The only Alfred Hitchcock movie that cannot be watched
With such classic movies as 1954’s Rear Window, 1958’s Vertigo and 1960’s horror classic Psycho, the movies of Alfred Hitchcock have their very own shelf in the vault of timeless cinema, no doubt sharing an aisle with the releases of other masters of suspense, Michael Haneke, David Fincher and Kathryn Bigelow. Yet, for all movie completionists out there who like to cover a director’s filmography from start to finish, we have some bad news.
Making 53 movies over the course of half a century, Hitchcock is rightfully known as one of the world’s greatest-ever directors, though surprisingly, he never won an Oscar for his efforts, being nominated on six separate occasions. Following two short films in 1922 and 1923, he set about making his very first feature two years later, releasing the silent romance The Pleasure Garden to mark his debut.
While the film would barely make a significant mark on his eventual career, his subsequent movie, The Mountain Eagle, would become one of his most curious cinematic efforts. Released in 1926, Hitchcock’s sophomore outing was produced in Germany and took many inspirations from the country’s cinematic style, telling the story of a store owner who tries to win over the love of a teacher.
However, Hitchcock was not yet the revered figure that he is today, and the British distributors weren’t too impressed when they saw his movie in 1926, only deciding to release the film after the success of The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, which came out one year later. The reception wasn’t ecstatic and Hitchcock also cared little for the movie, with The Mountain Eagle becoming a victim of time, with each and every print becoming lost shortly after its release.
It is the only movie in Hitchcock’s vast body of work that is considered ‘lost’, with only glimpses of the film available to be viewed in the form of a book penned by fellow auteur François Truffaut. While the concept of a lost movie is rather bizarre in the modern age of digital technology, such wasn’t so unheard of in the 20th century, when films were kept on physical rolls.
Ever since, cinephiles have been actively searching for the movie, with the British Film Institute putting Hitchcock’s silent release on their ‘Most Wanted’ list of lost features. Also on their list are such titles as Two Crowded Hours, the cinematic debut of Michael Powell, Squadron Leader X, a B-movie penned by Emeric Pressburger, and The Last Post by prominent female filmmaker Dinah Shurey.
Take a look at the only known photographs of the film and its behind-the-scenes shots below.
