny’s eyes. There are also interjections that sum up the
re-assuring, yet humorous presence of a policeman even in the moments leading
up to Alice’s crisis. These details are the essence of Hitchcock’s very British
appeal and Neil obviously knows him very well!
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| Music and role-play what could possibly go wrong? |
Timothy Brock’s orchestration brings out the full flavour of
Brand’s score and the orchestra was simply irresistible creating that unique
meld of sound and vision that can make silent film the most truly immersive of
all cinema – yes, even without IMAX, 3D and maximum volume. It is “hot media”
alright calling on the instinctive 90% of our communication that does not rely
on spoken words and filling that missing 10% with a sweet overload of sounds in
sympathy.
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| Donald Calthrop |
This succeeds in adding flavour to the expression on view
with great performances brought into new focus. Cyril Ritchard’s artist is a
typically-nuanced creation: was he intending to go all the way with Alice,
maybe not at first but certainly after she’d put on the ballet dress and subsequently
re-buffed him. Even in these desperate moments we still expect him to back down
and to be the gentleman he appeared to be.
Donald Calthrop’s Tracy is a mean man, preying on the
vulnerable and living off other’s misfortune. Nothing will prevent him from
trying to take advantage of Alice and Frank’s situation and yet when the tables
are turned his own fear is brought to the surface, bringing out Alice’s
compassion even when it may cost her dearly.
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| John Longden |
John Longden’s Detective Frank Webber, is all action in the
opening sequence and appears to be pure metropolitan police blue-blooded. He’s
dedicated to his work and often leaves his girlfriend Alice waiting, she is
seeking more adventure and dumps him for the artist and yet he is still willing
to help. Doubts appear at the end making Frank feel even more real.
But it’s really all about Anny as Alice runs the full gamut
from bored tease to a girl who will fight for her life and then condemn her own
actions: she was well-brought up in that news agent! We saw it all and as a
modern audience have no doubt it was self-defence but how did contemporary
audiences feel. Perhaps the clue is on Anny’s face as she walks out of the
police station at the end: eyes glazed and in a daze.
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| Anny... |
Hitchcock’s later films were more specifically about blood
and horror here the fear is so much more effective for being contained: there
is no blood, just repeated images of the knife, knives, the dead man’s hand
resonating in others' hands: Alice is haunted by her actions and we can only hope Fred or someone else will help
relieve her burden.
Blackmail is available
but, frustratingly and unlike The Lodger,
the restored version has not yet been released. As with that film it really
does deserve a dual-disc release with Neil and Timothy’s music on it. OK, who’s
in charge? When do we start the
petition!?
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