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Alfred Hitchcock's astounding legacy as a filmmaker spans more than six decades, starting with "The Lodger," a 1927 silent film that is believed to be the director's first critical success. The overarching themes in "The Lodger" anticipate Hitchcock's directorial sensibilities, such as his keen interest in complex psychosexuality and a perceptive preoccupation with death, guilt, and the cyclical nature of trauma. If we were to go further back, there's the debut feature "The Pleasure Garden," which was deemed too erotically charged back when it was released, and contains the blueprints for the iconic imagery that would end up defining his oeuvre down the line.

However, a lesser-known film exists right between "The Pleasure Garden" and "The Lodger" — one that has been deemed lost media save for the existence of six surviving stills from it. This 1926 silent film, "The Mountain Eagle," is a romantic drama that leans heavily into German expressionism,...

“Hitch Begins”

By Raymond Benson

The British silent film period of director Alfred Hitchcock is simultaneously interesting and frustrating. It’s the former because it allows one to view a genius at the very beginning of his career—the kernels of motifs and themes, as well as stylistic choices, can be spotted and analyzed. It’s the latter because only one or two of the nine silent pictures he made are truly memorable and most are available today solely as poor quality public domain transfers.

The Criterion Collection has just released a bang-up, marvelous new edition of Hitchcock’s most celebrated silent work, The Lodger—A Story of the London Fog. The disk also contains one of the rarer silent titles, Downhill (also 1927), which might be reason enough for Hitchcock enthusiasts to purchase the package.

A bit of history: Hitchcock was working for Gainsborough Pictures under the auspices of Michael Balcon...

Alfred Hitchcock silent movies added to Unesco UK Memory of the World Register (photo: Ivor Novello in The Lodger) The nine Alfred Hitchcock-directed silent films recently restored by the British Film Institute have been added to the Unesco UK Memory of the World Register, "a list of documentary heritage which holds cultural significance specific to the UK." The nine Hitchcock movies are the following: The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Ring (1927), Downhill / When Boys Leave Home (1927), The Lodger (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), The Manxman (1929), and Blackmail (1929) — also released as a talkie, Britain’s first. Only one Hitchcock-directed silent remains lost, The Mountain Eagle / Fear o’ God (1926). Most of those movies have little in common with the suspense thrillers Hitchcock would crank out in Britain and later in Hollywood from the early ’30s on. But a handful of his silents already featured elements and themes that would recur in...

Hitchcock's silents are now on the Memory of the World register – I can think of five others that deserve the same recognition

If, when you consider our national heritage, you think of murder, guilt, sex and cheeky humour – well, somebody out there agrees with you. The decision to add Alfred Hitchcock's nine surviving silent movies to Unesco's UK Memory of the World register puts his early work on a cultural par with the Domesday Book and Field Marshal Douglas Haig's war diaries – also selected for the list this year.

The nine silents were all directed by Hitchcock in the 1920s and include better-known films in the director's classic thriller mode such as The Lodger and Blackmail as well as comedies (Champagne, The Farmer's Wife) a boxing movie (The Ring) and dramas (The Pleasure Garden, Downhill, Easy Virtue and the lush, rustic romance The Manxman). The collection was nominated by the BFI,...

The Mountain Eagle, the director's second work, was filmed in Obergurgl but disappeared 90 years ago

Alfred Hitchcock arrived in the Tyrolean village of Obergurgl in October 1925, clad in knickerbockers, hiking boots and a felt hat, scouting for a location that resembled Kentucky. When he left several months later after completing his second film, the British-German co-production The Mountain Eagle, it's fairly safe to assume locals were glad to see the back of him.

Not only had he ordered the alpine meadows to be cleared of snow, caused a roof to collapse and become stricken by some sort of altitude sickness, he caused offence by declining to stay in the village inn and complaining about the guttural sound of their dialect.

Years later his sins have been forgiven, and now the Tyroleans are far more focused on what happened to the film, which, though released in 1927, has been considered lost for the best part of 90 years.

There is always hope for film historians and movie buffs that a lost work will be found. With last year's discovery of part of The White Shadow, an early feature involving the talents of Alfred Hitchcock, it made room for optimism that some of his other missing treasures could be located. One such highly sought after film is his second feature, The Mountain Eagle, which is a silent picture involving a love quadrangle between a man, his cripped son, a schoolteacher and a hermit. It was also a highlighted film being officially hunted for by the British Film Institute, which is reportedly convinced there's a copy out there somewhere.  Until recently, the best known evidence of its existence was a lobby card and some stills in the book Hitchcock/Truffaut, in which Hitch...

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Profiles in History will be auctioning off 59 film stills, including photos from Alfred Hitchcock’s lost 1926 silent film, The Mountain Eagle. We have more information on the auction and we’ve been given four photos to share with Daily Dead readers:

“Los Angeles- Nov 8, 2012- Profiles in History, run by Joe Maddalena, is proud to announce that a collection of 59 film stills that belonged to Alfred Hitchcock and the only existing evidence of The Mountain Eagle, one of his last silent films, will be on the auction block at “Drama, Action, Romance- The Hollywood Auction.” The auction will take place December 15 & 16 in Los Angeles.

This previously unknown, extraordinary collection of (59) special oversize photos are for two of Alfred Hitchcock’s most important silent films, The Mountain Eagle (1926) and The Manxman (1929), two of the most searched for lost films in history. These are not regular theatrical distribution publicity stills, which would...

Joe Maddalena's Profiles in History will be auctioning a collection of 59 still photographs of two of Alfred Hitchcock's last silent films, "The Mountain Eagle" and "The Manxman." The collection provides irrefutable proof that "The Mountain Eagle" existed -- it has long been one of the most searched-for films in history, and until now no documentation of the film had been discovered.  One review in 1926 claimed "The Mountain Eagle" was "far superior to 'The Lodger,'" which is often considered Hitchcock's finest silent film. The photos up for bid are no publicity stills; these are custom-printed in oversized formats, intended exclusively for Hitch's personal archives in the 1920s.  The auction will take place December 15 & 16 in Los Angeles. For L.A. dwellers interested in Hitchcock's silent work, on November 29 the Academy unveils the director's sixth film, "The...

Today's generation is surrounded by technology. Rapidly-advancing tools of all sorts are so prevalent in every aspect of our lives that we depend on them, nay, expect them to make our lives easier, more enjoyable, and more interesting. Multi-billion dollar industries such as cinema are in no way immune from the public's desire for bigger and better things. Moviegoers have the options of watching films in a variety of locales, in IMAX or 3D, via regular projection screens or the latest in digital picture. For those who prefer to stay close to home, the options multiply. Satellite TV, cable TV, Redbox, a widespread availability of DVDs, and even the disappearing neighborhood rental store all combine to contain every movie that the discerning film aficionado could ever hope to watch, available at the push of a button or a short drive up the street.

Well... almost every movie. It may seem...

Alfred Hitchcock directed some of the greatest movies known to cinema. His list of work is staggering. Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, Notorious, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Spellbound. Hitchcock mixed experimentation with some damn fine storytelling. He also cast the biggest stars of the day.

The British Film Institute is searching for the only ‘lost’ Hitchcock film. It was made during the silent era and called The Mountain Eagle. Interestingly the suspicion of its missing status remains with the director himself, who described it as ‘awful’. Did the great man remove his film from circulation, wrap it in concrete and throw it in the Thames?

Over fifty per cent of films made before the 1950s are lost. But that doesn’t mean they’re never found. A couple of years ago Fritz Lang’s original cut of Metropolis was found in an Argentinian archive. A horde of...

Officials at the British Film Institute (BFI) are urging fans to 'adopt' an Alfred Hitchcock movie as part of a scheme to raise money for the restoration of the legendary director's early pictures.

The campaign aims to gather enough donations to allow movie experts to restore nine of Hitchcock's silent film reels from the 1920s, including Blackmail, The Ring and Easy Virtue, which have all been damaged over time and are in need of repair.

Movie enthusiasts can hand over their cash through the BFI's website - a contribution of $7,500 (£5,000) earns the donor an onscreen credit, while $37.50 (£25) is enough to restore 50 centimetres (20 inches) of film.

BFI bosses have also launched a hunt for 75 missing films, with Hitchcock's The Mountain Eagle topping the 'most wanted' list.

Also included in the top 10 is 1914's A Study In Scarlet, directed by George Pearson and believed to feature the first ever onscreen appearance of super sleuth Sherlock Holmes in a British movie.

Britain's film institute wants to find scores of lost films, including famous director's The Mountain Eagle

The Mountain Eagle, a 1928 black and white silent movie, is a ripping yarn about a dastardly father, a crippled son, a lovely schoolteacher and an innocent imprisoned. Alfred Hitchcock described it as "awful", and he should know – he made it.

The film is lost, but the British Film Institute is convinced that somebody somewhere has it, in an attic, a cellar or a cardboard box waiting to go to a charity shop. It wants a copy to add to its archive, the largest in the world with more than 180,000 films and 750,000 television programmes.

The Mountain Eagle is the only missing Hitchcock, but the BFI launches a hunt today for scores more British movies that have also vanished without trace. The list includes Sherlock Holmes's first screen appearance in 1914's A Study in Scarlet...