Part of what is thought to be director Alfred Hitchcock's earliest surviving film have been discovered in New Zealand.
The White Shadow was found among a cache of unidentified American nitrate prints found at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington.
The first three reels of the six-reel feature were found and no other copy is known to exist.
Produced in 1923, the film was part of a collection owned by film projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. After his death in 1989, the highly flammable nitrate prints were sent to the archive by his grandson Tony Osborne.
“From boyhood, my grandfather was an avid collector be it films, stamps, coins or whatever,” Mr Osborne said. “He was known, internationally, as having one of the largest collection of cigarette cards and people would travel from all over the world to view his collection. Some would view him as rather eccentric. He would be quietly amused by all the attention now generated by these important film discoveries.”
Hitchcock, who was 24 when the film was made, is credited as the writer, assistant director, editor and production designer. His own directorial debut came two years later.
The melodrama starred Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters – one angelic and the other “without a soul”.
The reels will be preserved at Park Road Post Production in Wellington. Black and white duplicate negatives will be struck from the original nitrate material and colour prints will be made to replicate the tints used in the original print.
The British Film Institute last year issued a worldwide appeal for lost Hitchcock films and it is believed this is the first to be unearthed.