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Hitchcock on DVD - confusion?

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Hitchcock on DVD - confusion?

Old 07-05-05, 01:31 PM
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HITCHCOCK on DVD - confusion?

I'm a big fan and I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any on DVD. I spent about an hour or so looking at what was available in terms of collections (I did a search on Amazon and DDD). And it seems like it's all over the place in terms of mix and match - especially for the earlier films.

Here's what I found:

1) The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection (9 movies/$70): Strangers on a Train Two-Disc Edition / North by Northwest / Dial M for Murder / Foreign Correspondent / Suspicion / The Wrong Man / Stage Fright / I Confess / Mr. and Mrs. Smith)

2) Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (14 movies/$84 in Oct'05): Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy and Family Plot.

3) Best of Alfred Hitchcock Collection Volume 1 (7 movies+4 TV shows/$140): Shadow of a Doubt" "Rope" "Rear Window (Special Edition)" "The Man Who Knew Too Much" "Psycho (Special Edition)" "Topaz" "Family Plot" "Alfred Hitchcock Presents #2 (4 TV eps)

4) Alfred Hitchcock Collection (12 movies/$81): The Lady Vanishes • The Secret Agent , The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Skin Game • Jamaica Inn, Number 17/The Ring • Murder!, Young & Innocent • Rich & Strange, Sabotage/The Lodger, Blackmail/Easy Virtue, The Manxman

5) Alfred Hitchcock 10 Movies (10 movies/$12): Young & Innocent, Blackmail, Juno & The Paycock, Rich & Strange, The Ring, Lodger, Secret Agent, The Lady Vanishes, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Sabotage

6) Alfred Hitchcock (10 Movies/$18): Sabotage/The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Lady Vanishes/The 39 Steps, Rich & Strange/Young And Innocent, Murder Murder/Secret Agent, Number 17/Juno & The Paycock

7) Alfred Hitchcock Collection V.01 (7 Movies/$29): Jamaica Inn, The 39 Steps, The Manxman, The Skin Game, The Secret Agent, Number 17/The Ring, And Young And Innocent/The Cheney Vase

8) Essential Alfred Hitchcock Collection (7 movies/$12): Champagne (1928), Easy Virtue (1928), The Farmer's Wife (1928), The Manxman (1931), Number Seventeen (1932), The 39 Steps (1935), And Jamaica Inn (1939).

9) Hitchcock Collection : Early Years (19 movies/$59): The Secret Agent, The Skin Game, Number 17/The Ring, Jamaica Inn, Young And Innocent/The Cheney Vase, The Manxman, The 39 Steps, Sabotage/The Lodger, Blackmail/Easy Virtue, Rich And Strange/The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Farmer's Wife; Murder, Murder; The Man Who Knew Too Much, And The Lady Vanishes.

Here are some Q's:

1) It looks like #1 & 2 give you a big chunk of the classics. Is that the way to go in terms of putting together a quick decent collection? (and not necessarily the most expensive way).

2) I'm assuming that some of the older multiple movie collections (#4-9) are really poor transfers (public domain stuff?). Are any of the older movies collections in decent shape? Or has a good collection of the older films yet to be made? Anything in the works? Which of the above are really bad and should be avoided? I mean #5 is 10 movies for $12 - can I really go bad buying it? Or is it worth paying an extra $47 to get 9 more movies (and better quality perhaps?) in #9?

3) In general, aside from the older movie collections, what's the quality of print story in terms of Hitch - are some of these collections better than others? Is the only way to get better quality to buy them individually? Or is there no difference?

4) It looks like the biggest classic Hitch's missing are these 5: Lifeboat, Rebecca, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, and Spellbound. Are they out on DVD? Are they part of a present or upcoming collection? Or is there a rights dispute over them? Or what?

Any help would be appreciated. I apologize if parts of this were answered in other discussions (particularly in the thread on the 10/05 collection) - but I didn't see a thread which dealt with all of this in one spot, so I started this one.

Last edited by ctowner1; 07-05-05 at 01:37 PM.
Old 07-05-05, 01:40 PM
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I can't speak for the other sets, but Warner's signature set is a great start. Combined with the new set from Universal you'll get nearly all of his best.

To answer #4, yeah most of those were Criterion's (OOP now), you can still find them used though.
Old 07-05-05, 01:51 PM
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Yeah, the short answer is that when you buy #1 and #2, you'll have all of his later work from Universal and Warner. That's an excellent place to start.

For his earlier work, I'd definitely recommend seeking out the Criterion box (if you can find it for a decent price). His other stuff is out in multiple public domain collections -- they all seem to have (roughly) similar quality, so just buy whichever one seems to be priced right. I think the sets put out by Delta are pretty decent.

EDITED TO ADD: The only (major) title yet to be released is Lifeboat. Fox owns that, and I'd expect they'll get that out within the next year or so. Things like To Catch a Thief are absolutely available on DVD. Just do a search at your favorite retailer.
Old 07-05-05, 01:52 PM
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Go with choices 1) and 2), unless you happen to be a big fan of his earlier (British) period. I am not.
Old 07-05-05, 02:06 PM
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Looks like the Criteron set is 5 movies/$125: The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes: Rebecca: Spellbound: Notorious.

Probably more than I want to shell out. If Crterion owns the rights to them, does that mean there's no way they'll be coming out in cheaper version sets? Because I notice that the first two movies ARE available in some of the other sets.
Old 07-05-05, 02:54 PM
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Criterion no longer has the rights to Rebecca, Spellbound, and Notorious, and they are out of print. I believe WB owns the rights to all three, so I'm sure we'll see new releases sooner or later. 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes are public domain (I think), so you'll see varying releases of varying qualities.
Old 07-05-05, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by JasonF
Criterion no longer has the rights to Rebecca, Spellbound, and Notorious, and they are out of print. I believe WB owns the rights to all three, so I'm sure we'll see new releases sooner or later.
These are Disney properties.

39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes are public domain (I think), so you'll see varying releases of varying qualities.
Although many so-called "public domain" releases of these films exist, they actually had their US copyrights restored in the mid-1990s (this goes for the other British Hitchcocks, as well). The Criterion releases are the only US releases of these two films actually properly licensed from the British owner.

DJ
Old 07-05-05, 03:06 PM
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any reason Best of Hitchcock Vol. 2 isn't listed in the first post?
Old 07-05-05, 03:36 PM
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Originally Posted by dick_grayson
any reason Best of Hitchcock Vol. 2 isn't listed in the first post?
No, it was an oversight...here it is:

Best of Alfred Hitchcock Collection Volume 2 (6 movies+4 TV eps/$135):
Saboteur" "The Trouble with Harry" "Vertigo (Special Edition)" ("The Birds (Special Edition)" "Marnie" "Torn Curtain" "Frenzy" 4 TV eps.

It seems like the 2 "Best of" collections are way overpriced compared to the upcoming Masterpiece Collection. In fact, it's the exact same 14 movies, minus 8 TV episodes (and perhaps 4 bonus discs for the 4 "special editions") for about $190 less.

Is the quality on the "Best of"s better than what has been announced for the Masterpiece Collection? Are the 8 TV eps selected ackowledged as the best of the 17(?) that he directed (did he direct more than 17? I noticed that number in the Amazon description)?
Old 07-05-05, 03:41 PM
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I'm not sure about the quality. I have both Best of collections (which I got for about $60 each, new). I guess we'll have to wait and see as more specs. come out regarding the masterpiece edition, but I've heard somewhere (Davisdvd.com I think) that the announced "all new better transfers" will not be better than the Universal ones. Anyway, I'm not really sure if the Masterpiece will be the better versions over the Universal Best of sets and am looking for that info. too.
Old 07-05-05, 03:44 PM
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I suspect that the upcoming "Masterpiece" set is just a cheaper repackaging of the existing discs. But we'll have to wait for the specs/reviews.

The Best of collections came out about 5 years back, and the price is now no longer in line with most of Universal's other product. I think they're looking to repackage and squeeze some more $$$ out of this before the switch to HD formats.
Old 07-05-05, 10:48 PM
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Criterion no longer has the rights to Rebecca, Spellbound, and Notorious, and they are out of print. I believe WB owns the rights to all three, so I'm sure we'll see new releases sooner or later.
These are Disney properties.
No, they aren't. They were MGM property and now they are Sony. MGM was supposed to release a boxset of The Lady Vanishes, Notorious, The Paradine Case, Rebecca, Sabotage, Spellbound, Young and Innocent and the 39 Steps back in November of 2004 but the set and the individual releases were delayed without any explanation. Knowing Sony, we are probably going to see this Hitchcock set after the 17th re-release of Spider-Man in 2015.
Old 07-05-05, 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by dx23
No, they aren't. They were MGM property and now they are Sony.
Nope, sorry. They are owned by Disney. The Selznick library was first purchased by ABC Pictures. The ABC family (including their film library), of course, was bought by Disney. Now, Disney has licensed a lot of other ABC titles to MGM for DVD release (e.g., Spacecamp, Prizzi's Honor, Straw Dogs, Silkwood, etc.), just as they did previously to Anchor Bay and Criterion, but Disney still owns them. Yes, these were rumored for release by MGM, but these would have been licensed releases of Disney properties.

If you own the Criterion DVDs of these three Hitchcock films, check out the packaging. The backs have a copyright notice for the American Broadcasting Companies. These are Disney properties.

DJ

Last edited by djtoell; 07-05-05 at 11:20 PM.
Old 07-05-05, 11:52 PM
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Get the Criterion set, warner set, the new universal set, both delta sets, Seek out the OOP Paradine Case, To Catch a Thief, and hold out for Lifeboat and Alfred Hitchcock presents which were both rumored for later this year.
Old 07-06-05, 12:45 AM
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http://video.barnesandnoble.com/sear...93&frm=0&itm=4

* * *

I just snagged this set because the Criterion set is far to pricey for me to get The Lady Vanishes and 39 Steps (although I REALLLLLY want Rebbeca and Spellbound). I'm a fan of Secret Agent and the original The Man Who Knew To Much and for $10 bucks it was a no brainer. I was really satisfied with St. Clair Vision's Noir collection where the transfers, although not steller, were certainly very watchable. This set is nice as well and of course though not comparable to the Criterion transfers they are much better then you'd expect for so little money. Plus, the tacked on a few extras and you get my favorite Hitch silent film THE LODGER.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/sear...93&frm=0&itm=4

* * *

So no word on new releases of Rebecca and Spellbound, huh? And where, oh where, is the Lifeboat?
Old 11-03-05, 10:50 AM
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Looks like Amazon has just set up an "Alfred Hitchcock Store":

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...763990-9024855

Nothing earth shattering, but it's cool to have everything in one place with a single store interface...

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