Sorry to bump an old topic, but...
I've recently been keeping an eye out for Hitchcock's three OOP criterions, and I've acquired Notorious and Spellbound for reasonable prices ($35 and $30 respectively).
How much should I reasonably pay for Rebecca? I passed on an opportunity to snag it for $70, should I have?

I would say that's a average to slightly above average price for a new/sealed copy of it. Between $50-65 seems to be about average for a used/mint copy. On e-bay, recent auctions for new copies have been finishing for around $75-85 plus shipping.

IMO this is one of the better OOP Criterions worth spending $ on. There isn't another good version out there (like in the case of Silence of the Lambs, Robocop, Hard Boiled, Spinal Tap) plus it's two discs and disc two is jam-packed with extras. I generally never look at text features, but they have stills of all the memos that Selznick, Hitchcock, etc. would send back and forth to each other... plus audition footage of all the actresses who tried out for the role that Joan Fontaine eventually landed.

If you consider the retail of the disc is $40, double that price for as long as it's been OOP is not that bad. Still wish I hadn't sold my CC Hitchcock set because that price still isn't within my budget right now.

I agree with you. Rebecca won Best Picture, beating out Citizen Kane. But AFI 100 Best Movies say that Kane is #1. Rebecca is way better and it's not on their list.

I sold my Anchor Bay of Notorious and Spellbound when I found the CC at Borders. Rebecca and The Paradine Cas I still have by AB. Just recently found CC of Notorious at Borders again and bought it new.

I disagree completely, but your facts are also wrong. Citizen Kane was released a year later, 1941. It lost to How Green Was My Valley. Rebecca won Best Picture over the likes of The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Foreign Correspondent and The Philadelphia Story, all better films in my opinion.

Correct. It is not better than Kane. For the record, I like it better than all the other '41 nominees though -- I like it slightly better than The Philadelphia Story.

I don't understand why Criterion lost the rights and then these didn't even come out. Some company wanted the rights back and then never released them? Criterion should try and go after them again but it's probably not a priority.

My bad, I was thinking of The Philadelphia Story and The Grapes of Wrath. I still liked Rebecca better than Citizen Kane.

I'm bumping an old topic (I don't think that's disallowed?) to say that a year later, I have finally completed the set.

I bought the Notorious CC about a year ago for $35 used off Amazon, and I'd been monitoring the price of the other two at Amazon since January. I was able to snag the Rebecca CC for $68 last week and the Spellbound CC off eBay for $41 just now.

I just recently saw Spellbound for the first time and I loved it. I'd rank Rebecca/Spellbound/Notorious as my respective 3rd/4th/5th favorite Hitchcock movies out of the almost-20 I've seen.

Anybody else still looking out to grab these? If you bought them recently, how much did you fork over? Anybody hear any rumors of future releases yet?

I've been thinking about getting Notorious and Rebecca, but they're quite costly. It's rather curious that they haven't been re-released in any form since the Criterions went OOP.

This just makes me think about how I found Rebecca CC 6 years ago for $10 and bought it. Probably one of the smarter things I've done.

Does Disney still own the rights of these titles? Why the hell do they sit on so much or their catalog? Are they turning into Universal?

I bought a new but unsealed Rebecca for ~$90 earlier this year and it was worth the extra cost to get the set in such pristine condition. That's the most I've ever spent for a DVD but it's one of my favorite Hitchcocks and the extras are totally marvy. The problem is that outside of the Criterion releases, none of the Hitchcock discs out there have academic special features, which are of far more interest to me than the blowjob featurettes on the WB/Universal discs.

I got the complete set along with one of the Disney tins (Silly Symphonies) for like $100 on this board three years ago.

I picked up Notorious used at Gamestop for $6. I was able to get Rebecca from a fellow member on the exchange forum for $25. Both are mint and are among my favorite discs. Never got around to picking up Spellbound though.

I got Rebecca from someone here for around $50-$60.

Once upon a time, back when the "free" DVD sites were going strong, I got the entire set virtually for free. This was before it went OOP of course. I kept it for a year or so, sold it as soon as it went OOP for around $100 or so, and then cried when I watched the prices go up over the following months/years.

Title: Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection
Starring: N/A (Various)
Released: 14th October 2008
SRP: $119.98

Further Details:
MGM Home Entertainment has announced the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection which includes Rebecca, The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Spellbound, Notorious, Young and Innocent, Sabotage, and Lifeboat. Each have been beautifully restored and remastered. As well as all the features listed below, the DVD collection also includes a 32-page notebook with trivia, production notes and more about the legendary director. Retail will be $119.98. We've attached the official package artwork and specs below:


http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releas...ollection.html

Full Disc Specs
Quote:
Rebecca Synopsis
A young woman marries a fascinating older widower only to discover that she must live in the shadows of his first wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years before.

Special features:

• Commentary by film historian/author Richard Schickel
• Screen tests
• Making of Rebecca Featurette
• The Gothic World of Daphne Du Maurier Featurette
• Original 1938 Radio Play Starring Orson Welles
• 1941 Radio Play Presented by Cecil B. DeMille
• 1950 Radio Play with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Four-page booklet

The Lodger Synopsis
Not long after a mysterious young “medical scientist” named Slade (Laird Cregar) rents a flat in the heart of London’s Whitechapel district, a series of brutal murders begins. But despite the fact that the murder victims are all female stage performers, the landlord’s niece Kitty (Merle Oberon), an ingénue, is unphased by the crimes – or by the unusual, brooding man in her family’s midst. As Kitty coquettishly interacts with a Scotland Yard detective (George Sanders), she becomes Slade’s object of obsession in this pulse-pounding thriller that “packs an unsettling punch.” (At-A-Glance Film Reviews).

Special features:

• 1999 Score by Ashley Irwin presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround
• 1997 Score by Paul Zaza presented in Mono
• Commentary with film historian Patrick McGilligan
• The Sound of Silence: The Making of The Lodger Featurette
• Hitchcock 101 Featurette
• 1940 Radio Play Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparison

The Paradine Case Synopsis
Beautiful Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is accused of poisoning her older wealthy husband. Her barrister, the happily married Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) takes the case but also lets his heart rule his head when he falls hard for his client.

Special features:

• Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• 1949 Radio Play Starring Joseph Cotton
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Galleries
Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection

Spellbound Synopsis
When John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), the new director of a mental asylum arrives on the job, the staff is concerned. He seems too young for the position and his answers to their questions are vague and detached. Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), while knowing he is an imposter with emotional issues, nevertheless falls in love with him. Turning to her mentor, Dr. Alex Brulov (Michael Checkhov) and the use of psychoanalysis she tries to get to the root of Ballantine’s emotional problems.

Special features:

• Commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz & Charles Ramirez Berg
• Guilt by Association: Psychoanalyzing Spellbound Featurette
• A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming Featurette
• Dreaming with Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali Featurette
• 1948 Radio Play Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Film Historian Rudy Belhemer Interviews Composer Miklós Rózsa
• Still Gallery
• 4-Page Booklet

Notorious Synopsis
Daughter of an accused World War II traitor, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted to entrap one of her father’s colleagues in Brazil, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Raines). Her American contact, secret agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) is openly contemptuous of Alicia and instructs her to wed Sebastian. It is only after she is wed that Devlin lets himself admit that he’s fallen in love with her.

Special features:

• Commentary with film historian Rick Jewell
• Commentary with film historian Drew Casper
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious Featurette
• Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster Featurette
• AFI Tribute to Hitchcock
• 1948 Radio Play Starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery
• 4-Page Booklet

Young and Innocent Synopsis
In this witty, suspense thriller a police chief’s daughter helps a fugitive accused of murder prove his innocence.

Special features:

• Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection
Page 4 of 5
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery

Sabotage Synopsis
A woman learns that her movie theater manager husband is actually a foreign agent when a bomb he has made kills her brother. Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel, The Secret Agent.

Special features:

• Commentary with film historian Leonard Leff
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery

Lifeboat Synopsis
Nominated for three Academy Awards®, Alfred Hitchcock’s World War II drama is a remarkable story of human survival. After their ship is sunk in the Atlantic by Germans, eight people are stranded in a lifeboat. Their problems are further compounded when they pick up a ninth passenger – the Nazi captain from the U-boat that torpedoed them. With powerful suspense and emotion, this legendary classic reveals the strengths and frailties of individuals under extraordinary duress.

Special features:

• Commentary by University of Southern California School of Cinema & Television Hitchcock professor and film critic, Drew Casper
• “The Making of Lifeboat” featurette
• The original theatrical trailer
• Still gallery featuring photographs from the set

I think this info needs its own thread.

Do you guys think that the re-release will lower the cost of used CC Rebecca and Notorious? It looks like the new discs have substantial special features, but may not be quite on par with the CC editions.

The DVD gods are capricious, and will always wait until someone purchases an expensive, out-of-print copy of a movie before letting a new version be announced.

Thanks for taking one for the team.

It will probably lower the cost by $10-$20 bucks, but they'll still remain as collectibles and essentials for Criterion completist.

Surely a mistake, but Rebecca CC is listed as "In Stock" at dvdplanet for $25.97.

http://www.dvdplanet.com/details.cfm...EA9B65776BB445

VERY interesting...

I went ahead and placed an order for it, we'll see what happens...

This is tempting, but can I ask how you came across this info/page? Google? In my perhaps overly-suspicious nature, I attempted to find the listing through any other search on the site, and it just doesn't seem to be there.

Further, Re: Attempted Payment. Do DVDPlanet still accept PayPal? Because when I tried to enter that info, the PayPal page read "This seller can no longer accept payment." When I was considering entering my CC information instead, I looked at the security authentication at the bottom right of the browser...and it says "Authenticated by GoDaddy.com" -- do they actually do CC security?

Are you sure this isn't an archived web page? (I'm not accusing you, just trying to make sure of the validity of this page!)

I took at chance on it. I've already got this awesome set, but I know some uber-movie geeks who would freak out to get this for Christmas.