The White Shadow

My blood boiled when I read this newsflash:

Early Alfred Hitchcock effort discovered

Could it be that The Mountain Eagle was discovered after all these years? I had posted previously about this film. Well, no, but the discovery is still a fantastic one: in New Zealand, they found 3 reels (out of 6), from a 1923 film directed by Graham Cutts called The White Shadow. And this is one of the first films on which Alfred Hitchcock started to accumulate jobs before he went on to direct.

In fact, before he became the genius we all know, Hitchcock started designing intertitles (which were inserted in-between scenes to convey dialog or explain the action), then little by little, he started to take on more and more important jobs and almost became a one-man show, very often on films directed by Graham Cutts.

On this movie, he did the writing, the editing, the sets, and was the assistant director. No wonder he learned all the facets of cinema. No wonder either that, with such an over-efficient assistant, the official director grew annoyed at young Alfred.

Hitchcock was proposed a director's chair by his producer. The rest is History. As for his former jealous boss, he went on with his illustrious career (Graham who?).

That's all for today folks!