The earliest known surviving feature in which Alfred Hitchcock is credited was released online today, after sitting under the noses of New Zealand archivists for decades.
The recovered parts of 1924's '
The White Shadow', in which Hitchcock served as an assistant director among other credits, will be streamed for free for the next two months at the
US National Film Preservation Foundation's website , the nonprofit group said in a statement.
'The White Shadow', a silent British melodrama directed by Graham Cutts and a financial flop, tells the story of twin sisters- one angelic and the other soulless. It stars Betty Compson as the twins.
The
New Zealand Film Archive stumbled across three of the film's delicate nitrate reels in its collection last year. No other copies are known to exist.
The foundation, which supports film preservation in the
United States, said it was able to stream the film online from cash donations and bandwidth donated by online film service Fandor.
Hitchcock, who shot to international prominence with 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1934) and 'The 39 Steps' (1935), is additionally credited as writer, art director and editor.
'The White Shadow' is also believed to be the first surviving production that Hitchcock, then 24, worked on with
Alma Reville, whom he married.
Part of Hitchcock's and Reville's life together has been dramatised in 'Hitchcock', a Fox Searchlight film, starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as Reville. The film is set to be released on November 23.
The British-born director's obsession with hand-picked star
Tippi Hedren ('The Birds' and 'Marnie') was documented in the last month's HBO drama 'The Girl'.
A collection of freshly discovered still photos from Hitchcock's lost silent film 'The Mountain Eagle' (1926) is expected to fetch US$25,000 (
NZ$30,800) at auction in Los Angeles next month.
