The White Shadow | |
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Directed by | Graham Cutts Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited) |
Written by | Graham Cutts Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited) Michael Morton (novel Children of Chance) |
Produced by | Michael Balcon Victor Saville |
Starring | Betty Compson Clive Brook Henry Victor A. B. Imeson |
Cinematography | Claude L. McDonnell |
Production companies | Balcon, Freedman and Saville [1] |
Distributed by | Woolf & Freedman Film Service (UK) Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises (USA) [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The White Shadow, also known as White Shadows in the United States, is a 1923 British drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Betty Compson, Clive Brook, and Henry Victor. [2]
The plot concerns twin sisters, one who is modest and socially conservative, the other a free spirit who cannot bear the constrictions of a traditional life. Their father's unhappiness over his bohemian daughter's lifestyle leads him to drink and dissolution. The sisters end up having the same man, Robin, in love with them, without him realizing they are two different people. The extant film ends at a most critical juncture, at which both sisters, Robin, and the father meet at a Paris boîte and are about to realize who each other is. There are several multiple exposures when the two sisters, both played by Betty Compson, are on screen at once. [3]
The film is based on the unpublished novel Children of Chance by Michael Morton. Alfred Hitchcock collaborated with Cutts on the film. Cutts and Hitchcock made the film quickly, as they wanted to make use of Betty Compson, who had appeared in their hit Woman to Woman (also 1923), before she returned to the United States. [4]
The film was made at the Balcon, Freedman and Saville [1] studio in Hoxton, London.[ citation needed ]
Writing about the film in 1969, producer Michael Balcon said:
"Engrossed in our first production [Woman to Woman], we had made no preparations for the second. Caught on the hop, we rushed into production with a story called The White Shadow. It was as big a flop as Woman to Woman had been a success." [5]
Long thought to have been a completely lost film, a New Zealand projectionist, Jack Murtagh, had salvaged some of the film. [6] In 1989, Tony Osborne, Murtagh's grandson, donated the tinted nitrate prints, and other film cans to the New Zealand Film Archive. [6]
On 3 August 2011, the New Zealand Film Archive announced that the film "turned up among a cache of unidentified American nitrate prints held in the archive for the last 23 years". [6] One film can was mislabeled Two Sisters, while the other simply stated Unidentified American Film. Only later were they identified. [7]
In 2012, The White Shadow was preserved by Park Road Post Production, Wellington, [6] New Zealand, with support from the New Zealand Film Archive and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [1] [8] [9]
In 2013, it was released on a 198-minute DVD by the National Film Preservation Foundation, with six other films and seven shorts. [10]
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Betty Compson was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in The Docks of New York and The Barker, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
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Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock.
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Woman to Woman is an all-talking sound 1929 British drama film with music directed by Victor Saville and starring Betty Compson, George Barraud and Juliette Compton. It is an adaptation of the 1921 play Woman to Woman by Michael Morton which had already been made in 1923 into a now-lost film. The 1929 version survives and unrestored copies are available on unofficial DVDs and streaming services.
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