Posted on 08/03/2011 10:45:15 AM PDT by nickcarraway
In a twist the Master of Suspense himself would have been proud of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest surviving movie has been found languishing in a vault in New Zealand.
All copies of The White Shadow, a silent feature film released by Hollywood in 1924, had been thought lost to posterity, and cinema historians have described the discovery as "priceless".
Three dusty reels containing the first half of the film – about 30 minutes of footage – had been stored deep in the bowels of the New Zealand Film Archive, where the search is continuing for the other three reels. th The acclaimed director was 24 when he worked on what was billed as a "wild, atmospheric melodrama" starring actress Betty Compson as twin sisters, one angelic and the other "without a soul". He was credited as assistant director and also wrote the scenario, designed the sets and edited the footage.
At the time silent Hollywood films were distributed worldwide and, while many prints were discarded and lost in the US, others survived abroad where they were kept after runs in cinemas had finished.
The White Shadow owes its survival to Jack Murtagh, a projectionist in the provincial New Zealand town of Hastings, who was regarded as an eccentric collector of films, cigarette cards, stamps and coins.
Cultural Olympiad: modern scores for early Hitchcocks 04 Jul 2011 Why I Love... Alfred Hitchcock 24 Mar 2011 The de-kinking of Alfred Hitchcock 15 Dec 2003 After his death in 1989 Mr Murtagh's private collection of highly flammable nitrate film prints was sent for safekeeping to the national archives in Wellington by his grandson Tony Osborne.
Mr Osborne said "He would be quietly amused by all the attention now generated by these important film discoveries." Other lost films rediscovered in the collection have included a
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Quite a few of the silent films show a lot of nudity, some of the women who became talkie stars after the censors kicked in, in the 1930s, did nude scenes.
Ever notice that there were very few blonde silent movie stars?
Howard Hughs selected jean Harlow to star in the 1929 "Hell's Angels" but the state of the art had advanced quite a bit by then. They remade the film when sound came in and fired the original actress and used Harlow for the re-shoot.
Anita Page would have been a better choice than Harlow. She was one of the very few silent era blondes...she was prettier and more talented than Harlow.
Thx for all the pics!!!
Neat.
It’s funny how they didn’t really take care of films way back when.
And I think the networks taped over certain TV shows well into the 60’s. Never imaging that people in the future would want to see them and put them on you tube.
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