Home video
- Examining every quality release of Hitch’s cinematic ground-breaker
- Silent and sound versions have five official transfers with four scores
- Hitchcock-up: long-awaited first US discs are sadly distorted débâcles
- But thankfully the latest flawless European box sets atone for past sins
- As usual for British Hitch, quality releases are outnumbered by bootlegs
Note: this is one of 100-odd Hitchcock articles coming over the next few months. Any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Blackmail Collectors Guide, Pt 2: First talkies and MIA, Pt 3: Restorations and scores, Pt 3: Home video
Restored European box set art: pencil drawing by Jennifer Dionisio, 2024
Contents
Silent and sound versions
As with the rest of Hitch’s British films, there are an overwhelming number of very poor quality bootlegs that aren’t worth either your money or the time wasted in watching them. They’re invariably of the sound version, including the Italian BD-R from Quadrifoglio. Here I cover all of Blackmail’s official releases to date.
- UK: Studiocanal 11-BD Hitchcock: The Beginning (2024) podcast
- Germany: Studiocanal 11-BD Hitchcock – Die frühen Filme (2025) trailer
- France: Carlotta 7-BD Hitchcock en 10 Films (2025) trailer
Silver Salt carried out 4k restorations of both Blackmails in 2024 and they’re included in the identical UK, French and German BD box sets, with the silent accompanied by Moritz Eggert’s aforementioned orchestral score. They include all the extras from the faulty US set detailed below and add two interviews, a stills gallery and a new, 72-minute documentary. These are unquestionably the most definitive releases to date; both visuals and audio are state of the art, and the best Blackmail’s ever likely to get.
The German Arthaus and Spanish Universal discs are still the best DVD for both versions, with their preserved transfers including the first release of the silent version on any format anywhere. The discs themselves are absolutely identical, with the only differences in their sleeve and label art. The silent has a piano score by Joachim Bärenz, while extras are an image gallery and the brief but saucy sound test take. They also have optional German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese subtitles for the original English intertitles, and are region 2, PAL-encoded.
- Germany: Arthaus 2on1 DVD (2002, reissued 2010, 2013), also in 3-DVD/4-film Arthaus Close-Up: AH and 6-DVD/9-film AH: Master of Suspense
- Spain: Universal 2on1 DVD (2002, reissued 2009)
This 2002 Spanish Universal DVD and its German equivalent, with both silent and sound versions, is still easily the best on the format.
The fault lies either in the copy supplied by Studiocanal or a mistake made during the disc mastering process; my money’s on the latter, as none of the previous releases are distorted in this way and Kino do have some form in this regard. It’s glaringly obvious that rather than go back and remaster the disc, and junk an entire defective run, at the 11th hour Kino made the boneheaded decision to add a second, cheaper single-layered disc with the 1.20:1 talkie transferred properly. Except it isn’t: this time it’s been transferred with a vertically squeezed 1.12:1 AR, making people look too thin. Talk about digging deeper into a hole. See Kino’s squeezed and squashed new trailer, and the screenshots below.
So Kino’s 2-disc BD set has three separate transfers – one too many – and two are defective. Sheesh. The single-disc DVD contains the squeezed sound version. I doubt they’ll ever be corrected, though would love to be proved wrong. Instead, I predict they’ll continue to be quietly sold ad infinitum, as per Kino’s similarly slipshod Nosferatu discs.
US dust jacket of Blackmail’s rare novelisation
I can only recommend the Kinos insomuch as aside from the LaserDisc, they’re the film’s only official US outing on physical media and offer the silent version in HD, albeit transferred much too fast for my liking. The sole significant new extra is an engaging, thoroughly researched audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, though it unfortunately accompanies the sound version(s). This was one of two simultaneously released titles kicking off a slate of Studiocanal-owned Hitchcocks. The other, Murder!, has a substantial pre-release-announced omission from its extras; my initial fear that it didn’t bode well for the rest of them was unfortunately well-founded but the saddest part is it’s so easily avoidable, as explained in my review for Kino’s also-botched Rich and Strange. US residents in particular should note that a HD stream of the sound version is available – in the correct aspect ratio.
Kino refuse to admit there’s a problem and instead offered refunds for anyone dissatisfied. They’ve even called the knowledge of one of the set’s expert contributors into question; see comments. This issue has been discussed on many chat forums, eg here, here, here, here, here and here. But amazingly, out of dozens of reviews, hardly any even mention Kino’s botched aspect ratios. Further proof, if any were needed, that most so-called reviewers either: know little or nothing of the technicalities of film, don’t actually watch the releases in question, or are reluctant to criticise when necessary for fear of offending companies supplying them with freebies. So much for journalistic integrity.
See site consultant and Nosferatu expert Martin Larsen’s handy viewing tips in the same comments, to help you make a silk purse out of Kino’s sow’s ear.
Then there’s the silent version’s accompaniment; here a new one is provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. I love what the MAMPO do and they’re easily in my top tier of silent film accompanists, but enlisting them for a score over Neil Brand’s was a woefully misguided decision. Part of the avowed agenda of the much publicised BFI restoration of Hitch’s silents, coinciding with the 2012 UK Olympics, was to celebrate and partially “reclaim” him as a British icon. All too often, Hitch’s stellar, prolific career in the country of his birth is ignorantly written off as not much more than an “apprenticeship” and unfairly overshadowed by his later American movies.
This then, was the reasoning behind commissioning a range of renowned British musicians of varying disciplines to breathe new life into his extant 1920s films. Brand is one of the world’s foremost silent film musicians and his orchestral score for Blackmail is his masterwork. It’s the culmination of nearly four decades in the business and a real labour of love, very unlikely to ever be creatively surpassed. What’s more, with it a version of the film would have resulted that could have been used for universal broadcast, home video and theatrical release, etc. As things stand, MAMPO’s score is pretty unlikely to ever be licensed outside of the States.
UK Kine Weekly trade magazine ad
Why then, has this most British of silent films, by our most British of directors, had the best score it’s ever known supplanted by an American composition? The answer is simple: this release was ushered onto the market as cheaply as possible, and this new score is easier than licensing the alternative. But with just a little willing effort and cooperation, the cost could have been shared between several potential distributors. That way, Kino would have got it for even less and everyone, especially the fans, would have benefited the most. In case you’re unaware, the main stumbling block to releasing the restored Hitchcock 9 as a whole is the lack of funds available to record new scores.
So releasing Blackmail this way, especially with the talkie’s farcical transfers, is bordering on the criminal. And a huge missed opportunity. That said, taken on its own terms, MAMPO’s score can hardly be faulted, as it’s every bit as adept and appropriate as their numerous other silent film accompaniments, and certainly presents a generally more rewarding experience than the previous DVDs’ piano score.
Sound version
John Longden, Anny Ondra and Donald Calthrop talk terms; US lobby card
- Prime Video HD
- UK: Optimum 9-DVD Early Hitchcock Collection (2007, reissued 2016)
- Italy: Eagle 2on1 DVD (2005) w/The Lodger, also in 5-DVD/10-film AH Collection and 8-DVD/15-film AH Portrait
- France: Studiocanal 2on1 DVD (2008, reissued 2012) w/The Skin Game, also in 2-DVD/3-film AH: Les Premières Oeuvres 1929–1931 and 6-DVD/10-film AH: Premières oeuvres – beware: all films have forced French subtitles
- Spain: Divisa DVD (2003)
- Benelux: Universal 2on1 DVD (2007), also in 5-DVD/9-film H Collection 3 and 20-DVD/24-film AH set/alt
These, like most official DVDs of British Hitchcocks, come with at least a smattering of relevant extras but sadly some of Blackmail’s that were previously released are still MIA, as is its only known dub. Following the film’s West German TV première on 5 September 1962 mit Untertiteln, a dub was produced in 1968 (alt) for TV by ZDF and Ifage Filmproduktion but it’s still unreleased on home video. All of Hitch’s early talkies up until Number Seventeen were shot and projected in the 1.19:1 aspect ratio common to early sound films but, aside from the botched Kinos, Blackmail is the only one to have always been transferred correctly from the start.
- Scandinavia: Universal 5-DVD/9-film H Collection: Early Years of the Master of Suspense (2007) info, also in 19-DVD/23-film Hitchcock
- Denmark: Soul Media DVD (2022, reissued 2024), also in 13-DVD AH Movie Collection
- Poland: Vision Film DVD/alt (2006)
- Czech Republic: Film X DVD/alt (2009) – Digipak #71 (of 175) in ltd ed. classic film series w/6 Universal Hitchcocks
- Greece: Studiocanal 2on1 DVD w/Chinese Box (1997) – newspaper giveaway
- Brazil: Universal 2on1 DVD/alt (2010) w/Murder!, also in 18-DVD/23-film AH Collection
- Brazil: Versátil 3-DVD/7-film O Cinema de H, Vol. 2/alt (2019) info
- Chile: Universal 3-DVD Cine Negro (2009)
Screenshots
There are additional sound version comparisons at the invaluable Hitchcock Zone.
Sound version: Studiocanal DVD: 1.19 correct | Kino BD: 1.33 fat, 1.12 thin
- Wheel: K BD
- Note: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
- Braban/Loder: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
- Museum: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
- Switchboard: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
- Roof: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
- Ondra: S DVD | K BD 1.33, 1.12
Silent version: Studiocanal DVD | Kino BD
- Note: DVD | BD
- Braban/Loder: DVD | BD
- Museum: DVD | BD
- Switchboard: DVD | BD
- Roof: DVD | BD
- Ondra: DVD | BD
Summary
Obviously, the latest European BDs with faultless restorations of both versions are the best releases at present, and can only be improved on by adding Neil Brand’s orchestral score alongside that of Moritz Eggert. Both transfers of the sound version on Kino’s BD and DVD are sorely lacking, so if you don’t have region B playback, the German-Spanish Arthaus DVD is still unbeaten. Its silent version runs at a far better speed and has a perfectly serviceable score, balancing out the improved image and more sophisticated score of the Kino discs. Likewise, the Arthaus’s sound version has the same transfer as Kino, albeit in SD, but at least it isn’t horribly distorted.
- Preserved silent version – good condition, fine on both available DVDs w/Bärenz score
- 2012, 2k-restored silent version – pristine condition but runs too fast; US BD and DVD w/MAMPO score
- 2024, 4k-restored silent version – pristine condition but runs too fast; Eu BDs w/Eggert score
- Preserved sound version – good condition; all releases fine except US BD and DVD w/botched geometry
- 2024, 4k-restored sound version – pristine condition; Eu BDs
Note that at the end of 2024, Blackmail entered the US public domain only, 95 years after its original 1929 release. But there’s more to it than that. It only applies to unrestored prints, not any of the preserved or restored versions which, in all cases meet the threshold of originality and easily qualify as derivative works with full-term copyrights. In the rest of the world, all versions of the film, restored or otherwise, remain copyrighted until at least 2050: Hitch’s 1980 death + 70 years.
To that end, the first “public domain” release appeared on 1.1.25, a $20 BD-R from independent US outfit Eyepop 3-D who, like every other supposedly-PD company I’ve ever come across, have already pirated many distinctly copyrighted, non-US films. Even aside from the fact no info whatsoever is forthcoming on the 3D-converted transfer’s source, it would need a separate article or 10 to explain why both technically and artistically this is a Very Bad Idea. A pity, because they seem to be genuine fans with a passion for what they do. Nonetheless, avoid at any cost.
The end is nigh: Donald Calthrop won’t be hanging around for long (another)
Blackmail Collectors Guide, Pt 2: First talkies and MIA, Pt 3: Restorations and scores, Pt 3: Home video
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This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
