Alfred Hitchcock Collection Box in 2012! (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT /t/320682/alfred-hitchcock-collection-box-in-2012#post_3926016

I'll reserve mine for reviews from those I trust.

This. After the Spartacus Blu Universal no longer gets preordered. If the transfers are up to snuff and superior to the previous Masterpiece Set, I'll bite.

(That said, the old Masterpiece collection box is super handsome, I'd probably stick these Blu-Rays in it...)

 

[Lord Dalek]

Anybody know if the original music sessions for Man Who Knew To Much and Trouble were recorded in stereo or not, and if so have they been preserved? I know the tapes for Vertigo (which is about 36% mono anyway) and North By Northwest were falling apart by the time the soundtracks were expanded/reissued in the late 90s.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I think I am remembering correctly, but when Universal released that laser set of Sc-Fi films from the 50s, I was delighted and surprised that IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE had a stereo track and I don't think it was even mentioned in the package. It was more than music in true stereo, as there were off stage door slams and some off stage dialogue for characters not in frame. I think someone told me that Universal had cans marked "Spainish soundtrack" or something like that and it turned out to be the original stereo track. I think it was ported over to the DVD release. And TO HELL AND BACK seems to have a stereo track on the DVD, but again, I don't think it is mentioned on the package. It seems that a lot of Universal's stereo elements are gone from the 50s, so it is good to have a couple at least.

It Came From Outer Space was released originally with a 3 track (L-C-R) stereo sound track. That 3 track mix is on the DVD release, I don't know about the laserdisc. I believe that The Creature from the Black Lagoon also had a 3 track stereo mix.
Doug

 

[Jack Theakston]

The DVD of IT CAME has the 3-Track. CREATURE was not released with a stereo track. The only Universal 3D titles with 3-track to the best of my memory were IT CAME and WINGS OF THE HAWK. The cost of dubbing an extra mag track (a fullcoat that had to be interlocked with the projectors on a dubber) was prohibitively expensive for anything other than 'A' productions.

 

[Douglas Monce]

The DVD of IT CAME has the 3-Track. CREATURE was not released with a stereo track. The only Universal 3D titles with 3-track to the best of my memory were IT CAME and WINGS OF THE HAWK. The cost of dubbing an extra mag track (a fullcoat that had to be interlocked with the projectors on a dubber) was prohibitively expensive for anything other than 'A' productions.

I wasn't sure on Creature, but I know It Came had a 3 track. Also I thought that Creature WAS an A production, particularly because It Came was such a huge hit.
Doug

 

[Joe Caps]

Some controversial comments here.
I was director of Pioneer Special Editions. We had talked about doing some of the Universal owned Hitchcock films at one point. I didn't want to go ahead, until I knew that there was material to do stereo on at least some of the films.
Paramount pulled music tracks for these for me.
What they ahd was this.
Trouble with Harry - stereo , not complete but close enough.
Man Who Knew Too Much - stereo and near complete.
Vertigo - stereo - all stereo !! only three pieces of music were missing and these pieces had already been released in true stereo on the Mercury CD.
Why when Varese did a reissue of Vertigo, all of the stereo tracks were not there is beyond me.

 

[Joe Caps]

some confusion here.
High Society ws not recorded and mixed in stereo, Its music tracks ojnly were recorded in three track stereo, as were mostly ALL music tracks from theis era. the stereo track for High Society the film was done first for laserdisc and then for dvd.
time machine was never meant to be a stereo film
Giant was definitely four channel mag, indeed I have seen some collectors prints in the past twenty years.

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

Back on topic...the price with shipping now $173.34 or $12.28 per title.

 

[Osato]

Back on topic...the price with shipping now $173.34 or $12.28 per title.

I really hope we get some info and news on a US Region A blu ray release.
I'm a bit confused as I believe there was major restoration work needed on many of the films for blu ray. I believe Robert Harris has commented on this before as well.
I hope I'm wrong, but it seems really aggressive that all of the Universal Hitchcock titles would be restored and ready for blu ray this year.
Hopefully someone has some confirmed information on what is happening and what the slate of Hitchcock films will be this year.

 

[rayman1701]

They've been playing the Universal Hitchcocks on Retroplex HD that is channel 379 on Dish Network. I've been wondering if these were new HD transfers or something that was done some time back. I've sampled a few, and while they looked ok, I'm also sure they could probably look better. Of course the channel could just be upconverting older DVD transfers, one never knows on some "HD" channels. So I hope these are new scans and not just the HDTV transfers thrown onto a disc just for the sake of putting out a Blu-ray, but with Universal it seems you never can tell, until it's actually out. Still hoping for the best though......

 

[jra166]

Any word on special features yet? Hoping all the films have commentary tracks this time around. That is one thing I wish the Masterpiece Collection had. I am pretty content with that collection, while I may upgrade a few of my favorite titles to Blu. I don't think I need them all on Blu, but commentary tracks on all of them could change that...

 

[Cineman]

Universal has already released PSYCHO on its own. Would they repackage it in a box-set? for the USA market?

This being a German set, I wonder if the Blu-ray of Psycho will have the missing censored frames removed for the 1970s U.S. television presentation that we've been getting on every U.S. video release of it ever since, including the recent Blu-ray release. I've heard there is a German source print with the missing pieces.
Also, not being able to read German, I do notice they reference the "Masterpiece Collection". If so, that opens the possibility that Vertigo will include the original, un-restored soundtrack, which I find to be far superior in emotional impact to the newly recorded Dolby-ized version and which, as far as I know, is currently only available on the Masterpiece Collection (the velveteen box set) DVD version of Vertigo in the USA.
If either or both of those conditions exist for this German Blu-ray set, there is no question but this is the one I'll be buying on day one. The U.S. sources have already demonstrated zero interest in restoring those censored for television missing frames for Psycho on Blu-ray and I have very little faith that a U.S. Blu-ray release of Vertigo will include the original, un-restored soundtrack as an option.

 

[Osato]

Is there any further news on a US Region A release of the set?

 

[TravisR]

^ Not yet but if there is a Region A release, it'd probably be in the fall so an announcement wouldn't be likely until the summer time.

 

[Osato]

^ Not yet but if there is a Region A release, it'd probably be in the fall so an announcement wouldn't be likely until the summer time.

4th Quarter could be pretty expensive. Bond 50 (just before in September), Indiana Jones and Hitchcock!

 

[Yorkshire]

I thought Hitch fans might be interested in this from the BBC News site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18162846
I'm not sure if you'll be able to watch the video outside the UK, but you can at least read the text.
Nothing specific on Blu-ray releases, but as this appears yo be a BFI effort, maybe they'll do it themselves - hopefully in one nice box.
Steve W

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

BFI doesn't hold the rights for a blu-ray release, but perhaps Studio Canal will make a deal.
More info here: http://www.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/hitchcock/jan-11-restoration-update.html

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

Network will be releasing The Lodger in the UK September 24th. At least that's what I'm hearing.

 

[Yorkshire]

The Lodger would be smashing.
Steve W

 

[Osato]

Looks like Blu ray.com has posted a picture for the German LE Universal blu ray set.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Alfred-Hitchcock-Collection-Blu-ray/45101/