NitrateVille.com

The "Film Studies for Free" blog has a real-time comparison of the silent and sound BLACKMAIL (1929) versions. You can watch the entire film with the silent and sound versions side-by-side.

The blog post is at http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/ ... cocks.html

This is a great idea. Although the version above is only a 3min or so clip from both films.
Still, it's an interesting experiment.

Very interesting- both clips are equally good in their own ways.

The accompanying analysis makes huge assumptions (such as Hitchcock intending the chirping bird to reflect Ondra's "bird like" movements) and is otherwise typically pretentious writing. Of course if any academic commentary were written in clear language no one would take it seriously.

silentfilm wrote:The "Film Studies for Free" blog has a real-time comparison of the silent and sound BLACKMAIL (1929) versions. You can watch the entire film with the silent and sound versions side-by-side.

The blog post is at http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/ ... cocks.html

Thanks for posting. Having seen both versions in their entirety, I have to say I prefer the sound version. Even this early in his career (not to mention in his first talkie!), Hitchcock was employing all sorts of creative uses of sound, the "knife" scene being perhaps the most famous.

The sound version's tighter too, the editing is a lot more compact, right up to the time of the first title card in the silent. I'm guessing a lot of early talkies made by others must have driven Hitch out of his mind.