Blackmail (1929)

Blackmail (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

A young woman, dating a police detective, is unwisely seeing an artist on the side. Late one night she goes to his studio and is persuaded to change into costume so he can draw her. When he assaults her she stabs and kills him. Best to go home and not mention it, but her boyfriend is on the case. He figures it out but covers for her. Both are distraught even before the sleezy blackmailer appears...

This is a fun one, much more like the pacing and tone of later Hitchcock films, at least compared to the other early ones. It culminates in a famous chase through the British Museum.

Called the first British "all-talking" picture, it is a retrofitted silent film. Hitchcock made a separate silent version with a different actor as the Chief Inspector; I don't know if that version has been preserved.