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USHE Announcement: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

Brianruns10

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Doug Otte said:
Agreed. It doesn't look a bit like Novak.
Doug
And no production would use their A-list star for something which could be done cheaply by hiring any one from a bevy of models, extras and aspiring actresses. Just as they use hand and foot doubles for close up scenes, so as to not waste time and money with their expensive stars doing pickup and b-roll shoots.
If you listen to the commentary for "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," you'd be amazed at how many shots of Bogie's character were done with a double.
 

rich_d

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Brianruns10 said:
And no production would use their A-list star for something which could be done cheaply by hiring any one from a bevy of models, extras and aspiring actresses. Just as they use hand and foot doubles for close up scenes, so as to not waste time and money with their expensive stars doing pickup and b-roll shoots.
If you listen to the commentary for "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," you'd be amazed at how many shots of Bogie's character were done with a double.
That logic really doesn't hold up - - Novak's contract is paid for whether she appears in 14 or 18 scenes so that is a sunk cost. And anyone that's watched a major film being shot knows that there is a bunch of 'dead time' involved with any shoot so if you want to talk about "wasted time" from the actor's perspective ... there is a ton of it involved. Certainly, the filmmaker would never wish to slight a star by making do things that could be done with an extra/double but the key is the intent and application. In VERTIGO, one could make an excellent case that the story/action is a recurring dream/nightmare of sorts where the woman at the beginning of the film the dreamer/lunatic. Another possibility is that the woman is a Twilight Zone traveler of sorts in a per-cursor to Twelve Monkeys. In either case, filming Novak or a look-a-like gives a bit of tantalizing clue for the mysterious story that is VERTIGO.
 

Brianruns10

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Look, I work in the industry. I know one or two things. And there is NO WAY they'd use Kim Novak for such tightly composed shots for the title sequence. Do you know how long it takes to stage those? He would've wasted half a day at least with his lead actress, so yes, there absolutely IS a cost savings in having a double do the inserts. Hitch did it with Janet Leigh in Psycho. You think that's her wrapped in the shower curtain? Nope. Double.
Productions have many things going on at once. You've got A crews and B crews working all the time, and it's all planned. And Hitch was especially into planning, as he was famous for. How do you think he managed to make a film a year for so many years?
Absolutely IS NOT Kim Novak, and there is no way they would've even considered using her for that shot. They had more important things for her to do.
 

JohnMor

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Originally Posted by Brianruns10 /t/321703/ushe-announcement-alfred-hitchcock-the-masterpiece-collection-blu-ray/60#post_3945174
Look, I work in the industry. I know one or two things. And there is NO WAY they'd use Kim Novak for such tightly composed shots for the title sequence. Do you know how long it takes to stage those? He would've wasted half a day at least with his lead actress, so yes, there absolutely IS a cost savings in having a double do the inserts. Hitch did it with Janet Leigh in Psycho. You think that's her wrapped in the shower curtain? Nope. Double.
Productions have many things going on at once. You've got A crews and B crews working all the time, and it's all planned. And Hitch was especially into planning, as he was famous for. How do you think he managed to make a film a year for so many years?
Absolutely IS NOT Kim Novak, and there is no way they would've even considered using her for that shot. They had more important things for her to do.

Absolutely correct.

And, again, on a simple, common sense level, it looks NOTHING like Novak.
 

Persianimmortal

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Dick said:
Except that, in the U.K., that title is not included at all.
Which I actually noted in my reply.
On the blu-ray.com forums hitchcock thread two people who emailed Universal were told that the region status of the UK release is not yet confirmed, and one official reply apparently specifically noted that "we might have to unfortunately lock one or several of the titles due to licensing issues, we will know more by the end of July."
My guess is that the UK release will probably end up being region free as Universal titles usually are, however I wouldn't recommend ordering it until it was confirmed. The US release is also likely (hopefully) region free, but with North by Northwest region locked due to licensing - which would suit me fine as I already have that disc in my collection.
Or Universal may decide - due to the sheer amount of pre-orders directed towards the UK release because of the large price differential - to lock the UK release to Region B so as not to undercut sales of the US set. Who knows, it's part of the unfortunate reality of region coding and artificially differentiating markets.
 

Cees Alons

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Originally Posted by Patrick Donahue /t/321703/ushe-announcement-alfred-hitchcock-the-masterpiece-collection-blu-ray/60#post_3945086
Dick,
It drops more at check-out because, I think, it sees that you're in the U.S. so it takes off the VAT which they have to pay in the U.K.

That's correct. That's exactly how it works.
(Like tax deduction - or tax-free sale - when you leave the UK on an airplane to an outside-the-EU country. And vice versa if a european visits the US.)

It's based on the address you have it shipped to. Or better: dispatched.


Cees
 

Nelson Au

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I came across a guy's blog where he painstakingly locates and photographs current images of sites in San Francisco where classic films were made. He compares them to screen grabs from each movie. His site is not so different from others who do this. But his is really obsessively done! Which is great! Being that I live very close to San Francisco, I can appreciate his efforts.
http://reelsf.com/
Check out his entry for Vertigo. It's very good, he pulled out all the stops. Can't wait till the blu ray comes, I will hold off watching Vertigo till its out.
It also got me to pull out my Experiment in Terror DVD and watch that. Next up, is another all time favorite for me, Bullitt.
 

Garysb

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Persianimmortal

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Garysb said:
North By Northwest was Region Free in the UK. Was the US release region locked? Psycho was also region free in the UK.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/North-Northwest-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B002CYIR5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341713359&sr=8-2
I have the Australian version of North by Northwest, but a quick check of regionfreemovies.com shows the US version is region free. So it's odd that Universal would then say via email replies that there may be licensing issues affecting the region coding of their set. Still, as I say there's no real logic on display with how these sets are being sold across the world, so its entirely possible North by Northwest could be locked in the US set. Why include North by Northwest in the US set but not the UK? Why price the UK set $80 less than the US set? Why have two completely difference packages for the set in the UK and US? These differences might have been considered sensible in the past, but today buyers just look for the best deal online regardless of where it is located.
As an aside, I notice that Amazon.uk is now prominently appending [Region Free] more frequently to its blu-ray titles. I've been shopping on Amazon.uk for years now, since Australia shares Region B status with the UK, and it seems to be a recent trend. In combination with the much cheaper prices, I assume it's Amazon.uk's way of making it clear that they are a viable alternative for US buyers looking to save money.
 

Kosty

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All I know is this is a blind buy for me as I have been wanting several of these films on Blu-ray for a while.
The Birds was one of the titles I wanted to see on Blu-ray since we first started talking about the format.
 

Cineman

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I am troubled and disappointed to note that the opening post detailed features on each title does not state that the original, un-restored soundtrack for Vertigo is an option on this Blu-ray set as it was on the standard DVD Masterpiece Collection set. Would anyone know if it is included but for whatever reason simply not mentioned in the features list?
As much as I admire and appreciate the beautiful image restoration of this great film (imo, one of the top half dozen greatest films), it is my opinion that the original soundtrack recording, music cues, dynamics, foley effects, etc. are so superior to the restored version in terms of emotional impact, plot and thematic intention that I wouldn't recommend anyone who is seeing Vertigo for the first time see it in any other format but on the Masterpiece Collection's standard DVD after choosing the original soundtrack recording option found, strangely, on the "Language" menu of that particular DVD. And I include any current theatrical screening of it, which now only offers the restored soundtrack version. That the latest, greatest Blu-ray version of Vertigo will not include the original soundtrack, not even as an option one must search for in the "Language" menu, would be, for me, as disheartening in terms of what will now be taken for all time as the archival template for Vertigo as that god awful fade-to-black moment in the Saul Bass opening title sequence of West Side Story. Only greater in terms of loss, imo.
 

Brianruns10

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Moe Dickstein said:
It is there, listed as DTS 2.0 Mono.
This has already been discussed in this thread. Go back and check.
Cineman's concern is valid though. The standalone release of Vertigo had for the mono soundtrack option merely a 2.0 mixdown of the 5.1 restoration audio, at the expense of the original mono soundtrack.
So based on that, we do not know just what the 2.0 track in this blu-ray means. Will it be a mixdown of the new track, or the original track?
 

Cineman

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Brianruns10 said:
Cineman's concern is valid though. The standalone release of Vertigo had for the mono soundtrack option merely a 2.0 mixdown of the 5.1 restoration audio, at the expense of the original mono soundtrack.
So based on that, we do not know just what the 2.0 track in this blu-ray means. Will it be a mixdown of the new track, or the original track?
That is exactly it. As far as I know, only the Masterpiece Collection Standard DVD set (the "velvet" box) contained a version of Vertigo with the option to listen to the intact original soundtrack as it was laid down on the original recording at its initial theatrical release. All other DVD versions (again, as far as I know) offered only a 2.0 mixdown (or mono?) of the newly restored/recorded soundtrack.
Notably, the original soundtrack option on that one DVD version wasn't even offered in the usual places like the Set-Up Menu or an Audio Menu but, of all places, in the Language Menu. So it is entirely possible that most owners of the Masterpiece Collection Standard DVD set aren't even aware that their copy of Vertigo contains not merely a 2.0 mixdown of the newly restored soundtrack, which I suspect almost all post-restoration DVD versions offer, but the actual, original soundtrack with precisely the music cue placements, dynamic range decisions, foley sound effects and so on that originally met final approval by Hitchcock himself. Imo, despite a pop or crackle here and there (which I can't say I ever heard on a fairly decent home theater set up screening of Vertigo with that original track option chosen), the cumulative emotional impact of the music and sound effects as Hitchcock originally approved them significantly surpasses the cumulative effect of the restored/newly recorded version. So I think it is important that this "latest, greatest" Blu-ray version of it include that option.
Personally, I'd rather the original soundtrack be the default setting on all DVD/Blu-ray versions of it from now on. The difference in impact is that pronounced, imo. But for it not even to be offered as a searchable option on at least one definitive Blu-ray version at this point in the evolution of home video presentations of these classics would be, imo, unforgivable and as tragic as any glitch and gross oversight we've seen in other classics whose Blu-ray releases have been so casually and clumsily handled.
 

Lord Dalek

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There was a lot of noise and angry letters raised at the time of Vertigo's previous dvd release regarding that goof with the mono track. I would not be surprised if Universal took that into consideration.
 

rsmithjr

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The new soundtrack is superior I think. It has some issues, including some foley that is a bit loud (although not as far wrong as urban legends would have you believe when you listen carefully).
I saw Vertigo many times in original release, in fact stayed through 4 showings until the theater closed, so I have some idea about what it sounded like. It has been my favorite film before any critic ever cared about it at all.
The new high fidelity largely stereo track is quite fine, especially when you see the film in 70mm. (BTW the color balance is also off from the original dye-transfer prints.)
I certainly want to have the original soundtrack on the disk of course.
 

Brianruns10

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The problem for many, including myself, is that the sounds are anachronistic to the film, most notably with the infamous new gunshots in the opening scene. They are modern foley effects and they do not sound as a SFX in a 50s film would.
And in a few cases, the new mix makes some crucial omissions. One that immediately comes to mind is the moment when Scotty is climbing the step stool to prove a point about gradually getting used to heights. When he says (paraphrased) "Okay, now number 2" you can clearly hear a car horn honk twice outside.
This cannot be a coincidence, and I feel the original sound designers place this with a mind to its impact, underlining Scotty's words. It has power and importance, and in the restoration mix, it was omitted entirely.
I know it's not possible to create an ideal restoration mix. So instead, the best option is to give us both choices so we can experience the beauty of Bernard Herrmann's score in the 5.1 mix, as well as Hitch's original vision in the mono mix.
 

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