Early Hitchcock film found in NZ

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/5383230/Early-Hitchcock-film-found
-in-NZ

A rare early film from Alfred Hitchcock that was unearthed in New Zealand
has been labelled "priceless" by historians of the suspense master.

The National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive
found part of Alfred Hitchcock's 1923 film
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Shadow_%28film%29> The White Shadow
following an international search.

It is considered to be the earliest feature film for which the celebrated
director is credited.

Hitchcock, who was just 24 at the time, was the writer, assistant director,
editor and production designer on the melodrama.

The lost film starred Betty Compson as twin sisters - one good, and the
other "without a soul".

The New Zealand Film Archive announced today that the film turned up among a
cache of unidentified American nitrate prints held in the archive for the
last 23 years.

However, only the first three reels of the six-reel feature have been found
and no other copy is known to exist.

New Zealand projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh is credited for
salvaging the film, as well as other silent-era movies. After he died in
1989, the nitrate prints were sent to the Film Archive by his grandson, Tony
Osborne.

"From boyhood, my grandfather was an avid collector - be it films, stamps,
coins or whatever. He was known, internationally, as having one of the
largest collection of cigarette cards and people would travel from all over
the world to view his collection. Some would view him as rather eccentric.

"He would be quietly amused by all the attention now generated by these
important film discoveries," said Osborne in a statement.

For fans of the master of suspense, it is a once in a lifetime discovery.

"This is one of the most significant developments in memory for scholars,
critics, and admirers of Hitchcock's extraordinary body of work," said David
Sterritt, Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and author of The
Films of Alfred Hitchcock.

"Hitchcock's own directorial debut came only two years later. These first
three reels of The White Shadow - more than half the film - offer a
priceless opportunity to study his visual and narrative ideas when they were
first taking shape."

Hitchcock went on to direct classics like The 39 Steps, Dial M For Murder,
Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.

He died in 1980 aged 80.

 

 

Andrew Irwin

 

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