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Thursday January 16th 2025

Blackmail | 1929

Blackmail filming location: The British Museum, Bloomsbury, London
Blackmail filming location: the climactic chase through the museum: The British Museum, Bloomsbury, London

Alfred Hitchcock’s first talkie (it started out as a silent), with Alice White (Anny Ondra) killing her assailant after fighting off an attempted rape.

Blackmail filming location: The British Museum, Bloomsbury, London
Blackmail filming location: the drinking fountain: The British Museum, Bloomsbury, London

The climactic chase takes place through the galleries of the British Museum, Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury, WC1. These were mocked up at Elstree Studio, in Hertfordshire, using huge photographs of the museum’s interior.

The exterior is real enough, with blackmailer Tracy (Donald Calthrop) briefly stopping at the still-working stone drinking fountain you'll find to the left of the museum’s main entrance.