how hitchcockian

BFI Hunts for the Film Hitchcock Never Wanted You to See

Ahhh! Stay away!

Before he was the iconic auteur behind Psycho and other now-classic films, Alfred Hitchcock directed the 1928 black-and-white silent movie The Mountain Eagle, a film he later described as “awful” before it went missing altogether. Now the British Film Institute wants to excavate the director’s embarrassing past, convinced that somebody somewhere has a copy of The Mountain Eagle in their attic or pawn shop. Thus far, the Guardian reports, “Nothing remains of [the film] except a few stills, and a photo of [Hitchcock] directing it.” But the BFI seems to have a decent success rate when it comes to finding missing films, having recovered sixteen believed-lost prints over the past decade. Hitchcock, however, never really wanted people to see this movie, growling that he was “not sorry” all prints were MIA: just the type of thing that will make film buffs want to watch this even more. [Guardian UK]

BFI Hunts for the Film Hitchcock Never Wanted You to See