"Blackmail" (1929) - A Movie Review by Katie Carter

No film director can rival Alfred Hitchcock. His uncanny ability to blend heart-thumping suspense with humor and romance could never be replicated. There are so many little details in Hitchcock films that make them widely recognizable as Hitchcock films, and they all trace their origins back to one of his earliest films: 1929’s “Blackmail.”


“Blackmail” was filmed in Britain, where Hitchcock worked in his early film career before moving to America around 1939. It was also Hitchcock’s first talking film. He actually began filming it as a silent film, but as “talkies” began to take the world by storm, the film’s producer, John Maxwell, gave Hitchcock permission to shoot the rest of the movie with sound. Hitchcock went one step further, filming an entire version of the movie in sound, as well as a silent version, since most theaters were still not yet equipped for sound. The result was Britain’s first “talking” picture, and quite an entertaining movie.


The main character is Alice White (Anny Ondra), a young woman whose boyfriend Frank (John Longden) is a Scotland Yard inspector. While out at a restaurant one night they have an argument and Alice leaves with a man (Cyril Ritchard) who she had agreed to meet earlier. But the man attempts to rape Alice, and she fatally stabs him in his apartment. Frank is assigned to the case, and discovers Alice is the culprit. An ex-convict who saw Alice at the apartment earlier then attempts to blackmail the two, but, as in any Hitchcock film, the tables soon turn.


Although “Blackmail” was Hitchcock’s tenth film, it was the first film to exhibit many of Hitchcock’s trademarks (besides his silent thriller "The Lodger"). In his signature cameo, Hitchcock appears on a bus being pestered by a child (this is also probably Hitchcock’s longest cameo appearance). The film also features a blonde heroine in distress, something featured in most of Hitchcock’s films, particularly his later ones. Then there’s the climax located in a famous place. In this film, there’s a well-shot chase scene in and on the domed roof of the British Museum. Hitchcock utilizes many famous locations around the world in his future films as well, such as Mount Rushmore (“North by Northwest”) and London’s Royal Albert Hall (1956 remake of “The Man Who Knew Too Much”).


But most importantly, like all of Hitchcock’s great movies, “Blackmail” is an entertaining film. Alice is an intriguing woman, though Ondra’s performance is flawed, most likely due to the fact that she had a heavy Czech accent, so her lines were dubbed by British actress Joan Barry. Several of the scenes directly after the murder, such as the repetition of images of knives, convey Alice’s guilt in a manner that words never could. The film slows down a bit after that, but later picks up again for the chase through the British Museum.


“Blackmail” is by no means a perfect film, and doesn’t hold a candle to Hitchcock’s later masterpieces, but it holds up as a testament to a fantastic director’s early work.

3 out of 5 stars.

"Iron Man 2" - A Movie Review by Katie Carter

It’s hard not to compare “Iron Man 2” to its 2008 predecessor, “Iron Man”. After all, the latter was one of the highlights of that summer, a blockbuster that was fresh, funny, and exciting. In contrast, “Iron Man 2” is almost exactly the opposite, and even just examining it on its own proves that it’s not all it could—or should—be.


“Iron Man 2”, again directed by Jon Favreau (who also acts in the film), begins six months after the first “Iron Man” ended. The world knows billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the armored superhero, and the government—and his friend Colonel James Rhodes Don Cheadle)—starts pestering him to hand over his suit to the military. Meanwhile, the suit is wreaking havoc on Tony’s health, and he appoints his longtime secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) as CEO of Stark Industries. He then makes newcomer Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) his new secretary, but she has a secret agenda. Then there’s the issue of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Stark’s rival in weapons manufacturing, who wants to learn the Iron Man suit’s technology. So he hires Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a Russian physicist whose father was deported by Tony’s father (played by John Slattery in some wonderful retro flashbacks) many years ago, to help him out. And then there’s Samuel L. Jackson…well, need I go on?


In some ways, “Iron Man 2” suffers from exactly the same thing “Spiderman 3” did several years ago. There’s almost too many characters, too much going on, thus undermining the already weak plot and causing Tony and Pepper (who, thanks to some great dialogue and acting had amazing chemistry in the first movie, and still have some stand-out scenes in this film) to get a bit lost in the mix.


There aren’t really even any great action scenes to make the experience worthwhile. The special effects—namely all of Tony’s nifty computers—are impressive, but the action scenes are few and far between, and even when there was one it was short and even relatively dull, eventually resorting to such clichés as guy walking slowly away from explosion.


“Iron Man 2” is still worth a watch for its bits of humor and playful references to other Marvel superheroes (all leading up to the forthcoming Avengers movie), but somewhere along the way it lost its spark. We can only hope it will recover it in time for “Iron Man 3”.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars.