Product Details

• Actors: Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, Barry Fitzgerald, Charles Laughton, Carolyn Jones
• Format: Black & White, Mono, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007
• Run Time: 1614 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000UVV25Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,897 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE, defined the suspense genre for moviegoers around the globe. From his earliest films he brilliantly interwove fear, fantasy, paranoia and anticipation into an unforgettable and terrifying body of work. He was a highly influential British film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. He directed more than fifty feature films in a career that spanned six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of talkies, to the color era. He was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable directors in the world during his lifetime, and remains one of the best known and most popular directors of all time, famous for his expert and largely unrivalled control of pace and suspense throughout his movies.

The Lady Vanishes, The Farmers Wife, The Manxman, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Chaney Vase, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Rich and Strange, The Thirty-Nine Steps, Secret Agent, Champagne, Blackmail, Easy Virtue, Jamaica Inn, The Lodger, The Ring, Young and Innocent, Juno and the Paycock, Sabotage, The Skin Game, Number Seventeen, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

BONUS: 55 minutes of Alfred Hitchcock Movie Trailers!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good deal for the money, February 1, 2008

By 

A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins - 20 Movie Classics (DVD)

Since the days of bargain-bin videotapes by labels like Goodtimes, I've always been wary of these "too good to be true" deals. Yet, as I am quite a fan of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, I couldn't pass this one up. And for the most part, I'm glad I gambled a few bucks.

As of this writing, the majority of these films are still in the public domain and thus, not available from companies willing to spend the time and money on a proper restoration. It's worth noting, though, that some of the best films here ARE available in near-pristine condition in the 3-disc The Alfred Hitchcock Box Set (The Ring / The Manxman / Murder! / The Skin Game / Rich and Strange). Two are available in Criterion Collections: The Lady Vanishes - Criterion Collection and The 39 Steps (Criterion Collection Spine #56), while Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn can be found in a cleaned-up version from Image. For those who don't want to shell out the considerable bucks for all those, or if you're a completist (like me) who feels the need to possess EVERY film the man made, this is a good set to own.

Audio/Video quality varies among the films, but I'd consider them all watchable. Since early sound classics like SECRET AGENT and RICH AND STRANGE aren't available in better condition elsewhere, I found the transfers here to be reasonably good. Hitch's best silent film, THE LODGER, unfortunately suffers some serious contrast issues.

The real highlight of this set, however, is nearly an hour's worth of Hitchcock movie trailers. Oddly enough, none of the films contained in the set is represented with a trailer. But they cover much of the Master's career from 1940 thru the late 60's. And the quality on the trailers is far superior to that of the films.

Bottom line: For all but the most discriminating viewer, this is a worthwhile purchase. Just don't expect the quality you'd get from the major companies.

75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The origins of greatness, September 13, 2007

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins - 20 Movie Classics (DVD)

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - THE LEGEND BEGINS consists primarily of silent and sound films that Hitchcock directed before relocating from Britain to Hollywood in 1940. One feature that distingushes this collection from several similar budget-priced multi-packs is the near-hour's worth of movie trailers included as a bonus. There's also a couple of episodes from the murder/mystery anthology TV show that Hitchcock hosted a half century ago.

MILL CREEK box sets offer good-to-average-quality audio and video transfers of public domain material at a most reasonable price. Since their switch over from RAINTREE, the company ID appears for brief intervals in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK - THE MASTERPIECE COLLECTION is an exquisite box set of many of Hitch's finest UNIVERSAL/MCA titles.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(7.0) Blackmail (UK-1929) - Anny Ondra/Charles Paton/Cyril Ritchard
(6.2) Champagne (silent-UK-1928) - Betty Balfour/Gordon Harker/Jean Bradin
(5.8) Easy Virtue (silent-UK-1928) - Isabel Jeans/Franklin Dyall/Ian Hunter
(6.3) The Farmer's Wife (silent-UK-1928) - Jameson Thomas/Lillian Hall-Davis/Gordon Harker
(6.2) Jamaica Inn (UK-1939) - Charles Laughton/Maureen O'Hara/Robert Newton
(4.7) Juno and the Paycock (UK-1930) - Barry Fitzgerald/Maire O'Neill/Edward Chapman
(8.1) The Lady Vanishes (UK-1938) - Margaret Lockwood/Michael Redgrave/Paul Lukas/Dame May Whitty
(7.4) The Lodger (silent-UK-1927) - Marie Ault/Arthur Chesney/Malcolm Keen/Ivor Novello
(6.9) The Man Who Knew Too Much (UK-1934) - Leslie Banks/Edna Best/Peter Lorre
(6.3) The Manxman (silent-UK-1928)- Carl Brisson/Malcolm Keen/Anny Ondra
(5.9) Number Seventeen (UK-1932) - Leon M. Lion/Anne Grey/John Stuart
(6.1) Rich and Strange (UK-1931) - Henry Kendall/Joan Barry/Percy Marmot
(6.2) The Ring (silent-UK-1927) - Carl Brisson/Lillian Hall-Davis/Ian Hunter
(7.2) Sabotage (UK-1936) - Sylvia Sidney/Oskar Homolka/Desmond Tester
(6.7) Secret Agent (UK-1936) - John Gielgud/Peter Lorre/Madeleine Carroll/Robert Young/Lilli Palmer
(5.7) The Skin Game (UK-1931) - C.V. France/Helen Haye/Edmund Gwenn
(8.0) The 39 Steps (UK-1935) - Robert Donat/Madeleine Carroll/Peggy Ashcroft
(7.1) Young and Innocent (UK-1937) - Nova Pilbeam/Derrick De Marney/Percy Marmot

ALSO-- ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS:
(#13) The Cheney Vase (S.1, 12/25/55) - Carolyn Jones Darren McGavin/George Macready/Ruta Lee
(#268) The Sorcerer's Apprentice (S.7, ???) - Diana Dors/Brandon De Wilde/Larry Kert

BONUS: 55 minutes of Hitchcock movie trailers

84 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a lot of fussing over a 5 buck item!, November 11, 2008

By 

Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins - 20 Movie Classics (DVD)

I picked this up at Wal-Mart in the five-dollar bin, desperate for a copy of The Thirty-Nine Steps and willing to risk all of a five-big-dollars-plus-tax for it. What I got was a terrific collection of the early Hitchcock films, including the silents, not remastered but seemingly all taken from surprisingly decent prints, and with good sound--the quality we used to see and be fine with on late night television. All my discs played perfectly including one I'd scratched accidentally. The discs are packed solid with material so if your DVD player is old or dirty you might have problems.

If I waited for Criterion to do up an equivalent package, and that doesn't seem to be happening, I'd probably end up paying over $200 for the whole shebang. This $5 deal leaves me with $195 to go out and get another DVD player, or even a new lawnmower. Not bad.

Batches of defective discs turn up all the time. It just happens. If a customer, immediately after purchase, swaps a bad disc or set in for a replacement it's likely they'll get another from the same batch. At some point the retailer realizes something is amiss and sends everything back to the distributor. Nobody's selling you defective DVDs because they think it's a swell idea.

Mill Creek Entertainment's address is: Mill Creek Entertainment
2445 Nevada Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55427. I just got this information off the Internet in all of fifteen seconds. They're in Minneapolis so they're probably really nice people and if you get any defective discs from them I'll bet you could give them a call (Toll-Free: [phone]) and they'd straighten everything out ASAP. I'd recommend this course of action before writing a stinky "review" that isn't even a review, more a customer service issue, and giving a really excellent bargain one or two stars.