Blackmail

Blackmail is an act, often a crime, involving unjustified threats to make a gain (commonly money or property) or cause loss to another unless a demand is met. Essentially, it is coercion involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates, or threats of physical harm or criminal prosecution. It is the name of a statutory offence in the United States of America, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Victoria, Australia, and Tasmania, and has been used as a convenient way of referring to other offences, but was not a term of art in English law before 1968. It originally meant payments rendered by settlers in the Counties of England bordering Scotland to chieftains and the like in the Scottish Lowlands, in exchange for protection from Scottish thieves and marauders into England.

Blackmail may also be considered a form of extortion. Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm. Blackmail is the use of threats to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt. Some US states distinguish the offenses by requiring that blackmail be in writing. In some jurisdictions, the offence of blackmail is often carried out during the act of robbery. This occurs when an offender makes a threat of immediate violence towards someone in order to make a gain as part of a theft. For example, the threat of "Your money, or your life!" is an unlawful threat of violence in order to gain property.

Blackmail (1939 film)

Blackmail is a 1939 crime drama film starring Edward G. Robinson and was directed by H.C. Potter.

Plot

John Ingram is a very successful oil-field firefighter and a family man. All is going so well, he's even bought his own oil well in hope of striking it rich. His greatest fears are realized, however, when a man, William Ramey, from his secret past sees Ingram in a newsreel and shows up looking for a job.

Ramey attempts to blackmail Ingram, who had run from a chain gang years ago and started a new life under an assumed name. After a shady deal is made, Ingram is tricked and Ramey turns him into authorities, who return him to a chain gang. Ramey subsequently becomes a very rich man.

When Ingram finds out about the success of the man who betrayed him, he plans a daring escape in an attempt to return home and get revenge.

Cast

Blackmail (1929 film)

Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play Blackmail by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.

After starting production as a silent film, British International Pictures decided to convert Blackmail into a sound film during filming. A silent version was released for theaters not equipped for sound (at 6,740 feet), with the sound version (7,136 feet) released at the same time. The silent version still exists in the British Film Institute collection.

Plot

Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) escorts his girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra) to a tea house. They have an argument and Frank storms out. While reconsidering his action, he sees Alice leave with Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard), an artist she had earlier agreed to meet.

Crewe persuades a reluctant Alice into coming up to see his studio. She admires a painting of a laughing clown, and uses his palette and brushes to paint a cartoonish drawing of a face; he adds a few strokes of a feminine figure, and they both sign the "work". He gives her a dancer's outfit and Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano.