Hitchcock Talkies | Hand-Picked by MUBI

Before he found his way to Hollywood, the great Alfred Hitchcock honed his craft (and broke ground along the way!) with dozens of productions in the UK. Among the most fruitful were his initial experiments with sound, which only deepened the immersion of his thrilling, paranoid cinema to the furthest reaches of pure showmanship. This double bill includes:

BLACKMAIL (1929)
Hitchcock made his first (and indeed Britain’s first!) sound film with this 1929 talkie. Initially shot as a silent, Hitch notably shot new scenes to refashion the film for the times. Thus emerges a remarkable aesthetic curio—a darkly nuanced tale of female survival amidst the evils of male deceit.

MURDER! (1930)
Hitch made his third sound film with this wonderfully self-reflexive, theatrical tale of a falsely accused woman reckoning with and trying to escape her fate. Potentially featuring what might be the first use of voice over in cinema, Murder! is a irresistible yarn of deception and more deception.