Alfred Hitchcock's 'The White Shadow' from 1924
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will present the American re-premiere of the first three reels of The White Shadow, the 1924 movie thought to be the earliest surviving feature film work of Alfred Hitchcock, on September 22 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, Oscar®-winning actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, will offer a description of the remaining scenes which are still lost. Michael Mortilla and Nicole Garcia will provide live musical accompaniment on piano and violin.
The tinted print of The White Shadow, an atmospheric melodrama starring Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters, one angelic and the other “without a soul,” was discovered during the National Film Preservation Foundation’s second round of research to identify prints of early American films held at the New Zealand Film Archive.
It was among the many silent-era movies salvaged by New Zealand projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. After Murtagh’s death in 1989, the highly flammable nitrate prints were sent to the New Zealand Film Archive for safekeeping by Tony Osborne, Murtagh’s grandson.
The White Shadow is among the “lost” films from the New Zealand Film Archive being preserved and accessed through the five major American film archives that are collaborating with the NFPF on the project.
This will be the Academy’s latest presentation in a screening series of archival rediscoveries unspooling under the banner Lost and Found.
More at www.oscars.org.