What was the first sound movie made by Alfred Hitchcock?
Before Alfred Hitchcock made iconic movies like 'Rear Window' and 'Psycho', he made silent films. Yet, everything changed with the advent of talkies...
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Film » Cutting Room Floor
Thu 16 January 2025 6:30, UK
Born in 1899, Alfred Hitchcock entered the world shortly after the invention of moving pictures. As he grew older, cinema transformed from a groundbreaking invention into an established art form, and it wouldn’t be long before he became one of the central figures within the film industry.Â
Hitchcock’s foray into the world of storytelling began when he started writing short stories for The Henley Telegraph. From there, he landed a job at the film distribution company Famous Players–Lasky, and he subsequently gained experience in various areas, such as designing title cards or managing productions. By getting his foot in the door at a pivotal point in cinema’s evolution, Hitchcock secured himself a space to prove his creativity, and he subsequently tried his hand at directing.
Unfortunately for Hitchcock, his first attempt, Number 13, was never finished because of funding issues, but he continued to work on other projects, often acting as an assistant director. It was clear that directing was Hitchcock’s main desire, but he eventually tried again, resulting in 1925’s The Pleasure Garden. At 90 minutes long, it marked Hitchcock’s feature-length film debut—the first of many movies that would define the filmmaker as an icon.
He made a handful of other silent movies, like The Ring, The Farmer’s Wife, and Champagne, before a monumental development within cinema changed the course of his career.Â
So, what was Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film?When Hitchcock started working on his film Blackmail, he was under the impression he was making a silent picture. Yet, cinema was beginning to develop rapidly, and as sound cinema started to become popular in Hollywood, British studios followed, resulting in Blackmail’s change from silent to sound.
The film became Britain’s first talkie, although some of the films featured scenes taken from the silent version Hitchcock had already started shooting.Â
(Credits: Far Out / Jeremy Yap)Blackmail starred Anny Ondra as Alice, a woman who, after spending some time in an artist’s studio, is horrified when he tries to rape her. In a state of shock and fear, she kills him, which leads us to follow Alice as she is then blackmailed by a mysterious thief following the incident.
It was a milestone for both British cinema and Hitchcock, who would subsequently go on to make many classic movies, from The Lady Vanishes to Vertigo, Psycho, and Rear Window.
…and what was the first sound film ever made?ÂFeature-length films with sound, also known as talkies, emerged in 1927. The technology had been in the works for years, but the developments made until this point were incredibly complex and not easily accessible. The Vitaphone system was used for most early sound films, which was a form of sound-on-disc technology that involved recording the soundtrack onto a separate vinyl disc from the film.
This technology was used for The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length movie to include sound segments. It was a revolutionary moment in cinema history, and one that led to silent film becoming a rare artform. The first full-length movie that entirely consisted of sound soon followed, which was 1928’s Lights of New York. The technology used to create talkies was refined, with sound-on-film technology then becoming the norm, which was even more accessible for commercial screenings.Â
Related Topics
Alfred HitchcockBritish CinemaSilent cinemaSilent Film
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