Quote:
Alice has a fight with her boyfriend, Frank, a detective, and decides to go out with another man. When they get to his flat, he attacks her and she defends herself and kills him. Frank investigates the case and realizes Alice is the culprit, but so has someone else, and blackmail is threatened.Read More »
Alice White is the daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920’s London. Her boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go back to his flat to see his studio. The man has other ideas and as he tries to rape Alice, she defends herself and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is discovered, Frank is assigned to the case, he quickly determines that Alice is the killer, but so has someone else and blackmail is threatened.Read More »
about the production
The film began production as a silent film. To cash in on the new found popularity of talkies the film’s producers, British International Pictures, gave Hitchcock the go-ahead to film a portion of the movie in sound. Hitchcock thought the idea absurd and surreptitiously filmed almost the entire feature in sound along with a silent version for theatres not yet equipped for talking pictures.
Lead actress Anny Ondra was raised in Prague and had a heavy Polish accent that was felt unsuitable for the film. Sound was in its infancy at the time and it was impossible to post dub Anny’s voice. Rather than replace Anny and re-shoot her portions of the film actress Joan Barry was hired to actually speak the dialogue while Anny lip-synched them for the film. This makes Ondra’s performance seem slightly awkward.Read More »
From Channel 4 Film:
Early British Hitchcock which has the future master of suspense trying to make a living with this faithful adaptation of O’Casey’s classic play, chronicling the ups and downs of an Irish family in the Dublin of the 1920s. Most of it is a straight filming of the play – and was acknowledged as such by Hitchcock – even though handsomely photographed and acted. When the action opens up towards the end, Hitch gets a chance to flex his cinematic muscle with a predictably dramatic ending.Read More »