Reels containing the first 30 minutes of the first film Hitchcock worked on- The White Shadow– have been discovered at the New Zealand Film Archive. They had been in the hands of Jack Murtagh, a keen collector who used to work as a projectionist. After he died, his private collection of nitrate film prints were sent to the national archives by his grandson, Tony Osborne.
The White Shadow 1923 is a silent film, in which American actor Betty Compson stars as a pair of twins. Copies of the melodramatic film are being made and will be sold in America.
Before the discovery was made, the BFI launched the “Rescue the Hitchcock 9” campaign, which aimed to restore what were Hitchcock’s only nine surviving silent films. These date from 1925 to 1929 and include Downhill and The Manxman. Downhill is about a star student, Roddy, who is wrongly accused of getting a young woman pregnant. His reputation in tatters, Roddy takes on a lonely existence, becoming a paid companion to lonely rich women. Shot in a small Cornish fishing community, The Manxman tells the story of two childhood friends who fall in love with the same woman. This was Hitchcock’s last silent film.
The BFI has announced that Hitchcock’s silent films will be accompanied by newly commissioned orchestral scores as part of the London 2012 Festival – the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. One-off live performances across London will include esteemed British musicians Nitin Sawhney, Tansy Davies and Daniel Cohen.
Another effort helping to preserve Hitchcock’s memory is The Alfred Hitchcock London Locations Walk, led by Sandra Shevey. The walking tour lasts 3 hours and includes segments of an interview with Hitchcock from 1972. Shevey uses period photos and storyboards to compare the current locations with Hitchcock’s re-interpretations, used in for example, Frenzy and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
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