The New Zealand Film Archive and the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) have announced that the first three reels (around 30 minutes) of a British silent film called The White Shadow have been discovered. The 1923 film starring Betty Compson and Clive Brook is notable because it appears to be the earliest surviving feature credited to Alfred Hitchcock. Aged 24 at the time, he was the writer, assistant director, editor and production designer on the drama. The popular British director went on to make a number of classic films including North by Northwest, The Birds, Psycho and Vertigo.
The White Shadow is described by the NFPF as “an atmospheric melodrama starring Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters—one angelic and the other “without a soul.” With mysterious disappearances, mistaken identity, steamy cabarets, romance, chance meetings, madness, and even the transmigration of souls, the wild plot crams a lot into six reels.”
The reels will be preserved at Park Road Post Production in New Zealand and a new preservation master and exhibition print will be sent to the United States. The film will “re-premiere” on September 22nd at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverley Hills, California. It will then be added to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Hitchcock collection. Additional prints will also be made for the New Zealand Film Archive and the British Film Institute.
