Before They Were Stars: 29-Year Old Alfred Hitchcock Tells a Dirty Joke

Yesterday, we did a Shouts From the Back Row podcast about Sir Alfred Hitchcock and discussed what an iconic, larger-than-life figure he was. So it may surprise you to see that I’ve actually uncovered footage of him from when he *gasp* WASN’T OLD! Hitchcock was only 29 years old when he directed a 1929 British thriller called Blackmail, which is notable for being the first “all-talkie” feature film. Of course, since the concept of cinema sound was still in its infancy, Hitchcock needed to perform tests to see if this would work and thankfully, someone has preserved this sound test footage of Hitchcock telling a dirty joke to his lead actress, Anny Ondra, and making her crack up.