The lion’s share of the responsibility for that success, however, lies in the fact that most British movie houses—especially outside of London—were not yet equipped for sound.
Hitchcock had less trouble adapting to new technology than most directors, and seems to have had little difficulty moving to longer formats and telling more detailed or layered stories. His star Anny Ondra did not fare as well—her thick Eastern European accent contrasted for English-speaking audiences with her classic, glamorous good looks, and her career did not extend much further than Blackmail. Hitchcock released both a voiced and a silent version of Blackmail simultaneously, and Anny’s accent may have been responsible for the silent version proving the most popular of the two. The lion’s share of the responsibility for that success, however, lies in the fact that most British movie houses—especially outside of London—were not yet equipped for sound.