Notorious - Criterion vs. Anchor Bay (1 Viewer)

[Tommy G]

I guess I posted this topic to find out if it is worth it to buy the Criterion version. At my normal e-tailer (DeepDiscountDVD.com) I can purchase the Anchor Bay title for $9.90 or I can spend $28.76 for the Criterion version. I need convincing that it is worth the extra $18.86 for Criterion.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Your question applies equally to Rebecca.
I'm a huge Hitchcock fan, so for me there's no question. But here's what you get for the higher Criterion pricetag:
NOTORIOUS

About the Transfer
The picture for Notorious was restored and preserved from the original 35mm nitrate camera negative, a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master, and a 35mm nitrate copyright print. A newly printed 35mm fine-grain master, and the 35mm nitrate fine-grain master for Reels 4A and 5B, were used for the digital film-to-tape transfer. Inherent film artifacts were corrected in video with the MTI Digital Restoration System.
The soundtrack for Notorious was restored and preserved from a 1954 35mm acetate release print, a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master, and a 35mm nitrate optical music & effects track positive. New 35mm magnetic analog masters and DA-88 digital masters were created utilizing Sonic Solutions noise reduction software.
Special Features

• Commentaries by Hitchcock film scholar Marian Keane and film historian Rudy Behlmer, editor of Memo from David O. Selznick
• Complete broadcast of the 1948 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation, starring Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten
• Rare production, publicity, and rear projection photos, as well as promotional posters and lobby cards
• Production correspondence
• Collection of trailers and teasers
• Script excerpts of deleted scenes and alternate endings
• Excerpts from the short story “The Song of the Dragon,” source material for Notorious
• Rare newsreel footage of Bergman and Hitchcock
• Subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

REBECCA

About the Transfer
Rebecca is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The picture was restored and preserved from the original 35mm nitrate camera negative, a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master, and a 35mm original nitrate print. A newly printed 35mm fine-grain master was used for the digital film-to-tape transfer. Inherent film artifacts were corrected in video with the MTI Digital Restoration System.
The soundtrack for Rebecca was restored and preserved from the original 35mm nitrate optical soundtrack negative, a 35mm acetate dupe negative, and a 35mm magnetic music and effects master. New 35mm magnetic analog masters and DA-88 digital masters were created utilizing Sonic Solutions noise reduction software.
Special Features
DOUBLE DISC SET

• Commentary by film scholar Leonard J. Leff, author of Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood
• Isolated music and effects track
• Rare screen, hair, makeup and costume tests including Vivien Leigh, Anne Baxter, Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, and Joan Fontaine
• Hitchcock on Rebecca, excerpts from his conversations with François Truffaut
• Phone interviews with stars Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson from 1986
• Hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos chronicling the film’s production from location scouting, set photos, and wardrobe continuity to ads, posters, and promotional memorabilia
• Production correspondence and casting notes
• Deleted scene script excerpts
• 1939 test screening questionnaire
• Essay on Rebecca author Daphne du Maurier
• Footage from the 1940 13th Annual Academy Awards™ ceremony
• Re-issue trailer
• Three hours of complete radio show adaptations:
  -1938 Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre broadcast, including an interview with Daphne du Maurier
  -1941 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast starring Ronald Colman and Ida Lupino, including an interview with David O. Selznick
  -1950 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh
• 22-page booklet, including liner notes by Robin Wood, author of Hitchcock’s Films and Hitchcock’s Films Revisited, and George Turner’s essay “Du Maurier + Selznick + Hitchcock = Rebecca”
• English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

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"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."

Link Removed
[Edited last by Al Brown on October 04, 2001 at 09:44 AM]

 

[SteveGon]

Wow - those covers look great! I had the AB Spellbound but sold it off when I heard Criterion was putting out a version. Can't wait!
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He thought on homeland, the big timber, the air thin and chill all the year long. Tulip poplars so big through the trunk they put you in mind of locomotives set on end. He thought of getting home and building him a cabin on Cold Mountain so high that not a soul but the nighthawks passing across the clouds in autumn could hear his sad cry. Of living a life so quiet he would not need ears. And if Ada would go with him, there might be the hope, so far off in the distance he did not even really see it, that in time his despair might be honed off to a point so fine and thin that it would be nearly the same as vanishing.
-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

 

[Rich Malloy]

Yes, there's an unidentified spine no. between Rebecca (#135) and Notorious (#137) that must be reserved for Spellbound!

 

[Nelson Au]

Hmmm, this is a surprise to me. I was not keeping up with releases like these.
I have the CAV Criterion laserdisc of Notorious and I am assuming the contents of the suppliments are the same. (I don't have it here at work, I double check) But I would like to know how the DVD is an improvement over the LD. I guess it would be mostly video and minor sound improvements. I'm a big fan of Hitchcock too and Notorious is one of my favorites with Cary Grant against type and Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains great as usual.
Nelson

 

[Darren D]

Until Criterion subtitles the entire DVD...movies AND extras...I will not buy any more of their English-speaking movies. The foreign films, if the interviewee does not speak english, are a little better in this regard. But they still do not go far enough to give me my money's worth.

 

[Ken Seeber]

Until Criterion subtitles the entire DVD...movies AND extras...I will not buy any more of their English-speaking movies. The foreign films, if the interviewee does not speak english, are a little better in this regard. But they still do not go far enough to give me my money's worth.

I can't think of a single disc, regardless of studio, in my entire collection where the extras are subtitled, and I own a lot of discs.
I guess there's just no pleasing some people.

 

[Nelson Au]

I've been a happy Criterion customer since 1990 when I bought my first laserdisc from them. And at $125 a pop for 2001: A Space Odyssey, that was a lot. You have to be a serious film fan and appreciate what they do to buy their stuff. Like was said earlier, they cater to a particular film crowd and they are a small company. I can understand their pricing structure. The current prices for their DVD's is a heck of a lot better then what I paid! Without them, I doubt we'd have all the cool suppliments we are privileged to now. Maybe this little speech should go in the Criterion thread..
Nelson

 

[Kevin Leonard]

I can't think of a single disc, regardless of studio, in my entire collection where the extras are subtitled, and I own a lot of discs.

Guess you don't own a lot of Universal and Paramount titles then.
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Have you ever noticed anyone driving slower than you is an idiot? And anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!! - George Carlin
ICQ: 55259446 (or just search for "John Shaft"...can you dig?)

 

[Randy_M]

I own all the Anchor Bay Hitchcocks, and I find the audio and video presentations perfectly acceptable (except for the mistake at the end of Spellbound).
If you're not interested in the extras that will be on the Criterion editions, then I'd say go for it. The AB prices are excellent, and the transfers are a hundred times better than someone like LaserLight would do.
Me, I'm going to trade up to the Criterions, but am happy to have had the opportunity to watch the AB versions in the meantime.
Cheers.

 

[Page]

Even though I own the Anchor Bay versions, I am ready to spill some more cash on the Criterion discs. (Believe it or not my Region 2 "The Old Grey Whistle Test" has the extras subtitled.)
Which in a roundabout way leads me to...
KEVIN LEONARD, you are NOT the only Elvis Costello fan on the HTF. (Back in my youth, I bought his "My Aim Is True" LP the same day I bought "Talking Heads '77" and have been an Elvis fan ever since. (I even recently bought those new 2 CD disc sets of "My Aim Is True", "Spike", and "All This Useless Beauty".)
(Now I have SIX versions of "My Aim Is True"--original American LP, cassette version, original American CD, British import CD, remastered CD included in the 2 1/2 years box set, and the double Rhino CD released this summer!)

 

[Ken Seeber]

Guess you don't own a lot of Universal and Paramount titles then.

Now that you mention it, I do have a couple of Universal releases where the docs are subtitled. You're right, I don't have a lot of Paramount titles, and the ones I do have are bare bones. That will change when "The Godfather" gets here next week.
Still, I think refusing to buy loaded releases like the Criterion Hitchcocks mentioned above because the extras aren't subtitled is a little silly.

 

[Kevin Leonard]

quote: Still, I think refusing to buy loaded releases like the Criterion Hitchcocks mentioned above because the extras aren't subtitled is a little silly.[/quote]
While it is a bit silly on first notice, you have to keep in mind that there are deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers who are just as interested in supplements as you and I. I wonder if all supplements are closed-captioned?
[Edit: Page, check your private messages... ]
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Have you ever noticed anyone driving slower than you is an idiot? And anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!! - George Carlin
ICQ: 55259446 (or just search for "John Shaft"...can you dig?)
[Edited last by Kevin Leonard on October 04, 2001 at 05:43 PM]

 

[Darren D]

Well, Criterions are prized for their wonderful extras. I just do not see the point in paying twice more than normal for a movie that will only give me half the pleasure when the half that does not give me pleasure is a major factor in driving the price up.
I love Hitchcock. I would rent the CC Spellbound and Notorious and Rebecca in a heartbeat...if there was anyone in Baton Rouge that would rent Criterions, but for buying them? No. I've already begun to get rid of the ones I have. I sent a polite (and I made SURE it was polite) letter to Criterion asking about subs on the extras - TWICE - and never received a response. I read off and on how people have gotten a response from Jon Mulvaney (sp?) over other things, so if just talking about subtitling extras is too trite for them to spend time on - fine. They're not getting my money.
Another thing: their earlier movies on DVD were not subtitled, period. Why haven't these titles been revisited in subsequent reprints and had subs put in? I bought, and was reallllly looking forward to The Lady Vanishes and come to find out it isn't subtitled at all! That hurt, podnuh.
Ah well...I guess you gotta be hard of hearing to appreciate what I'm saying...

 

[cafink]

Still, I think refusing to buy loaded releases like the Criterion Hitchcocks mentioned above because the extras aren't subtitled is a little silly.

I can't speak for anyone, but I suspect he want subtitles on the features. Because that's the only way he can watch them. Not everyone is blessed with perfect hearing, and you certainly can't fault someone for not paying $30-$40 for a special edition DVD when they can't even watch the special edition materials!

 

[Kevin Leonard]

Carl,
You and I must think alike.

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Have you ever noticed anyone driving slower than you is an idiot? And anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!! - George Carlin
ICQ: 55259446 (or just search for "John Shaft"...can you dig?)

 

[Ken Seeber]

I can't speak for anyone, but I suspect he want subtitles on the features. Because that's the only way he can watch them. Not everyone is blessed with perfect hearing, and you certainly can't fault someone for not paying $30-$40 for a special edition DVD when they can't even watch the special edition materials!

I understand what you're saying, and it's disappointing that Criterion didn't subtitle the extras. But the films themselves are what is important here.
If these new DVDs are anything like "The 39 Steps," then Criterion has done an amazing restoration job. These movies simply have never looked this good on a home video or broadcast TV format. And because the movies themselves are subtitled, I would hate to see anyone pass them up because the extras are less than perfect.

 

[Darren D]

Guys, thanks for understanding and support. Yes, it's the extras that I wish were subtitled.
Like I said, I would rent them immediately if they were available to rent down here. I just cannot justify buying them. I spoke with one small vid store owner and he said that "foreign films and arthouse films generally don't do well." I suggested he come here to HTF and DVDTalk to see the interest people have in Criterions, but I haven't been back to see if he's done that yet. DVDs are entirely different from the VHS tapes so people may just rent more of them.
Notorious is probably my most favorite of the Hitchcock canon. I almost bought the DVD that is available, but judging from the label, it doesn't look like the entire disk (read: and extras) are subtitled like some of the other Hitchcock disks are. If someone can tell me if the extras on the available Notorious are subtitled or not I would appreciate it.

 

[RickardL]

I always thought my AB Notorius was fine and didn't need
any correction but decided to have a closer look yesterday.
The image and sound seemed fine but when I got closer
to my screen, I saw a lot of (telecine?) movement in the
picture and a lot of video shimmering/aliasing which
I hadn't noticed from my normal viewing position before!
So, I guess your milage will vary with your screen size
and the distance to the screen...
The disc has no subititles and no extras, just a chapter
selection and play in the menu.
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[Tommy G]

Wow, thanks for all of the responses. I think I've pretty much made up my mind to go with AB on this on though. I am not a huge extras type of person and if AB is good quality, that's good enough for me. I'm the type that looks at my collection and says hmmmm haven't seen that one for a while and then pops it in and watch the film in its entirety. Thanks again. This place is the best!