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Alfred Hitchcock - The Early Years

Alfred Hitchcock - The Early Years

List Price: $54.99
Your Price: $49.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great value, quality is the same as Laserlight DVD's
Review: Audio and video quality of these movies is exactly the same as the Laserlight issues. Unfortunately most of these movies have not been re-issued on DVD by big name companies such as Kino, Criterion, Universal, or Image. In the mid 1980's Criterion released Laserdisc versions of "Blackmail", "Sabotage", "Secret Agent", and "Young and Innocent", however Criterion has no plans to release these titles on DVD. Audio and video quality is not bad, fairly standard for 1920's and 1930's nitrate films. If you are a Hitchcock enthusiast and are interested in buying these early films buy this box set, it is very economical and the quality is exactly the same as Laserlight's issues.

As an added bonus two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" are included, you get a total of 12 presentations in this box set! A great value!

Criterion has released a re-mastered version of, "The Lady Vanishes" on DVD. I was shocked to see that the audio and video quality of the Criterion version is almost exactly the same as the version on this box set by the Bci Eclipse Company.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Brentwood omitted some facts
Review: For the price, enough good films on this set to make it a worthwhile purchase. HOWEVER, the manufacturer Brentwood, decided to omit the fact that 2 of the films are silent movies. Personally, I find a big difference between a silent and spoken dialogue film, and I believe this was no accident. I sent the comapny an email regarding this, but as with most online customer service, the recepient most likely just mumbled "f**k y**" and deleted the message.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Passable quality, spotty movies
Review: Here, in one neat bundle, are presented 10 very early Hitchcock films, from classics such as the early version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and THE LADY VANISHES (one of my favorites) to more obscure films such as YOUNG & INNOCENT and JUNO & THE PAYCOCK (????).

I haven't watched them all yet, but here is what you get. Five two-sided DVD's, each side with one movie. The movies themselves are available in 2.0 sound or 5.1 "virtual" surround. There are "scene selections", which involve only a few chapters per movie. And that's about it. The quality of the transfer is not first rate, by any stretch. You would probably be able to get better quality on one of the Criterion editions, but you'd pay quite a bit more. If you plan to watch over and over...go that route. If this is a curiousity for you, then these DVDs will fit the bill nicely and economically.

I won't go into the movies themselves. These are early, pre-Hollywood Hitchcock films, and even the weakest of the bunch have many great Hitch moments. I feel like for the price, you simply can't beat it (hey, less than $2 a movie!!). And any serious film student ought to have THE LADY VANISHES on their list!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Early Hitchcock
Review: The director's art is revealed in these early classics. 1920s-1930s, from the silent era to early sound. primitive yet brilliant artistic mastery from one of the great masters of mystery.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not Quite As Expected...
Review: This collection of Hitchcock movies features his earliest movies. The main problem, however, with this collection is the audio. The audio quality on these films is so poor you can't understand the diologue half the time. And worse, when you can, the movies are just boring (with 2 of them being silent films). After watching Psycho and Dial M for Murder for the first time, I didn't expect this.


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