Tad Pole
. . . is that there are tons and tons of movies and TV episodes with this title, and the 1939 MGM offering with Edward G. Robinson is NOT the one directed by "Fred Hitchcock" (as NORTH BY NORTHWEST actress Eva Marie Saint referred to "Hitch" during "THE OSCARS 2018"). Ms. Saint was NOT in Hitchcock's 1929 Blackmail, at which time she would have been extremely early in her career. I have a colleague who wrote an exceptionally cogent concise explication of THIS version of BLACKMAIL, from 1939, making full use of his many college degrees. I happened to be on hand to lend my street smarts to the exhausting proof-reading process through which all of my associate's musings are subjected. Trust me, the final product was so moving it probably made more than one angel weep. However, the bots running the show here put whatever High and Mighty criteria under which they operate ahead of the public good, denying you the wonderful insights offered therein. Since they never specify or give any clue or inkling as to what goes into their decision-making process (if any), I have not shared a single one of these cogent observations in this space (no one dares make the same mistake twice). However, our coast-to-coast network of film pundits with be distributing (at our great expense) individual printed copies of the original 1939 BLACKMAIL review at EVERY Major League Baseball park Opening Day, 2018, to all of the fans (that is, to each and every one) who has an interest in this film.
blanche-2
Edward G. Robinson here is a victim of "Blackmail," a 1939 film starring Robinson, Ruth Hussey, and Gene Lockhart.Ingram (Robinson, his wife (Hussey) and his son (Bobs Watson, known as the "Crybaby of Hollywood") live in Oklahoma, where Ingram fights oil fires He's considered one of the best. But he has a secret - nine years earlier, under another name, he was on a chain gang for something he didn't do, and he escaped.All is well until William Ramey (Lockhart), someone from his past, shows up and blackmails him, using the promise of getting Ingram cleared, since it was he who committed the crime. However, he double crosses Ingram, who ends up back on a chain gang. Ingram decides that this time, he will do his full sentence. Things happen to change his mind. Gritty drama with Robinson suffering as only he can. Like Bogart, he could be mean as dirt or a sympathetic character. Here he's tough, caring, and sympathetic. Ruth Hussey gives a lovely performance as his wife, and I admit that Bobs Watson was so pathetic when he cried that I cried. He became a Methodist minister but kept acting as well.Though the acting is effective, this is a routine drama. The actors keep you involved.
nycritic
Edward G. Robinson departs from his more notorious bad-guy roles to play the wronged man in BLACKMAIL, a film that is something of a distant relative of what would come to be THE FUGITIVE which would star Harrison Ford more than sixty years later.John Ingram is a man who is trying to support his wife (played by Ruth Hussey right before her second-tier stardom) until his past comes in the form of William Rainey (Gene Lockhart) who not only is aware of Ingram's past in a chain-gang from which he escaped, but was also the man responsible for getting him there in the first place. He comes with a proposal to "clear Ingram's name" but this in turn lands Ingram back in the chain-gang with one motive: escape and revenge.A simple story, one which never tries to go beyond it's apparent B-movie status despite the actors involved in it, BLACKMAIL does not seem like an MGM product but more Warner Bros. The sparse scenes, the unglamorous vibe throughout, the grittiness that pervades throughout add to its credence. Though some plot inconsistencies are present, it's a quick moving story and gets to the point pretty fast without asking too much analysis.
whpratt1
This was a great film in 1939 because the audiences loved Edward G. Robinson who was a great actor and will be admired for many many generations to come. In this picture, Robinson plays John R. Ingram, who has a past that he is trying to hide from along with his wife, Ruth Hussey. John Ingram is a very successful troubleshooter for fires at Oil Rigs and has become very famous, wealthy and happy with his wife and young son. Everything seems to fall apart when Gene Lockhart, (Bill Ramey) knocks on the kitchen door and asks for a sandwich and starts a real storm in the Ingram household. Ingram decides to drill for his own oil and at the same time gets deeply involved with Bill Ramey. If you never knew what a chain gang is, this picture will show you what happened years ago on a chain gang. Enjoy a great classic film starring Edward G. Robinson, who was accepted into the hearts and homes of America and even put on a United States Postage Stamp.
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