Hitchcock’s 1929 flick “Blackmail,” one of his better-known silent films, unreels Saturday. (
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After “talking pictures” became common in the 1930s, Alfred Hitchcock turned out so many classic thrillers — from “The 39 Steps” to “North by Northwest’’ — on both sides of the Atlantic that even film buffs don’t realize he also directed 10 silent features in his native England.
And even if you did know about his pre-sound work, it’s unlikely you’ve had the opportunity to see nine of them — the 10th, “The Mountain Eagle,” is believed lost — as they’ll be presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music beginning Saturday. Each film has been given a state-of-the-art restoration by the British Film Institute, and all will have live musical accompaniment.
Aside from the silent production, what’s also striking about the collection is that only two of the films are thrillers. Hitchcock attempted a wide range of genres for his earliest films, beginning with his debut, 1926’s “The Pleasure Garden’’ (showing July 3), a melodrama about a pair of chorus girls, which restores 20 minutes of footage not seen in 87 years.
More familiar will be “Blackmail’’ (1929), which was awkwardly retrofitted with talking sequences and is showing in its superior, rarely seen original silent version on Saturday. A chase through the British Museum climaxes this thriller about a blonde who’s blackmailed after killing an attempted rapist — and her boyfriend is the investigating detective.
“The Lodger” (1927), which the director often called “the first true Hitchcock film,’’ stars British matinee idol Ivor Novello as a serial killer (who may be Jack the Ripper) stalking fog-shrouded London. (It screens June 30).
The four-day series also includes a 1927 adaptation of Noel Coward’s gossip exposé “Easy Virtue’’ (showing July 2), the 1927 boxing drama “The Ring’’ (screening Saturday); 1927’s visually fluid “Downhill’’ (July 1), starring Novello as a disgraced rugby player; and “The Manxman’’ (June 30), a love triangle filmed on location in Cornwall.
There are also a pair of comedies from 1928: “The Farmer’s Wife’’ (July 2) is about a middle-aged widower trying to find a new wife while “Champagne’’ (July 3) offers more frothy laughs about a flapper who mistakenly believes her father is broke. The latter contains what historians regard as the first freeze-frame.
Most of the films will be shown at the BAM Rose Cinemas, but next weekend’s screenings will be on the new 35-foot screen at BAM’s atmospheric Harvey Theater, which served as home to live theater, vaudeville, movies, porn and church services during its 99-year history when it was called the Majestic.
A three-week series of big-screen epics, including “The Godfather’’ and “Lawrence of Arabia,’’ will follow Hitchcock into the Harvey, with Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine’’ opening July 26, the same day it debuts in Manhattan.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com