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Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps

List Price: $4.95
Your Price: $4.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: cheap=poor quality
Review: Diamond Entertainment's DVD of 39 Steps is VHS (taped off a broadcast-TV late-late show in SLP mode) picture quality. Very soft. This is not what DVD is meant for. I can only comment on the Criterion Collection version for comparison. Criterion picture quality=9 out of 10, Diamond picture quality=3 out of 10 (10 being best). Save your money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Fun Late Night Movie
Review: I saw this movie in film school, and loved the mix of romantic comedy and suspense. While not the most memorable Hitchcock movie in terms of cinematography, plot, or acting, taken as a whole I think it's one of his most charming and funny movies.

The young Robert Donat is fantastic as the accidental spychaser: as smooth and handsome as Cary Grant would be. Madeleine Carroll is fine, but lacks the appeal of other Hitchcock blondes. Lucie Mannheim as Annabella Smith is hilarious as the mystery woman.

The themes of paranoia, suspicion, and the relentlessness of human nature are common to Hitchcock, but here they are spun together with frothy, witty dialog and some memorable, finely acted scenes.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: whadda ya want for 4 bucks?
Review: It is about the same quality as a late night viewing on TV of the film; the disc is not at all DVD-level clear. But you can't quibble about the price: it is sub-VHS. And since tapes degrade and DVD does not, I'll live with the muddier picture on this one.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: whadda ya want for 4 bucks?
Review: It is about the same quality as a late night viewing on TV of the film; the disc is not at all DVD-level clear. But you can't quibble about the price: it is sub-VHS. And since tapes degrade and DVD does not, I'll live with the muddier picture on this one.


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