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.
Lionsgate: Alfred Hitchcock Collection
- dx23
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Lionsgate: Alfred Hitchcock Collection
From DavisDVD:
- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
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.
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
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
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.Matt wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the more well-known titles.peerpee wrote:I was really hoping Criterion would get these.... seeing as they have links with StudioCanal...
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
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- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:47 pm
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.
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
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
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- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:47 pm
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.
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.
Last edited by jmj713 on Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
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- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
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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.
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
- Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:22 pm
- Location: UK
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.alfons416 wrote:i guess the optimum releases must same transfers as in the french studio canal releases?
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.jmj713 wrote: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.
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 wrote: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.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
This is really great news! I wonder why Universal hasn't released it in region one land? Any signs of pre-orderability?Kinsayder wrote: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).