A rare early film from Alfred Hitchcock that was unearthed in New Zealand has been labelled "priceless" by historians of the suspense master.
The National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive found part of Alfred Hitchcock's 1923 film
The White Shadow following an international search.
It is considered to be the earliest feature film for which the celebrated director is credited.
The lost film starred Betty Compson as twin sisters - one good, and the other "without a soul". Hitchcock, who was just 24 at the time, was the writer, assistant director, editor and production designer on the melodrama.
"This is him showing how multi-talented he was at a very young age,''said Frank Stark, head of the New Zealand archive.
"There were also stories the named director - Graham Cutts - of the film wasn't the greatest. To a large degree Hitchcock filled in the gaps, even took over you might say.
"So this is a really early sign of just how broadly skilled Hitchcock was. Hitchcock was famous, in his later films for having a meticulous control of all the detail, from the acting performance right down to the sets and costumes. I think it's an early sign of just how precocious he was."
The country's film archive announced today that the film turned up among a cache of unidentified American nitrate prints held in the archive for the last 23 years.
However, only the first three reels of the six-reel feature have been found and no other copy is known to exist. The surviving reels of Hitchcock's The White Shadow will be preserved at Park Road Post Production in Wellington.
