Sound film "The Clue of the New Pin", a British Lion production using the sound-on-disc British Photophone system. In May, "Black Waters", a British and Dominions Film Corporation promoted as the first UK all-talker, received its initial trade screening; it had been shot completely in Hollywood with a Western Electric sound-on-film system. None of these pictures made much impact. The first successful European dramatic talkie was the all-British "Blackmail". Directed by twenty-nine-year-old Alfred Hitchcock, the movie had its London debut June 21, 1929. Originally shot as a silent, "Blackmail" was restaged to include dialogue sequences, along with a score and sound effects,
Hitchcock (film) much fun and so suspenseful that it would make the original Hitchcock proud ... It's a serious contender for Best Picture, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Makeup, Music Score, and maybe Art Direction." John Patterson of "The Guardian" called the film "clever and witty"; "the making of "Psycho" is depicted in detail without our seeing one frame of the completed movie" and concluding "it lives and breathes through Hopkins and Mirren." Upon its theatrical release, Mary Pols of "Time" called the film "a feel-good frolic, which is fine for anyone who prefers their Hitchcock history tidied up, absent the