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The Mountain Eagle
Original Movie Lobby card
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	Story: Charles Lapworth Screenplay: Eliot Stannard Max Ferner
Starring	Nita Naldi Bernard Goetzke Malcolm Keen John Hamilton
Cinematography	Gaetano di Ventimigli
Distributed by	Wardour Films
Release date(s)	May 23, 1927
Running time	57 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	Silent Film English intertitles
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Mountain Eagle was Alfred Hitchcock's second silent film as director following The Pleasure Garden. It was released in 1927.

The film is set in Kentucky. J.P. Pettigrew's (Bernhard Goetzke) wife died giving birth to his son Edward (John F. Hamilton) who was born a cripple. Pettigrew hates John ("Fear o' God") Fulton (Malcolm Keen) who also loved Pettigrew's wife. Pettigrew sees his now grown son making love to schoolteacher Beatrice (Nita Naldi) and seeks her out. During a discussion of her relationship to his son he attempts to take her in his arms but Beatrice rejects his advances. Pettigrew's son Edward sees this and flees the village.

Pettigrew is incensed at both Beatrice's rejection and the loss of his son. He attempts to have Beatrice arrested as a wanton harlot. John forestalls Pettigrew's plan by marrying Beatrice and taking her to his cabin where they fall in love. Beatrice becomes pregnant. Pettigrew seeks revenge by having John thrown in prison for murdering his (missing) son.

A year later John breaks out of prison and attempts to flee with Beatrice and their child but Beatrice falls ill and John must return to the village for a doctor. There he finds Edward has reappeared. His affairs are now cleared up and he is legally free from the charge of murder. Pettigrew is subsequently accidentally shot and no longer a threat to John and his family.

This is the only Hitchcock directed feature that is considered lost. No prints have been known to survive.

Hitchcock himself considered it a mundane melodrama best forgotten, though fans naturally remain curious. In Francois Truffaut's book Hitchcock/Truffaut (ISBN 2-07-073574-5) Alfred Hitchcock himself described the film as "awful" and said he was "not sorry there are no known prints". Film historian J. Lary Kuhns, however, states in the book Hitchcock's Notebooks ( ISBN 0-380-79945-6) by Dan Auiler that one contemporary writer called The Mountain Eagle far superior to The Lodger.

Exteriors were filmed in Obergurgl, Austria. The Austrian Tyrol stood in for the mountains and hollows of Kentucky. Bad weather during the shooting was a constant source of trouble.

Although this was Alfred Hitchcock's second film it was released three months after his third film The Lodger.

Several surviving stills are reproduced in François Truffaut's book. More stills have recently been found to exist, many of which are reproduced in Dan Auiler's book.

A lobby card (illustrated above right) for the film was found at a flea market in Rowley, Massachusetts. It was found in a box of broken frames and was being used as backing for the picture of another dog. Nothing is known about the dog's purpose in the film. It may been used to assist Edward in fleeing the village or to help film's hero, John Fulton, during his escape from prison or return to the village seeking a doctor. [1]

Although the film was reported to have been released in the United States as Fear o' God the title on the lobby card seems to contradict this. Film historian J. Lary Kuhns has always claimed the film was never released under that title.

• The Mountain Eagle at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock

1920s: Number 13 • The Pleasure Garden • The Mountain Eagle • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog • Downhill • Easy Virtue • The Ring • The Farmer's Wife • Champagne • The Manxman • Blackmail • 1930s: Juno and the Paycock • Murder! • Elstree Calling • The Skin Game • Mary • Number Seventeen • Rich and Strange • Waltzes from Vienna • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The 39 Steps • Secret Agent • Sabotage • Young and Innocent • The Lady Vanishes • Jamaica Inn • 1940s: Rebecca • Foreign Correspondent • Mr. & Mrs. Smith • Suspicion • Saboteur • Shadow of a Doubt • Lifeboat • Aventure Malgache • Bon Voyage • Spellbound • Notorious • The Paradine Case • Rope • Under Capricorn • 1950s: Stage Fright • Strangers on a Train • I Confess • Dial M for Murder • Rear Window • To Catch a Thief • The Trouble with Harry • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The Wrong Man • Vertigo • North by Northwest • 1960s: Psycho • The Birds • Marnie • Torn Curtain • Topaz • 1970s: Frenzy • Family Plot