Lionsgate: Alfred Hitchcock Collection

[dx23]

From DavisDVD:

Alfred Hitchcock

Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release the Alfred Hitchcock: 3-Disc Collector's Edition on February 6th, 2007. The set will feature five early films from The Master's English period never released on DVD together before. Titles include The Manxman, Rich And Strange, The Skin Game, Murder! and The Ring - all newly remastered with fullscreen transfers and new soundtracks for the silent films. Retail will be $39.98.

[Matt]

I imagine these will be ports of the Studio Canal discs.

Beaver reviews.

[peerpee]

I was really hoping Criterion would get these.... seeing as they have links with StudioCanal...

[Matt]

I was really hoping Criterion would get these.... seeing as they have links with StudioCanal...

I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the more well-known titles.

[zedz]

I'm glad to see these are coming out. I haven't seen The Ring, but I think Rich and Strange is the pick of the rest. Murder and The Skin Game are creaky stage-bound early talkies (the latter is slightly redeemed by an imaginative auction sequence - even Hitchcock's worst films tend to have at least one bravura sequence). The Manxman is acceptable late silent melodrama, but somewhat removed from his key concerns.

Rich and Strange is also atypical - a comedy about the boredom of marriage - but it's very nicely observed, and more visually driven than several of the films he made at the time. Like another marriage comedy from the same period, the fine late silent The Farmer's Wife, it sheds light on matters that play an important role in a lot of his better known films. For a guy who was, apparently, devoted to his wife and family, he made an awful lot of films predicated on really bad marriages (Sabotage, Rebecca, Suspicion, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, Vertigo, Marnie - there's ten just off the top of my head), but it's in his comedies that he goes into more detail about the mechanics of good and bad matches.

[denti alligator]

I was really hoping Criterion would get these.... seeing as they have links with StudioCanal...

I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the more well-known titles.

The Ring is maybe the best of the bunch. Which are the others, again? Number 17, Juno and the Paycock, Champagne? I think these are worse than what Lionsgate is getting.

[dx23]

Cover art for this release here.

[htdm]

Is that a death mask?

[manicsounds]

Oh dear, I blinked! Can we take one more photo?

[Matango]

Is that a death mask?

Exactly my first reaction.

[djali999]

Notice how transparently they swiped the Warner box graphic design too - same font, same signature, same spacing minus "signature collection".

Horrid cover, tho.

[miless]

now I hope someone releases a decent version of the Lodger, I've wanted to see that one, but didn't want to see a shitty unrestored DVD version.

[alfons416]

miless: There is a german box released by Concorde that has a restored version of The Lodger and it looks great!

[jmj713]

As most will know, in February there will be two sets released with early Hitchcock films - one in R1 and one in R2.

What I'm wondering is, if it's worth going for the R2 disc. It looks superior on paper, but what about PAL speedup and such? I tend to avoid PAL DVDs for this reason, although I do have some.

I'm working toward a complete Hitchcock collection, and having both the Masterpiece and Signature Collections quickly filled a lot of gaps. I also have Criterion's The 39 Steps, Notorious, Spellbound, and Rebecca, as well as Fox's Lifeboat and Paramount's To Catch a Thief.

Hopefully the remaining gaps could be filled with a few of these "early films" collections, such as these upcoming ones.

[manicsounds]

9 discs, 9 movies for 26GBP is a steal compared to the 3 disc Lionsgate.
I'm going for the UK. PAL speedup does not bother me at all

[jmj713]

Well I too am obviously leaning to the R2 - besides the number of films, each film gets its own disc, which should mean an increase in picture quality. Plus, extras.

Is it too much to hope that a Volume Two might be released later, containing most of the remaining early films? Another 9-disc set would contain:

The Pleasure Garden (1926)
The Lodger (1927)
Downhill (1927)
Easy Virtue (1928)
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage (1936)

Should that come to pass, remaining will only be a handful of films. I seem to recall an MGM boxset announced in 2004 that would pretty much cover that. It were to include the "uncollected" Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938)*, and The Paradine Case (1947) - along with duplicates of The 39 Steps (1935), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), and Notorious (1946).

To complete the hat trick, there'd only need to be new remastered editions of Jamaica Inn (1939) and Under Capricorn (1949). Perhaps Criterion could put them out?

*Criterion's The Lady Vanishes leaves a lot to be desired, sadly.

[jmj713]

Yes, here it is. Universal doesn't own the R1 rights?

[denti alligator]

I have a feeling most of these will show up in Eclipse.

The Pleasure Garden is curiously only available in bootleg form. Anyone know why?

Ditto Waltzes from Vienna.

[jmj713]

A Criterion Eclipse set filling the gaps would be a perfect capper!

[manicsounds]

I thought Warner produced "Under Capricorn" and 'forgot' to put it in their Hitchcock boxset. Or was somehow the rights handed over to someone else? Image released this in the US, didnt they?

[jmj713]

According to IMDB, Warner does seem to hold the rights to it in the US, so perhaps it was held back from the Signature set, since it was rather large already. Hopefully they can put the film out this year, with that restored Technicolor print.

[alfons416]

i guess the optimum releases must same transfers as in the french studio canal releases?

if so im definitely gona buy that boxset and sell my studio canal boxset one, after this i will have the best available version af all hitchcock films except for under capricorn, waltzes from vienna & pardine case.

[Kinsayder]

i guess the optimum releases must same transfers as in the french studio canal releases?

Almost certainly, though the UK Optimum set appears to be lacking Foreign Correspondent, which was in the third of the three Studio Canal boxes. See also this thread which raises some issues with the audio on these transfers.

What I'm wondering is, if it's worth going for the R2 disc. It looks superior on paper, but what about PAL speedup and such? I tend to avoid PAL DVDs for this reason, although I do have some.

Here in PAL-land, we actually prefer our films to run 4% faster and the actors to talk like chipmunks. It gives us more time to get on with other things.

I have a feeling most of these will show up in Eclipse.

The Pleasure Garden is curiously only available in bootleg form. Anyone know why?

Ditto Waltzes from Vienna.

Waltzes from Vienna has been scheduled by Universal France for 1 March. It's coupled with a restored edition of Downhill (already available on the German Early Years set).

[denti alligator]

Waltzes from Vienna has been scheduled by Universal France for 1 March. It's coupled with a restored edition of Downhill (already available on the German Early Years set).

This is really great news! I wonder why Universal hasn't released it in region one land? Any signs of pre-orderability?

[alfons416]

waltzes from vienna will complete my hitchcock collection! and with the optimum boxset i will uppgrade some of my transfers from sucky puiblic domain quality.. a wonderfull hitchcock spring.