The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection (DVD)
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Seminal director Alfred Hitchcock made two of the greatest, most innovative and memorable horror films of all time: Psycho and The Birds. This brand new signature collection does not include those two scary movies, but it does have some wonderful exercises in psychological terror, exploring the horror of the human mind – particularly Suspicion, Dial M for Murder, and one of my personal favorites, Strangers on a Train.
Strangers on a Train is based upon Patricia Highsmith’s novel (and co-scripted by noir master Raymond Chandler) about two men who agree to “swap murders” – rich playboy Bruno (Robert Walker) offers to kill tennis star Guy’s (Farley Granger) unfaithful wife, in return for which Guy will kill Bruno's cantankerous father. If they “criss-cross” as Bruno calls it, each killing a complete stranger, no traceable clues or possible motives would be discernible to the police. Bruno almost immediately follows through with murdering Guy’s wife; but when Guy doesn’t reciprocate by killing Bruno’s father, he becomes the target of the deranged, and very dangerous, man.
This 1951 suspense classic is one of my all-time favorites because it conjures up all those feelings we horror fans love while watching a movie: nail-biting tension, trepidation, shock, and incredulity. Hitchcock was a master manipulator of audience emotions, and it’s always fun to be the marionette on his string no matter how many times you’ve seen the movie. It’s also a pleasure to watch the actors wear their characters like a second skin, and to see them in the light and shadow created by the effective cinematography. (There’s an added bonus for carousel buffs – a beautiful, authentic Herschell-Spillman which is the center of much of the most important action.)
The two-disc set includes the
Other Special Features
1. Commentary by director Peter Bogdanovich, Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stephano, Strangers on a Train author Patricia Highsmith and biographer Andrew Wilson
2. New making-of documentary: "Strangers on a Train: A Hitchcock Classic", with Farley Granger, film historian Richard Schickel, Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell and other Hitchcock family members and colleagues recalling the making of this suspense landmark
3. Three featurettes:
The Hitchcocks on Hitch
Strangers on a Train: The Victim's P.O.V.
Strangers on a Train by M. Night Shyamalan
4. Alfred Hitchcock's Historical Meeting, a vintage newsreel
5. Theatrical Trailers
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SUSPICION: A wealthy and gorgeous heiress (Joan Fontaine) marries a playboy (Cary Grant) but soon comes to suspect that he is trying to kill her.
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Before the Fact: Suspicious Hitchcock"
2. Theatrical Trailer
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NORTH BY NORTHWEST: One Hitchcock's most visually dazzling films, North By Northwest follows an advertising man (Cary Grant) who is mistaken for a spy and is pursued by a mysterious blonde (Eva Marie Saint) and a tenacious villain (James Mason).
Special Features
This DVD has all the old features on the original DVD with the addition of a music only track in Dolby stereo of Bernard Herrmann's stirring score.
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DIAL 'M' FOR MURDER: Set in Hitchcock’s native England, an angry man (Ray Milland) resolves to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) when he learns she is having an affair with an uppity writer from America (Robert Cummings). This movie was originally filmed in 3-D.
Special Features
1. New documentaries:
Hitchcock and Dial M
3D: A Brief History
2. Newsreel footage from the movie's premiere event
3. Theatrical Trailer
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MR. & MRS. SMITH: This straight-ahead comedy introduces us to Ann and David Smith (Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery), a feuding couple who finds out their marriage isn't legal.
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Mr. Hitchcock Meets the Smiths"
2. Theatrical Trailer
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FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Joel McCrea plays an American reporter who travels to Europe on what he thinks is the story of his career, but it could be a career-ender (and life-ender) when he stumbles upon a ring of spies.
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Personal History: Foreign Hitchcock"
2. Theatrical Trailer
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THE WRONG MAN: Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is arrested for crimes committed by a look-alike robber.
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Guilt Trip: Hitchcock and the Wrong Man"
2. Premiere newsreel
3. Theatrical Trailer
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STAGE FRIGHT: A drama student, Eve (Jane Wyman), tries to clear her friend (Richard Todd) of murder in this spirited mystery featuring a great ensemble cast (which includes Marlene Dietrich and Michael Wilding).
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Hitchcock and Stage Fright"
2. Theatrical Trailer
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I CONFESS: Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift) is Catholic priest who listens to a confession of murder by the church caretaker, Otto (O.E. Hasse). Before long, Father Logan is suspected by law enforcement to have committed the crime. Since he is bound from revealing what was said to him in confession, he has to find a creative way in which to prove his innocence.
Special Features
1. New making-of documentary: "Hitchcock's Confession: A Look at I Confess"
2. Premiere newsreel
3. Theatrical Trailer
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The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection includes:
Dial M for Murder
Foreign Correspondent
I Confess
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
North by Northwest
Stage Fright
Strangers on a Train -- Two-Disc Edition
Suspicion
The Wrong Man
(by Staci Layne Wilson)