Alfred Hitchcock wrote in 1982: "The Hitchcock touch had four hands, and two were Alma's." Hitchcock began work on his tenth film, "Blackmail" (1929), when its production company, British International Pictures (BIP), converted its Elstree studios to sound. The film was the first British ""; it followed the first American sound feature film, "The Jazz Singer" (1927). "Blackmail" began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences, with the climax taking place on the dome of the British Museum. It also features one of his longest cameo appearances, which shows him being bothered by a small boy
Karen R. Hitchcock founded and run by one of Hitchcock's faculty members at SUNY Albany, Alan S. Chartock. This program was paid for by the SUNY Albany Foundation, using gifts intended for the students and faculty of the university, until Dr. Hitchcock's abrupt departure from that campus. For some time afterward, her participation in the program was paid for by Queen's University. Chartock, a vocal political opponent of then-Governor George Pataki, delivered a number of print and broadcast defenses of Hitchcock, in which Chartock failed to mention his financial reliance on her patronage. Hitchcock became the Principal of Queen's University in July, 2004.