MovieChat Forums > Blackmail (1929) Discussion > Portrays the police as oppressive

Portrays the police as oppressive


THis films shows the police in an oppressive manner from start to finish. The opening scene shows them waiting for a suspect to go for his weapon so they can add another charge to his name. Frank tries to control Alice from when he returns the glove until the end of the picture. Lastly they pin all the charges on the previously convicted blackmailer while they have no evidence

"You haven't got the feel of this at all, lad. Use all your voices. When I bellow, bellow back."

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Yeah, this is typical of Hitchcock's corpus, with its focus on innocent men (and sometimes women) hounded by the authorities and/or guilty men being punished for crimes they didn't actually commit. The police are almost always a threat to the protagonist, and as much or more of a threat than the ostensible villain.

If it's possible for the police to mistakenly see their evidence as pointing to the guilt of someone we know to be innocent, we can be sure they'll do so. And the characters know this--they know that the police won't buy their stories (even if those stories are true), and that they're bound to misinterpret the information available to them. Hence the characters are typically on a quest to prove their own innocence or to hide the evidence that might lead someone to believe they're guilty. The authorities can't be counted on to clear an innocent man's name.

After all, in a world where the police aren't able to control crime (as it seems they aren't able to do in Hitchcock's world), they're more of a threat to innocent citizens than they are a help. The police aren't knowledgeable and competent enough to keep the innocent safe; indeed, their presence is simply another threat to innocent people--the threat of wrongful persecution.

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[deleted]

Hitchcock seems to have known a lot about the police. His interpretation matches my own experiences in dealing with the police.

The police demand respect but far too many don't want to do anything to earn it.

Janet! Donkeys!

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