As part of their tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, the Lone Star Film Society will present Blackmail​. Hitchcock’s silent Blackmail is one of the best British films, if not the best, of the late 1920s.

Made in 1929 during the transition to the sound era, it was commissioned as both a silent film and part-talkie with music and some dialogue scenes. Czech film actress Anny Ondra stars as Alice White, a young woman whose brief flirtation with an artist turns suddenly and terribly sour. Hitchcock’s masterful thriller boasts great London locations including the British Museum, Whitehall and the Lyons Tea House at Piccadilly Circus.

This screening is silent with live musical accompaniment performed by Robert Edwards. Edwards holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from UNT in Classical Piano Performance and has always had a soft spot for music form the teens and the twenties. He teaches piano and plays with The Singapore Slingers, an eighteen piece orchestra that specializes in 1920’s jazz .He began accompanying silent features about ten years ago and since then has played for full-length silent features such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu as well as comedic features and shorts. During the week he works with autistic children in the Grand Prairie ISD and plays for services at Greenland Hills UMC in Dallas. Robert lives in Oak Cliff, Dallas.

The film is a restoration by the BFI National Archive in association with STUDIOCANAL. Principal restoration funding provided by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Additional funding provided by Deluxe 142, Pia Getty, Col & Karen Needham and the Dr Mortimer & Theresa Sackler Foundation.

The Lone Star Film Society’s ArthouseFW and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth finish out the summer with an exciting series showcasing six pivotal Alfred Hitchcock films. The selected films explore the power of Hitchcock’s distinctive style in two of his nine silent films and four of his later masterpieces.