Blackmail is a dark, expressionist, guilt-obsessed tale that reveals the director's deep-seated fear that the forces of law and order can themselves be corrupt. It tells the story of a young woman who, dissatisfied with her boring policeman suitor, seeks a more exiting lover who can broaden her horizons. But the results are disastrous. The man attempts to rape her and she stabs him to death. Her policeman lover, assigned to the case, withholds evidence linking her to the crime, prevents her from confessing, and hounds a would-be blackmailer to suicide. Everyone thinks the blackmailer is the killer and the girl goes free, but does she? The film ends with her united with the one person in the world who knows her guilty secret. Blackmail indeed. Made in 1929 on the cusp of film's conversion from a silent to a sound medium, Blackmail appears in a silent and sound version. We will have the privilege of viewing the rarely seen silent version in a stunning archival print.-Marilyn Fabe