If you’re looking for a gift for the movie buff on your holiday list, you might consider Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection. This Blu-rays offer crisp, clear transfers of the original films. And the SPECIAL FEATURES are intriguing, too. Check them out! For $30 on AMAZON, this box set is a steal! GRADE: A
Special Features
Disc 1 – Rear Window:
Rear Window Ethics: An Original Documentary
A Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael Hayes
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts
Masters of Cinema
Feature Commentary with John Fawell, Author of Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film
Production Photographs
Theatrical Trailer
Re-Release Trailer Narrated by James Stewart
My Scenes
pocket BLU App
BD-Live
Disc 2 – Vertigo:
Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock’s Masterpiece
Partners in Crime: Hitchcock’s Collaborators
Hitchcock / Truffaut
Foreign Censorship Ending
The Vertigo Archives
Feature Commentary with Film Director William Friedkin
Theatrical Trailer
Restoration Theatrical Trailer
100 Years of Universal: The Lew Wasserman Era
My Scenes
pocket BLU App
BD-Live
D-BOX
Disc 3 – North by Northwest:
Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style
Cary Grant: A Class Apart
Feature Commentary by Screenwriter Ernest Lehman
Stills Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Disc 4 – Psycho (1960):
The Making of Psycho
Psycho Sound
In The Master’s Shadow: Hitchcock’s Legacy
Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts
Newsreel Footage: The Release of Psycho
The Shower Scene: With and Without Music
The Shower Scene: Storyboards by Saul Bass
The Psycho Archives
Posters and Psycho Ads
Lobby Cards
Behind-the-Scenes Photographs
Production Photographs
Theatrical Trailer
Re-release Trailers
My Scenes
Feature Commentary with Stephen Rebello (author of “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho”)
BD-Live
Disc 5 – The Birds:
Deleted Scene
The Original Ending
The Birds: Hitchcock’s Monster Movie
All About The Birds
Storyboard Sequence
Tippi Hedren’s Screen Test
Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts
The Birds Is Coming (Universal International Newsreel)
Suspense Story: National Press Club Hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel)
Production Photographs
Theatrical Trailer
100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics
100 Years of Universal: The Lot
My Scenes
pocket BLU App
BD-Live
D-BOX
Very hard to argue with this at all – well, except that I have them all already (having previously bought them on DVD, LaserDisc, and even VHS) – for a newbie imagine what an incredible bounty!
Sergio, I bet those LaserDisc versions are worth some Big Bucks!
THE BIRDS. Well, Ellison said it tersely: “It was for the.” Otherwise, yup, pretty good set of well-crafted film.
Todd, for the time THE BIRDS astonished audiences. And, I’m still afraid of birds because of it!
Foreign censorship ending for “Vertigo”? What happens? Does Judy only break her ankle in the fall and they all live happily ever after? I mean, I could see “Psycho” encountering censorship, but why “Vertigo”?
Deb, violence is a no-no in films for some countries. Sex is okay, but “intense” violence is not.
If I had a DVR I would get this. Although they do show up on TV often enough to catch them. We stayed at a place where they had all his earliest and most obscure movies, some silent, and that was really fun. I had never seen most of those British films.
Patti, I’ve seen Blu-ray players for $50 on Black Friday.
Good group. I’ve always found NORTH BY NORTHWEST one of his most re-watchable films. I know a lot of people think VERTIGO is his best, but I’m not one of them. I like it but not as much.
PS – I still have to type in my information every day.
Jeff, I have contacted WORDPRESS Tech Support about the vanishing information problem. They haven’t gotten back to me yet.
I’m still having to reenter my info too.
Deb, so far WORDPRESS Tech Support has been mum on our missing data problem.
One of my most used books is a biography of Hitchcock. Why I use it so often, is it tells where Hitchcock appeared in each of his movies. That is gold to me as I can’t always spot him.
Maggie, I always look for Hitchcock, but I don’t always see him in his films.
Maggie, I remember in LIFEBOAT his profile was in an ad in the newspaper they were holding on the boat!
Jeff, I don’t recall seeing the movie, and if i did it would have been long before i got the book. I had heard that about his appearance, and thought it very clever
Maggie, Hitchcock films always reward re-watching.
Jeff, I totally missed that in LIFEBOAT!
This is a really good set of films. I’ve seen them all, most several times (once was enough for Psycho, not a favorite) . If I was in the market for films by Hitch, this would be the set. Unlike Jeff, Vertigo is my favorite of the bunch, followed by North By Northwest and The Birds, which is the one I’ve seen most often.
Rick, I think THE BIRDS is underrated.
Not I, as you know. FWIW, my info is typing-ahead OK now.
Todd, this data issue is maddening. Patrick and I think we have it fixed and then it stops saving info again. We’re waiting on WORDPRESS TEch Support to get back to us with a solution.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is also my favourite, though of course I’ve also watched all the others.
Re reentering personal info:
For me it’s enough to enter the first letter in each field, then the complete field pops up, I just have to click on it.
Not too much trouble …
Wolf, the missing data problem is annoying. I have GOOGLE Auto-Fill so it’s not much of a problem for me, either. But I want the problem fixed!
FYI, in my case, I have to type the entire thing, in each field, each time.