Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection
Studio: Universal Studios Home Video
Year: 1942-1976 (2005 Release)
Ratings / Aspect Ratio / Audio / Timing / Captions / Subtitles / Times: Various
MSRP: $119.98
Introduction
This is going to be a special review. Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection is one of my most awaited releases of the year. Fourteen movies, fifteen discs, and (if you shop around a bit) a price per disc of around $5. This is nirvana!
It's going to take some time to do this right, though. My vacation plans for the week (yes, just to review these discs) may have fallen through, so I am going to have to improvise and provide you with incremental updates. When a new update is added, I'll bump the thread.
There has already been an outstanding thread here at HTF started by Mr. Robert Harris, who restored Rear Window and Vertigo for theatrical release. This is required reading to set the tone of this box, and will hopefully give you the insight you need to pick up on first-week sale prices.
My focus is going to be a little different. As I watch the movies, each one will be reviewed with the following areas:
I have original discs of Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, and Family Plot, and will compare these discs with their new counterparts.
I'll also take a look at the extra disc included for the entire set (the first cut is already included).
So without further delay...
Latest Update (click on links to be taken there)
10/06/2005 Vertigo reviewed
10/07/2005 Rope reviewed
10/07/2005 Psycho extras discussed
10/08/2005 Shadow of a Doubt reviewed; minor tweaks to Rope.
10/08/2005 Vertigo A/V section now cross-references highly informative post by Robert Harris
10/09/2005 Marnie reviewed
10/09/2005 Rear Window reviewed
10/10/2005 Initial Rating and Conclusions
10/10/2005 New screen grabs added to Rear Window review
10/10/2005 Psycho reviewed
10/11/2005 Family Plot new transfer discussed
10/12/2005 Family Plot reviewed
The Packaging
Ugh. The fifteen discs of this set are housed in a box covered in velour with the familiar Hitchcock caricature. A black pull flap opens the side panel, revealing four inserts with paper covers, and a 36-page booklet.
The inserts contains the discs, four per except for the last one. Cover art is on the front. The plot summary and bonus features are listed on the back. And on the inside... the discs are set out overlapping each other.
Yow! For a set of this stature, they could have used the exact same space and utilized thin packs. (I have 15 thin packs right here... it would work.) As it stands, someone with artwork skills should take this on as a project to provide inserts for thin packs. Short term, the discs can be managed as-is, but I personally don't like removing a disc just to get at another one. I also don't like paper covers. Paper does not hold up.
What would my ideal packaging have cost? Probably another $5-$10. Would it be worth it? You tell me.
Here are some pictures of the case and its contents. The bigger box is the packaging for warehouse clubs.
The Packaging: 2.5 / 5
Disc 1: Saboteur
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 2: Shadow of a Doubt
Year: 1943
Rated: PG
Aspect Ratio: 4x3
Audio: English, Spanish DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH, French
Time: 1:47:52
Layer Switch: 1:02:34
The Feature:
Joseph Cotten is Uncle Charlie. When we first meet Charlie, he appears to be totally burnt out. After being followed around by two men, he decides to visit his sister and family in the quiet town of Santa Clara, California.
Uncle Charlie is a disarmingly charming, independently wealthy man who drifts around the country. His eldest niece (Teresa Wright), also named Charlie, is enamored of her uncle, and feels that they share a special bond--almost of a psychic nature. For example, just as Uncle Charlie was cabling his intent to visit later in the week, she was doing the same to invite him.
But Uncle Charlie is hiding something. Young Charlie begins to see a darker side of her uncle that is frightening. And when two men arrive on the doorstep asking prying questions, the younger Charlie is torn between the allegiance to her family, and the need to help an investigation that could shatter them.
Shadow of a Doubt was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite film. While not as haunting as Vertigo it has moments of sheer suspense that kept me squirming. The last act is as tense as anything I've seen. The marriage of lead performances, supporting performances (yes, that is Henry "Clarence the Angel" Travers, as well as a young Hume Cronyn), screenplay (which was largely by Thorton "Our Town" Wilder), score (by the wonderful Dimitri Tiomkin) and direction makes this one of the best Hitchcock movies I have seen--and I am sad to say this is the first time I've seen it. It will not be the last.
Shadow of a Doubt is undoubtedly a 5 / 5
flick.The Key Sequence
It's a coin toss to the reveal in the library, and the climactic scene of the film. The reveal in the library was the right combination of music, technique, and story. The climactic scene caught me totally off-guard.
Video and Audio:
For a movie made in the early 1940's, Shadow of a Doubt is holding up well. The film is shown 4x3, with the credit sequence slightly window-boxed. Compared to the clips in the documentary, there has been cleanup of the video since the last release. There is good contrast and shadow detail, although some of the dissolves (presumably optical) look dark and muddy. I am impressed that you can still pick up on film-like elements. You see occasional lines, and you still see minor glitches in the picture, even what appears to be film passing by.
The sound is the typical mono soundtrack of the 1940's, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. It is not overly harsh, and Dimitri Tiomkin's score sounds great, although I can hear a low rolling sound in the low-end. There is some concern about a slight sync issue, but I don't detect it.
Video: 3.5 / 5
Audio: 3.5 / 5
Where's Hitch?
He's the one with the Grand Slam on the train, at 16:28. (Hmm, a grand slam on a train. Do I detect a macabre sense of humor here?)
Extras:
The extras are lifted from the previous release:
Extras: 3.5 / 5
Disc 3: Rope
Year: 1948
Rated: PG
Aspect Ratio: 4x3
Audio: English, French, Spanish DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH
Time: 1:20:45
The Feature:
The last time I saw Rope was when it received its first affordable release on VHS not quite 20 years ago. My tastes have changed a bit since then. Brandon Shaw and Philip Morgan (John Dall / Farley Granger) decide to kill a classmate, David, in a "perfect murder" to show that they are superior beings. They do this just prior to a dinner party where the victim's parents, best friend, and girlfriend are to attend. Also in attendance is the mens' former prep school housemaster, Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), who taught them some radical philosophies on murder.
What follows is a sly and occasionally witty game of clue where we know the victim's whereabouts, the party guests begin to wonder, the murderers begin to sweat a bit, and Rupert begins to suspect that something is going on.
Rope was shot as if it were a play, and was conceived as a series of long takes of up to 10 minutes. The joins were near-seamless--a reaction shot here, a zoom to someone's back there. The story flows quickly. The set had to be moved around as filming took place (every move was planned carefully in advance, so the stage hands knew what to do.)
Rope was also a sanitized version of a play, and a real murder: the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, where two privileged gay men killed a youth. The Hays Code prevented a portrayal of a homosexual relationship in movies, although anyone with more than an inkling of common sense could see that the two leads were being portrayed as homocidal maniacs. It's all very distasteful. That's probably why I don't watch this movie often.
Still, the filming technique and a fine performance by Jimmy Stewart make this a good film to include in any Hitchcock retrospective.
Rope deserves consideration. It gets a 4- / 5
- rating from me.The Key Sequence
Chapter 14. Jimmy Stewart starts to be the inquisitor to Farley Granger, as he plays the piano erratically while a metronome ticks quickly. "Unfortunately, I don't know anything. I merely suspect."
Video and Audio:
The video presentation is not perfect, but I am not even going to dare to pull out the VHS and see what it looks like in comparison. This was Hitchcock's first color production. Someone with a better knowledge of film stocks and processing of the era can hopefully clarify, but the color seems to be very slightly pale. There are some minor speckles and occasional bits of dirt, but nothing too distracting. The foreground detail is excellent.
The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0, and it is all focused on the center channel (at least, on my system). This movie is entirely dialogue driven, with only occasional bits of piano, and some score at the beginning and end. Dialogue is clear and crisp in the English version. The fidelity of the Spanish track is lower. The French track sounds like it was recorded from a telephone. Your audio rating may vary by the language you speak.
Video: 4 / 5
Audio: 4 / 5
Where's Hitch?
According to the making-of documentary, there are two appearances of Hitch in the film. I am fairly sure he is walking north by northeast in front of the apartment building just after his credit at the beginning of the film. There is also a flashing red neon sign with his profile at 55:18 in the distant background.
Extras:
Extras: 3.5 / 5
Disc 4: Rear Window
Year: 1954
Rated: PG
Aspect Ratio: 1.66x1 (enhanced for 16x9 televisions)
Audio: English, French, DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Time: 1:54:13
Layer Switch: 1:33:02
The Feature:
L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is a high-action magazine photographer whose last shot of a car crash leaves him in a full leg cast for seven weeks. It is the last week of Jeff's convalescent captivity in a hot, New York City apartment that overlooks a courtyard of other apartments--a microcosm of reality that begins to take a dark turn when Jeff thinks he may be witness to a murder.
Jeff has a sassy insurance nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter) who quotes the sayings of Reader's Digest ("We've become a race of peeping toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.") Jeff also has a frustrated socialite girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (the lovely Grace Kelly) who wants Jeff to settle down in New York instead of traveling the world as a photographer. Jeff will have no part of it. (The fool! This is a potential princess!! What is he thinking!!!
)Yet despite their initial disapproval, even Stella and Lisa are drawn into the mystery of the salesman across the courtyard, whose wife has apparently vanished--piecemeal.
Rear Window has sparking dialogue and a story that just flies by. You might think it is difficult to hold tension and interest when the near entirety of the movie is shot from the interior perspective of one apartment. But it works.
I saw the 1983 theatrical re-release in a packed house with a great audience. Thirty years after the movie was made--even fifty years later--new audiences sit up on the edge of their seats when white-topped Raymond Burr returns to his apartment while Grace Kelly is inside. You can cut the tension with a knife.
Or a saw.
Rear Window is one of Hitchcock's best, and gets a 5 / 5
rating.The Key Sequence
The Kiss...what a way to meet Grace Kelly.
Video and Audio:
Robert Harris, who with James Katz restored Rear Window for its 2000 theatrical release, talks about the lineage of the Rear WIndow from an image and audio perspective. It is required reading.
Yes, there is grain evident in the video, but it is not overly distracting unless you really want to pick apart the main title sequence. There has definitely been a new transfer, based on some still-frame comparisons. Oddly, some of the tweaks made to this new transfer do not seem to fit. For example, the following picture shows a horizontal split view of the old version (across the top) and the new version (across the bottom). Look at Grace Kelly's flesh tones, and tell me which one you prefer (you can click on it to make it larger).
Here are some more example images. On further examination, it looks like they have lightened the image a bit (particularly evident in the fleshtones) and they have changed the geometry by expanding the image from top to bottom. The new image is sharper, too. (The old image is always the first in the sequence. Click on it to enlarge.)
The audio is full-sounding Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. I have no complaints.
Video: 4 / 5
Audio: 3.5 / 5
Where's Hitch?
That's Hitchcock playing with the mantle clock in the songwriter's apartment, at 26:11.
Extras:
When compared to the last release, this DVD is missing Cast and Filmmakers screens, Hitchcock-themed DVD recommendations, and DVD-ROM features which included the original script. That's a fairly large omission, so keep that old disc around if you want all the special features intact (okay, you can print this script off, so I guess you could do that instead).
Extras: 4 / 5
Disc 5: The Trouble with Harry
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 6: The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
"QUE SERA SERA!" Okay, it's a bit over-the-top, but it certainly is memorable.
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 7: Vertigo
Year: 1958
Rated: PG
Aspect Ratio: 1.85x1, enhanced for 16x9 displays
Audio: English DD 5.1; English DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH; French and Spanish Subtitles
Time: 2:09:35
The Feature:
"Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) is a San Francisco detective whose fear of heights leads to the accidental death of a fellow officer. Scottie retires until an old college classmate convinces him to follow the classmate's wife. Madeline (Kim Novak) is obsessed with a woman from her past who committed suicide. Scottie is drawn into the web of Madeline's story, and when she herself tries to drown herself is there to save her. But despite his best efforts to protect Madeline, Scottie can't overcome his fear of heights in time to prevent her from jumping to her doom from a mission bell tower.
Shattered, Scottie eventually recovers. Then one day, he crosses paths with a woman that looks like Madeline... and that is where Vertigo really begins.
Entire books have been written about Vertigo and its multi-layered story. You have to watch this movie more than once to fully appreciate it. Unfortunately, the movie had lost its luster over the years of use and duplication. It took a full restoration, headed up by Robert Harris and James Katz, to take Vertigo back to the heights of its cinematic look.
Vertigo is a classic and deserves it's 5 / 5
rating.The Key Sequence
The music swells... like a ghost from the past, she emerges bathed in a mist of blue-green neon... the couple embraces and travel back in time in a revolving kiss...
Video and Audio:
Yes, we are finally getting a Vertigo in 1.85x1 widescreen that is 16x9 enhanced. The original release was not enhanced. As Robert Harris has noted, there is a small discrepancy in color during the main title sequence (the face was supposed to look almost colorless until it was bathed in red light. Now it has a pale flesh tone). I did notice a tad of edge enhancement along building edges and blue skies, but it is not enough to annoy when looking at the gorgeous color palate and fine detail in the image. (Note, though, that no matter how good the DVD looks, this is a movie that screams to be seen on the big screen. I was fortunate enough to see the 70mm / DTS restoration at the premiere cinema in Dallas, and it was a sight to behold. For those into trivia, this was the first movie shown in 70mm with DTS sound.)
The sound... sigh. For the purists who wanted it, a monophonic track has been included in Dolby Digital 2.0. But as Mr. Harris has pointed out here at HTF, the mono track is taken from used 35mm optical prints, that are several generations removed from the quality you would expect from the magnetic originals (which, according to the commentary track, were all but destroyed in 1967). There is noise, pops, a harshness, and a lack of fidelity. But it's there! Thank you!
The other track is the reconstructed 5.1 soundtrack presented in Dolby Digital. As we learn in the commentary track, the dialogue was extracted from the mono print. Bernard Herrmann's music was the only surviving magnetic element, and even it needed some work. The sound effects had to be largely re-recorded, and this was sometimes to jarring effect (at my 1996 screening, the sound and ricochet of gunfire caused a bad laugh in the theater). But you know something? While I am glad that the mono track is available, I still find myself going back to the 5.1 track because it was so meticulously reconstructed to sound as close to the original as possible, and because the music is wonderful. With a little tweaking, I think that even this track would be no laughing matter.
A couple of notes: yes, there is a bit of LFE that I noticed during the flashback of the bell tower scene. This is a 5.1 soundtrack, not 5.0 as the previous release. And missing from this disc, as with the last, is the DTS soundtrack. I guess I'll have to keep my laserdiscs around, eh?
An additional note, added 10/8/2005: be sure to check out Robert Harris' detailed comments later in this thread on image and audio reconstruction issues.
Video: 4.5 / 5
Audio (5.1): 4 / 5
Audio (mono): 2.5 / 5
Where's Hitch?
There he goes, walking in front of the ship yard at the beginning of chapter 4, time 11:17
Extras:
The extras on this edition of Vertigo are the same as the previous edition, although they are authored a little differently. For example, in the original version you can get to all the trailers, the alternate ending, and the production archives from the chapter listings for the documentary. Not so on this disc. No biggie,.
Finally, this new DVD has static, anamorphic menus with a loop of the Funeral March of a Marionette. Personally, this gets old, so make those menu selections fast (or don't sit here typing with it spinning around-and-around in the background...)
Oh yes, I am disappointed to report that my very first copy of Vertigo, the stand-alone disc with the orange poster art, will no longer spin in any of my DVD players. The second copy, which came with the 3-disc collection that included Psycho and four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents still works, and is the basis for comparisons.
Extras: 5 / 5
Disc 8: Psycho
Year: 1960
Rated: R
Aspect Ratio: 1.85x1, enhanced for 16x9 displays
Audio: English, French DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Time: 1:48:50
The Feature:
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is an unhappy office worker whose love life lives out-of-town until he can pay off his father's debts. Marion works for a realtor in Phoenix, Arizona. When she is entrusted with a large cash transaction, she skips town, intent on creating a new life for herself and her boyfriend. But before she can make it to her final destination, she checks in to the Bates Motel, where she meets the kindly, talkative, and quirky hotelkeeper Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). And there, in one of the most shocking twists in a movie to that date...
she is murdered by a knife-wielding psychopath as she is taking a shower. Audiences today may think nothing of this, but going back 45 years, killing off the major character so early in the movie was simply not done. And the graphic nature of this killing, still mild by today's standards, had people shaking. Trivial note: at no time did a knife actually penetrate skin. It was all suggested with sound effects, cinematography, editing, and (of course) Bernard Herrmann's slashing score. But shocking it was.
An understandable shift in the story occurs, as Marion's sister, boyfriend, and authorities try to find her. And it is then the mysteries of the Bates Motel are revealed.
Psycho was a smash when it was released, but it also was a peak for Hitchcock in the 1960's. This was rather precipitous considering it was just the beginning of the decade. But the movie became a true classic, one that was (and will be) appreciated for years to come.
Psycho, while not the first Hitchcock movie I ever saw, was certainly the first one I ever became fascinated by, thanks to Anthony Perkins' hilarious appearance on Saturday Night Live in a commercial for the Norman Bates School of Motel Management:
Quote:
|
Are you motel material? Let's find out with a simple quiz. Question One -- A guest loses the key to her room. Would you: (a) Give her a duplicate key. (b) Let her in with your passkey. (c) Hack her to death with a kitchen knife. |
One thing I find curious, however, is the film's 'R' rating. Is this movie so shocking today that children should be kept from seeing it? Has Psycho fallen so far off the radar that we have to prepare a new generation for the surprises in store for them at the Bates Motel? (And no, we're not going to talk about unnecessary, shot-for-shot remakes either.)
Once again, we've got a classic movie on our hands, and anything less than a 5 / 5
rating would be an insult.The Key Sequence
After Psycho, will you ever take a shower in the hotel without bolting the door first?
Video and Audio:
Yes, this is a finally 16x9 transfer! It also appears to be a new transfer, based on the detail I am seeing in the new version when compared to the old. For example, here is a pair of money shots (with the old one being on top):
Click on either image for enlargement. When you blow up the images further, you can almost read the serial number on the bill in the new transfer. Not so in the old. See what a difference extra resolution can make in an image? You can also see the contrast has been tweaked (and it looks fine when played, not just paused) and the image appears to be sharper.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is mono, and it is wonderful. It captures Bernard Herrmann's shrieking score.
Video: 4 / 5
Audio: 4 / 5
Where's Hitch?
At 6:57, he is standing outside the window in a white hat.
Extras:
The extras are a port of the original DVD release, except for The Making of Psycho documentary which was shifted to the Bonus Disc. This allows more space to be allocated to the new video transfer.
Extras: 5 / 5
Disc 9: The Birds
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
The attack on the town... the gas station exploding... oh my.
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 10: Marnie
Year: 1964
Rated: PG
Aspect Ratio: 1.85x1, enhanced for 16x9 displays
Audio: English, French DD 2.0 (mono)
Captions/Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Time: 2:10:23
The Feature:
Marnie ('Tippi' Hedren) is a thief. She works at a small company for a few months to gain access and trust, then hits the safe to steal the cash. Marnie returns to her mother, where we see they share a strained relationship, Marnie provides gifts and money. Then Marnie is off again, to find another town and another job. This time, it is to Philadelphia and Rutland & Co. There, she meets Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) who through a quirk of fate vaguely recognizes Marnie from her previous employer, his CPA. Despite her lack of solid references, Marnie--going by the fake name of Mary Taylor--is hired, thanks only to Rutland's direction.
The recently widowed Rutland takes further interest in Marnie, but grows more suspicious. He is alarmed at her frantic reactions to lights, colors, and thunderstorms, but it leads to The Kiss Of All Kisses, a trip to the race track, and a visit home to dear old Dad (as well as jealous young sister-in-law) on the family estate. Just as the shell of romance is about to crack, Marnie cracks the safe and leaves town. But Rutland catches up to Marnie... extracts what information he can from her... and marries her!
But this is a rocky marriage; Marnie does not want to be close to her husband; she attempts suicide on their honeymoon cruise; she has nightmares. Rutland wants Marnie to go to a psychiatrist, but she refuses--so he reads books, has someone investigate Marnie's real past, and deals with the fallout of a visit from his CPA--who recognizes Marnie and wants justice.
But it is only with a visit back to Marnie's mother that the secrets of Marnie's past can be truly revealed.
Marketed as "Alfred Hitchcock's Suspenseful Sex Mystery" it is hardly sexual except in the sense that the Connery character is not getting any, and that we do get a scene of Sean Connery ripping off Tippi Hedren's night gown. Marnie really is more of a psychological mystery and a love story--but sex sells.
Marnie was supposed to mark Grace Kelly's return to the screen, but it was ultimately Tippi Hedren who landed the role after The Birds. It is interesting seeing Sean Connery before he hit Gold with James Bond. Marnie was filmed just after Dr. No.
I liked Marnie, but not as much as other Hitchcock efforts of that era. Still even a 3.5 / 5
rating on a Hitchcock movie is a five star rating for most other directors.The Key Sequence
The close-up kiss in the rainy office....
Video and Audio:
But the picture has definitely gotten some color correction over the prior release, but is still fairly grainy at times. To see the color improvements, I did the following frame grabs and merged them together:
The old disc is on the left; the new disc is on the right. Note the black bar on the left. The new release is properly centered, and has no black bars on the sides. Overall, the colors are brighter when compared to the old release.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is monophonic, and sounds about as good as it can. Once again, Bernard Hermann's music is a highlight.
Video: 4 / 5
Audio: 3.5 / 5
Where's Hitch?
At 5:00, he leaves his hotel room and looks into the camera
Extras:
Lost from the prior DVD is a rather nice motion menu.
Extras: 4 / 5
Disc 11: Torn Curtain
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
Ouch, ouch, sniff, gargh... shovels to the kneecaps and gas ovens, oh my...
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 12: Topaz
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 13: Frenzy
The Feature:
The Key Sequence
The pullback onto the street in a single take.
Video and Audio:
Where's Hitch?
Extras:
Disc 1
