Hitchcock Lost & Found

May 1, 2015

The films directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), more than 50 titles from Britain's silent film era to the mid-1970s, are some of the most intensely scrutinized works in movie history. Fortunately, all but a few are available for viewing. This book examines not only Hitchcock's three "lost" films but also obscure and overlooked work, mostly dating to his early days, when he worked as a screenwriter or young upstart director. Coauthors Kerzoncuf and Barr, who both have extensive experience in archival research, see their subject's career as an "enormous jigsaw puzzle," with the last pieces only now falling into place. In addition to his lost films, the authors review altered and incomplete versions, film fragments, and random oddities including a cancer awareness short and contributions to the war effort. Hitchcock illustrated the dangers of fascism in mainstream films (Foreign Correspondent, 1940; Lifeboat, 1944; Saboteur, 1942) as well as his postwar considerations of evil (Rope, 1948; Psycho, 1960) which reflected his sometimes bleak view of human nature. VERDICT This is aimed at completists who want to see everything Hitchcock produced. Readers with exclusive interest in his classics should probably look elsewhere. More coverage should have been given to Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, whose background in filmmaking proved an invaluable source of collaboration and counsel to him. Recommended for film scholars.--Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA

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