Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock Hollywood Classics

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You have to rate American Movie Classic's bargain-priced 4-movie collection of early Alfred Hitchcock films on a sliding scale... you generally do not anticipate a Criterion Collection-quality restoration at the cost of a couple dollars per film! That being said, the prints on this 2-DVD set of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (the original B&W 1930's version), "The 39 Steps", "Secret Agent" and "Sabotage" don't look any worse than I've ever seen to date. (Keep in mind that all four of these films are around 70 years old) The audio has been slightly enhanced; there is not as much of the tell-tale "white noise" you tend to experience in such aged films. As for the movies themselves-it is generally agreed that "The Man.." and "39 Steps" are bonafide Hitchcock classics (although debate continues as to whether Hitch's own 1956 "remake" of "The Man.." is the superior version-perhaps that depends on your tolerance for Doris Day warbling "Que Sera Sera" ad nauseum.) "Sabotage" is arguably the weakest selection, although still quite watchable; but the real surprise for this viewer was rewatching the frequently overlooked "Secret Agent", an entertaining blend of suspenseful WWI espionage and amusing, sophisticated repartee a la "The Thin Man" between John Gielgud, Robert Young, Peter Lorre and pretty Madeleine Carrol. No DVD "extras" to speak of, but any self-respecting film buff would be silly to pass up such a deal!

Movies: ****1/2 DVD Quality: ***1/2 DVD Extras: N/A

Four of Alfred Hitchcock's early British features from the mid-1930's ("The Man Who Knew Too Much", "The 39 Steps", "Secret Agent", and "Sabotage") are showcased in this two-disc DVD collection. All of the films are entertaining mystery-thrillers, and feature intriguing casts of internationally acclaimed actors, including Robert Donat, Robert Young, Peter Lorre, Sylvia Sidney, Leslie Banks, Edna Best, and - last, but hardly least - the beautiful and talented Madeleine Carroll, the first of the famous Hitchcock blonde leading ladies.

The copyrights on each of these films lapsed years ago, and all are now in the public domain; as a result, multi-generational copies featuring abysmal video and audio quality have flooded the market for years. The good news here is that for this particular collection, all four films have been cleaned up and feature quite acceptable, far better-than-average film to video transfers. You simply won't find sharper copies anywhere else, at least in this price range. Highly recommended in terms of both entertainment and consumer values, this is a set you'll be pleased to have in your home video library.