UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection - Volume Two -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Noel Aguirre]

I doubt we'll see SteelBooks for these. The four movies in the first volume were all "marquee" titles for Hitchcock, the iconic hits that every fans knows and will want to own. This volume is second-tier Hitchcock. As much as I love Shadow of a Doubt, it's nowhere near as famous as Rear Window or Psycho. There's going to be much less desire from fans to buy movies like Family Plot or Marnie in fancy SteelBook packaging.

Not so sure about that- Psycho was already released in a 4K steel book once prior then released again. Many fans including myself refuse to keep buying over and over and over and skipped these flimsy cardboard sets until they are half price. I was lucky and waited as then steel books came out. I highly doubt anyone under 40 no less 50 ever even heard of Rear Window. I applaud Best Buy for releasing them and if not them than Zavvi will probably release a steel for us fans. Hitchcock is film itself- from Harold and Lilian: A Hollywood Love Story.

 

[Kent K H]

Not so sure about that- Psycho was already released in a 4K steel book once prior than released again. Many fans including myself refuse to keep buying over and over and over and skipped these flimsy cardboard sets until they are half price. I was lucky and waited as then steel books came out. I highly doubt anyone under 40 no less 50 ever even heard of Rear Window. I applaud Best Buy for releasing them and if not them than Zavvi will probably release a steel for us fans. Hitchcock is film itself- from Harold and Lilian: A Hollywood Love Story.

I have a friend who's in his 30s who (along with his wife) are huge Hitch fans. Pretty much all of my friends know who he is and appreciate him. His branding really worked and has kept him in the public eye longer than nearly any other director.

 

[Trancas]

Family Plot is third-tier Hitchcock, allowing that Barbara Harris is the one bright spot in an otherwise trivial excursion. I would greatly have preferred Frenzy in this set.

Family plot's plus is it's goofy star casting. All the characters are full-fleshed and the actors seem to be enjoying themselves.

Frenzy has the charm-less Jon Finch and Barry Foster. They're not as lackluster as Fredrick Stafford in Topaz; but they lack the onscreen magnetism or star quality that Hitchcock usually looked for when casting a film. Jon Finch's role should have been played by someone like Terence Stamp. And this particular scene is just ludicrous:

Nobody dies with their tongue pushed out to the max and yanked to the side.
Polanski thought it needed a repeat in the forgettable Ninth Gate. At least the old lady's tongue isn't pressed into her cheek like poor Barbara's is. It looks like Barb is trying to lick something off the left side of her face.

 

[TravisR]

And this particular scene is just ludicrous:
View attachment 138687
Nobody dies with their tongue pushed out to the max and yanked to the side.
Polanski thought it needed a repeat in the forgettable Ninth Gate. At least the old lady's tongue isn't pressed into her cheek like poor Barbara's is. It looks like Barb is trying to lick something off the left side of her face.

I'm not a coroner so I don't care about the reality of it because to me, that scene is without a doubt the scariest scene that Hitchcock ever shot. I think that scene would still disturb viewers today which is not something you can usually say for a 50 year old movie.

 

[Mikey1969]

Both Frenzy and Family Plot are at least a step-up from the dreary Torn Curtain and Topaz.
I do prefer Family Plot for the relaxed tone, the witty and well-structured screenplay by Ernest Lehman, the fun performances by Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, and William Devane, and the casual swipes Hitchcock takes against organized religion. It makes for an excellent swan song for the master. It's never been an attractive film though, and the blu-ray was a disaster.
I've always found Frenzy to be unpleasant, with unattractive and unrelatable characters, and an air of melancholia about the entire production. The violence is excessive and feels like Hitchcock trying to be shocking for its own sake, to prove to his critics (after the very old-fashioned Marnie, Torn Curtain and Topaz) that he could make a "modern" thriller.

 

[Robert Harris]

I think of Torn Curtain, and the first thing that comes to mind is knee-pads.

 

[cinemel1]

I think of Torn Curtain, and the first thing that comes to mind is knee-pads.

I’ve gotten through Harry, Shadow & Marnie. They all look very good. The autumn colors and foliage are stunning in Harry. The black & white cinematography in Shadow is fine. I have to compare it with the blu-ray. Marnie looks great compared with the poor old blu-ray. The hunt scene especially shows off the quality of 4K. Don’t like the packaging. Already had a few spots where disc froze. I cleaned them and then they worked fine. It’s difficult not getting finger prints on them when removing them. If I had to do it over again I’d buy the separate releases. The supplements are the same as the old blu-rays but are still very informative and have interviews with many of the films’ participants including Patricia Hitchcock, Theresa Wright, Tippi Hedren, etc.

 

[Trancas]

I'm not a coroner so I don't care about the reality of it because to me, that scene is without a doubt the scariest scene that Hitchcock ever shot. I think that scene would still disturb viewers today which is not something you can usually say for a 50 year old movie.

Think of the level of pathos and gut-wrenching shock/horror that would happened if only Hitch would've expanded the ex-wife role to accommodate wide-eyed Goldie! It might have surpassed the Master's casting coup with dear Janet in Psycho! Imagine those googly eyes even wider in the throes of (pretend) death!

 

[Matt Hough]

Both Frenzy and Family Plot are at least a step-up from the dreary Torn Curtain and Topaz.

And Torn Curtain is one of my favorites of his later work, so there you go.

 

[Robin9]

And Torn Curtain is one of my favorites of his later work, so there you go.

I've always enjoyed Torn Curtain and I've never understood why so many people don't like it. I do understand why a lot of people don't like Frenzy, my least favorite Hitchcock movie.

 

[warnerbro]

I actually love FAMILY PLOT and I have to say it is one of my favorite Hitchcock films because it is fun like NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and it is a huge improvement on anything we've seen before. They really worked hard on this 4K version. It looks amazing, and I love the scene where (SPOILER) the brakes go out on the mountain road. Bruce Dern ad libbed the line, "I've gotta get off this road" and Hitchcock kept it in. It's almost like another "We're gonna need a bigger boat." Barbara Harris is so lovely to watch. I never get tired of all her beautiful nuance in every moment. This was John Williams' first score after JAWS and he nailed it again. The music really adds to the atmosphere of the film. This is the film that needed the most work and Universal nailed it! The colors pop like an old Technicolor 3 strip and there is fine grain and sharpness. The first shot is a process shot and has always looked muddy. They have improved it somewhat. There is also a lot of rear projection car work and some process shots that have the dreaded outlines but it is much improved.

 

[Henry Gondorff]

The much darker Frenzy deals with the harsher crimes of rape and murder, so one might expect the level of discomfort to run higher. Hitchcock may also have felt that the subject matter presented an opportunity to indulge in the explicitness afforded by the R-rating in 1972. One wonders what Psycho might have been like if he'd had such latitude in 1960. The fine British cast can hardly be dismissed as lifeless. And given its grim proceedings, Anthony Shaffer's screenplay is not without its share of drollery, such as the macabre scene in the potato truck wherein Barry Foster attempts to recover his tie pin from the victim's clenched fist, and the running bit of Vivien Merchant foisting her culinary experiments upon hapless meat-and-potatoes husband Alec McCowen while revealing her deductive intuition to be a step ahead of the detectives. All of the male principals are either beholden to or dominated by the women in their lives, something Hitchcock might have found intriguing, as Finch embodies the angst and frustration of the financially and maritally downtrodden Blaney, the object of Hitchcock's final return to his favorite motif: the innocent man falsely accused. And I'm still waiting for an opportunity to use the line: "You are positively glutinous with self-approbation".

 

[Mikey1969]

Hitchcock may also have felt that the subject matter presented an opportunity to indulge in the explicitness afforded by the R-rating in 1972. One wonders what Psycho might have been like if he'd had such latitude in 1960.

Hitchcock did much better when he was hemmed in by the restrictions of the ratings codes, as it forced him to come up with creative and innovative ways to suggest what could not be said or shown. Rope, Rebecca, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest would be lesser films if their gay subtexts had been made overt, and the effect of many of his scenes of intimacy and violence would have been lessened if they been more explicit.
For me, the un-shown murder of "Babs" Milligan, in which the camera coolly backs away the scene, is far more effective and emotionally stirring than the distasteful and explicit murder of Brenda Blaney.
It was the same with Steven Spielberg, which is why Jaws is still more effective a thriller than Jurassic Park.

 

[mdhaus]

Not so sure about that- Psycho was already released in a 4K steel book once prior then released again. Many fans including myself refuse to keep buying over and over and over and skipped these flimsy cardboard sets until they are half price. I was lucky and waited as then steel books came out. I highly doubt anyone under 40 no less 50 ever even heard of Rear Window. I applaud Best Buy for releasing them and if not them than Zavvi will probably release a steel for us fans. Hitchcock is film itself- from Harold and Lilian: A Hollywood Love Story.

I bought the steelbook versions of the first four releases. The one reason why I'm a bit skeptical we'll get steelbooks for these new ones is that they have already put out the individual releases on day-and-date of the box set. That didn't happen with the others. I bought all of the individual releases of these newest five due to the horrible packaging decision.

 

[bugsy-pal]

The much darker Frenzy deals with the harsher crimes of rape and murder, so one might expect the level of discomfort to run higher. Hitchcock may also have felt that the subject matter presented an opportunity to indulge in the explicitness afforded by the R-rating in 1972. One wonders what Psycho might have been like if he'd had such latitude in 1960. The fine British cast can hardly be dismissed as lifeless. And given its grim proceedings, Anthony Shaffer's screenplay is not without its share of drollery, such as the macabre scene in the potato truck wherein Barry Foster attempts to recover his tie pin from the victim's clenched fist, and the running bit of Vivien Merchant foisting her culinary experiments upon hapless meat-and-potatoes husband Alec McCowen while revealing her deductive intuition to be a step ahead of the detectives. All of the male principals are either beholden to or dominated by the women in their lives, something Hitchcock might have found intriguing, as Finch embodies the angst and frustration of the financially and maritally downtrodden Blaney, the object of Hitchcock's final return to his favorite motif: the innocent man falsely accused. And I'm still waiting for an opportunity to use the line: "You are positively glutinous with self-approbation".

A nice summary. I have always liked Frenzy because it blends that very dark humour and Britishness with the rather shocking content. The ending is pure comedy - at least, I always get a laugh from it.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I've always enjoyed Torn Curtain and I've never understood why so many people don't like it. I do understand why a lot of people don't like Frenzy, my least favorite Hitchcock movie.

Frenzy is also my least favourite Hitchcock film. If his name wasn't in the credits you wouldn't know it was his. It lacks all the things which make him great, suspense, implied rather than explicit violence and sexuality, a complete lack of elegance. You know that you are in the Britain of the 1970s, the grimy locations, the decade that fashion forgot. Instead of Cary Grant, James Stewart, James Mason etc, you get........Barry Foster.

 

[John Maher_289910]

Family Plot is third-tier Hitchcock, allowing that Barbara Harris is the one bright spot in an otherwise trivial excursion. I would greatly have preferred Frenzy in this set.

Well, I love FAMILY PLOT and hate FRENZY, so there you go.

 

[Henry Gondorff]

If his name wasn't in the credits you wouldn't know it was his.

This is much more true of Family Plot than of Frenzy.

 

[Reed Grele]

I still cringe when watching Wolfgang Kieling's scene in Torn Curtain. I've read somewhere that Sir Alfred wanted to show how difficult it is to kill someone.

 

[Mikey1969]

I still cringe when watching Mr. Kasznar's death scene in Torn Curtain. I've read somewhere that Sir Alfred wanted to show how difficult it is to kill someone.

Surely you mean Wolfgang Kieling, who played Hermann Gromek, and whose protracted death scene was seemingly one of the few scenes that seemed to spark any interest for Mr. Hitchcock.