Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection - Oct 14, 2008 (1 Viewer)

[oscar_merkx]

great news indeed.

Is it premature to sell your Criterions

 

[WadeM]

It's about FREAKIN' TIME!!

The one I'm most excited about here is Young and Innocent. And it will be nice to have copies of The Lodger & Sabotage.

I hate having to buy my Criterion movies & Lifeboat & Paradine Case over again.

Now we just need someone to release good R1 versions of 1934's The Man Who Knew Too Much, both versions of Blackmail and The Secret Agent...

 

[ColbyCo82]

This is just a minor quibble...but it always bothers me when companies use box art that doesn't match the time-frame of the films included. This happens all the time in PD Hitchcock releases, but it would be nice if MGM had used a picture of Hitch that was actually taken before the late 1950s. Im tired of seeing all the Hitchcock box sets illustrated with pictures of Hitch taken in the 1960s when the films in the set are from the 1920s and 1930s. I know many will say thats how the public best remembers him, but no matter how old he was you can always tell its Hitch in the picture. Its just the obessive compulsive historian in me I guess....lol.

 

[Jefty]

can't wait!

I was getting really tired of trying to win those criterions on ebay!

 

[Craig Beam]

So once this set is placed on my shelf with the Warner, Universal and Lionsgate sets, only TO CATCH A THIEF and UNDER CAPRICORN will be left standing on their own (outside of boxed sets, that is). Hmmm.....

And yeah, call me an optimist, but newly restored prints of the Criterion Three should look at least as good. If I'm wrong... well, that's way the cookie crumbles.

 

[Scott D S]

I guess I can say this now. When I lived in LA, I temped at MGM in their records management/special projects department. I remember overhearing someone in the elevator mentioning work on a Hitchcock DVD set. That was the last I heard of it but seeing this release news conjured up the memory.

 

[Alan_H]

For all those who are unhappy about the price, what do you think would be fair?

If it RETAILS for $119, it should be available for aroung $80. Not to mention that since it's being released on 10-14, that's just in time for a certain site's 20% off November sale, where I bet the sale price will be around $65. That's ~ $8 apiece for a bunch of classic and OOP Hitchcocks, loaded with extras!

 

[Charles Ellis]

Well, I checked the opening link and was shocked at the factual errors Sony/MGM/Fox made in the publicity blurbs:

Giving Mrs. Paradine the wrong first name,

listing the 1944 remake of The Lodger instead of Hitchock's silent version,

and worst yet, they gave away the true identity of Gregory Peck's character in Spellbound!!! Somewhere Hitch is turning in his grave......

 

[george kaplan]

I've been waiting a long time for Young & Innocent to be available, but I already own the rest of those, so I'll probably wait and hope it's available separately at some point.

 

[TravisR]

I own all of these but I'd gladly replace my cheap PD/bootleg versions of The Lodger, Young And Innocent and Sabotage and Anchor Bay's version of The Paradine Case. However, I'm not going to spend $80 for just those movies when I own the other half of the set so I'll just hope that they are eventually released separately.

 

[dana martin]

I dont understand the rush to ebay the CC's you are taking sight unseen that this is an upgrade worth having.

 

[PaulP]

Here's hoping Lionsgate comes out with a second volume of early Hitchcock. And then only a handful of titles will need restored R1 editions.

For a complete restored Hitchcock canon one needs now:

Warner Bros. Signature Collection (2004)
Universal Masterpiece Collection (2005)
Lionsgate Collector's Edition (2007)
MGM Premiere Collection (2008)

Plus:

Criterion editions of The 39 Steps (1998) and The Lady Vanishes (2007), as well as the Paramount edition of To Catch a Thief (2007).

Remaining unreleased in a restored edition in R1:

The Pleasure Garden (1925)
Downhill (1927)
Easy Virtue (1928)
Champagne (1928)
Blackmail (1929)
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Secret Agent (1936)
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Under Capricorn (1949)

 

[seanOhara]

Because as long as the film is completely out-of-print in the US, people will pay absurdly high prices for it. Right now even used copies are selling for above MSRP. Once this set hits shelves, the price will plummet.

Anyone with all three Criterion discs could easily sell them for $120, then turn around and buy the Fox set for $90 -- a $30 profit plus you end up with five more movies. Fox has an extremely good track-record with their classics division, so it's unlikely they'd screw up a major release like this, and while you wouldn't have all the Criterion extras it's not an unreasonable trade off.

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Now playing: John C. Dvorak - CrankyGeeks 123: XP is dead. Long live XP!
via FoxyTunes

 

[Douglas R]

Fox are only the distributors. These are MGM releases.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I highly doubt that the prices on the Criterion's will plummet. They all have different commentary tracks as well as other exclusive extras. People continued to pay exhorbant fees for other out of print Criterions with less substantial extras than these in the past including "Spinal Tap", "Silence of the Lambs", & "Seven Samurai".

I'll hold on to mine until I'm convinced that the new commentaries are on par with the Criterions and until I make sure that some of the other extras are present on the new editions ..... especially all of the screen tests on Rebecca (One of the best extra material ever put on DVD)

 

[TimJS]

According to the Bits:

Rebecca, Spellbound and Notorious will also be available separately for $19.98 each.

 

[TravisR]

I saw that and the irony wasn't lost on me.

 

[Alejandro]

I agree. Those screen tests sent yourself back in a time machine to Hollywood working technique. I always thought that with all the material packed in the Criterion editions (tests, memos, pictures, storyboards etc) one could make a beautiful making of doc. I'm glad they finally did it.
These news made my day!

 

[Charles H]

It sounds great, but considering the features, it seems like REBECCA should be a double-discer like the Criterion. Hopefully, this portends "hope" for the long delayed David Lean Collection....

 

[Patrick McCart]

While it's not great and it apparently has wrong color timing, Image's DVD for Under Capricorn is official. Seems to be from a new 35mm element from the camera negatives held by UCLA. No extras, though.

The Lodger, Sabotage, and Young & Innocent are owned by Granada. Oddly enough, they're the ones who licensed The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes to Criterion (probably via an earlier Janus Films contract). The Pleasure Garden, Downhill, and Easy Virtue also seem to be owned by Granada (with TPG possibly having rights with Douris). The rest of the British films are StudioCanal except for Jamaica Inn, which also seems to be Douris.