Rookery Nook

Though Hitchcock's Blackmail is remembered as the first great British talkie, it was this filmed version of Ben Travers' Aldwych farce - distressed damsel embarrasses newly-wed chinless wonder in country cottage rest-cure setting - which scored at the box-office. According to producer Herbert Wilcox, it cost £l4,000 to make and grossed £150,000 in Britain alone. Recorded on discs rather than film and directed by Walls with an arrogant unconcern for anything cinematic, the bizarre look and sound of the film give it the quality of a fascinating historical relic.