Asian Hitchcock DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Gary Harris]

Anyone ever buy any of those region-free Hitchcock DVDs on Ebay? They have all the titles such as The Birds & Psycho but I'm wondering how bad the quality is. I've got five of the Universal releases (which are quite expensive, thank God for Columbia House), & was just wondering about filling in a few spots (Rope, Dial M for Murder) with these imports. Any comments?

 

[Jeff Adkins]

They're not bootlegs but not official releases either so I doubt you'd see the same kind of quality as we've seen on official releases in R1. Those films are old enough to be considered public domain under Taiwan copyright law, so they are legal to buy if you want to give it a shot. Personally, I wouldn't waste the money.

Jeff

 

[Patrick McCart]

All of the Universal Hitchcock DVDs look fantastic. Vertigo and Psycho are obviously non-anamorphic, but the quality is still excellent.

Dial M For Murder is coming from Warner next year, newly restored. WB's other Hitchcock DVDs for North By Northwest and Strangers on a Train look great as well (NxNW is reference quality, with plenty of extras). Criterion has great Hitchcock DVDs as well.

The only imports you really should look for are the earlier Hitchcock titles, since they're generally not on quality DVD here. (But if Criterion has a version, get that one.)

 

[Ali B]

The UK versions of both Psycho and Vertigo are anamorphic. While Vertigo features the same extras, Psycho is pretty much featureless.

And you will of course need a region free player and a PAL capable TV....

ali