Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

After releasing only selected episodes in volumes (4 episodes in 1 DVD), it is good to see that Universal Home Entertainment is finally releasing this show in season box sets (and hope that they continue to release the remaining seasons in the future).

Premiered on October 1st, 1955, this wonderful series ran for seven seasons, and afterwards for another 3 seasons as "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". This set contains the first 39 episodes of Season 1, told by the `Master of Suspense', Alfred Hitchcock. The episodes include:

01. Revenge
02. Premonition
03. Triggers in Leash
04. Don't Come Back Alive
05. Into Thin Air (aka The Vanishing Lady)
06. Salvage
07. Breakdown
08. Our Cook's a Treasure
09. The Long Shot
10. The Case of Mr. Pelham
11. Guilty Witness
12. Santa Claus and the 10th Avenue Kid
13. The Cheney Vase
14. A Bullet for Baldwin
15. The Big Switch
16. You Got to Have Luck
17. The Older Sister
18. Shopping for Death
19. The Derelicts
20. And So Died Riabouchinska
21. Safe Conduct
22. Place of Shadows
23. Back for Christmas
24. The Perfect Murder
25. There Was an Old Woman
26. Whodunit?
27. Help Wanted
28. Portrait of Jocelyn
29. The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby
30. Never Again
31. The Gentleman from America
32. The Babysitter
33. The Belfry
34. The Hidden Thing
35. The Legacy
36. Mink
37. The Decoy
38. The Creeper
39. Momentum

Along with the above episodes, this DVD also contains a featurette called "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back" on the show. Compared to the Season Sets of "The Twilight Zone" (which ranges from $75-100), I feel the price for this DVD is very decent and is worth buying.

All in all, this is a great release and I hope Universal will continue releasing more seasons of this show in the future.

I haven't seen "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" since it was last shown on TV Land quite a few years back. This show is one of the best anthology series ever and deserves to be shown and enjoyed. Thankfully Universal has seen fit to release season one on DVD. All 39 episodes (yes, 39!) of this incredible show.

The one constant element throughout the series is the presence of Alfred Hitchcock with his dry, macabre sense of humor. This show made the well-respected film director a huge TV personality of the 50s and 60s. It was part of his deal with CBS that he would direct many of the episodes but as it turned out he directed only 17 segments during the series entire run.

Many well-known actors from film and television made appearances on the show during it's run. In this season one set you can expect to see Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier), John Forsythe, Cloris Leachman, Joseph Cotten, Peter Lawford, Barry Fitzgerald, Carolyn Jones, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Claude Rains and many others. There was also a bit of nepotism afoot as Pat Hichcock made numerous appearances on her dad's show. Fortunately, she was a pretty good actress.

The episodes are based on great short stories by writers such as Alexander Woollcott, Ambrose Bierce, Cornell Woolrich, Frederic Brown, Henry Slesar, H.H. Munro (aka Saki), John Cheever, John Collier, John Wyndham, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch and Roald Dahl. Yes, that's the same Roald Dahl who wrote those entertaining children's stories (you've heard of Willy Wonka, I presume). He wrote one of the series most famous episodes "Lamb to the Slaughter."

I have read that Hitchcock actually filmed two openings and closings for each episode. The ones Americans are familiar with feature Hitch sarcastically commenting on the show's sponsors and TV in general. The other openings and closings were created for the European market and featured Hitch poking fun at Americans. I don't know if any of these alternate scenes are included but they would be fun to watch.

A price tag of under $30 for 39 episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" is a great bargain compared to the ridiculously overpriced "The Twilight Zone" seasons. As much as I like "The Twilight Zone" I refuse to pay those prices. As for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," I'll be the first in line to drop my $30 for these great shows.

It's very hard for me to type this, because I thought this was going to be a stellar set -- but alas some episodes are indeed edited.

Example: "Salvage" ends with Gene Barry shooting Nancy Gates. After he pulls the trigger, the next scene on the DVD is Hitchcock saying (after the usual comedy), "We'll be back next week." Then the end credits roll. I knew something was missing, so I went back to my 10-year-old VHS recording (syndicated TV version) of this episode and played it. There, Hitch does indeed come back BETWEEN the end of the show and the farewell till next week outro. It's about 30 seconds of footage with Hitch explaining, "He would have gotten away with murder, but ..." This is CRUCIAL footage! And since it's included in the syndicated TV version, Universal can't say it isn't included on the DVD because the footage is "lost."

Sigh. Why can't Universal get it right? Double-sided discs are one thing; releasing edited shows is another. What, exactly, is the problem?

First of all I want to state that ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS is a superbly entertaing program. Hitchcock himself did not want to host his own television program until 1955, when Lew Wasserman, then head of Universal Studios (then known as Universal International), convinced Hitchcock to market his name and his movies by hosting his own television series. Thus ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS was born.

Hitchcock himself directed four of the 39 episodes of the first season. There is a book, authorized through Universal, entitled THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS COMPANION by Martin Grams and Patrik Wikstrom, with a foreward by Patricia Hitchcock, Hitchcock's daughter. This book was published two years ago and is 660 pages thick and highly detailed covering everything you could want to know about the program.

This book is also available on Amazon so when you buy Season One of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I recommend you buy the book as a companion piece. My only question is whether the DVD will feature the alternative openings Hitchcock filmed. You see, the program became so popular that three different openings and closings were filmed for most of the episodes. One in English, one in French (Hitchcock could speak French), and the other also in English but instead of making fun of the sponsors, he made fun of the Americans cause when the show aired in Britain, those alternative openings and closings were aired overseas. I only hope Universal features the alternative versions. Thankfully the book I described lists those alternatives.

My copy skips and freezes. I wish Universal would take care in their products. I've had defective Munsters season 2, Dragnet ( 2 copies) ,and now this one . The shows are great, but it's frustrating to get into an episode and then have it freeze so you can't see the ending. I'd rather pay more and have better quality.

After being thrilled to find this classic Hitchcock series available, we are also plagued with problems of episodes freezing and being impossible to watch.
Universal always seems to have been the low-budget studio, compared to Warner and Paramount, and it seems their low-ball production methods are now leading to flawed dvds.
I recommend never buying one of their products unless you find sufficient reviews to show they have improved their quality-control and production standards. Whatever minor saving Universal gained from cheapo production standards is going to cost them in negative brand recognition and bad word-of-mouth. Beware!

$27.99 may seem like a good price for 39 episodes of a terrific show like this, but never forget that if it sounds too good to be true - it usually is. I've been looking forward to this show being released on DVD for such a long time, but not like this. Not on two-sided discs that freeze up constantly, and not with crucial footage cut out. And, though less importantly, not with a dearth of special features. Such a schlocky presentation is more worthy of a show like "Britney and Kevin: Chaotic," not a classic gem like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Some people still seem to think this set is a bargain. Pleather shoes may seem like a bargain, since they're low-priced. The problem is, they're still pleather. I for one demand quality and am willing to pay for it. They could have done a much better job restoring the show and transferring it onto discs of higher quality. $27.99 is no bargain when the product is so poorly made. I've ordered this disc set but I'm returning it for a refund. I might rent it sometime since the episodes are mostly intact except for some of Hitchcock's concluding remarks, but I don't want to pay to own this show until they get it right. It is a major affront to Hitchcock and his fans to slaughter his show this way. Fans of other classic oldie shows such as "The Twilight Zone" or "I Love Lucy" are willing to pay more for high-quality DVD sets of those shows, and I'm sure fans of "AHP" are no different. I hope they will make improvements to this release sometime in the future. I want uncut episodes!
I would give five stars for the show itself, which is absolutely brilliant, but since I'm rating this item as a product, I give it only one.

The best bargain on Amazon.com by far. Beautiful presentation of a classic series and at a very fair price. One qualm: the synopsis at the beginning of each episode ("play") basically ruins the twist ending. If you read it BEFORE viewing the episode, then you have spoiled the suspense. Read the synopsis AFTER you view the episode.

Just needed to add to the long list of outraged customers who bought this set, only to discover that the double-discs tend to be defective, often stopping or freezing halfway into episodes. When watching an often highly literary mystery program, it is especially infuriating when an episode cuts out and leaves you hanging, like the last few pages of a short story having been torn from the book. Worse still, given the fact that this is ALFRED HITCHCOCK and not something crummy (like Spielberg's almost unwatchable "Amazing Stories"), you would think Universal would actually bother to treat this property with an ounce of respect. Considering the fact that collectors/afficionados of this type of programming tend to be relatively discriminating, Universal should offer complete replacement sets. They've made a mint off Hitchcock!
As for the show itself, it's almost uniformly superlative. I had forgotten how gruesome and graphically violent these episodes tended to be, so it's been a pleasant rediscovery. All the more reason to resent Universal's appallingly shoddy treatment.

I grew up watching "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" which found a completely unique niche of its own during the Golden Age of television. These stories are unforgettable and each one is superb and the actors in each show are perfect. Many are simple everyday events that take a sudden unexpected twist and throw the people involved into dreadful situations.
Although some of the actors are not well known, they are excellent and actually provide a creepier and more believable atmosphere. Written by the same writers who penned the Alfred Hitchcock magazine, seeing the stories acted out gives them a whole new and fascinating dimension. I pray they also release the Alfred Hitchcock Hour which had many fantastic shows, each one worthy of a feature film designation.
One in particular that scared the hell out of me was the story of two nurses taking care of a rich man in an isolated Victorian house and was truly scary all the way through. At the end, you were literally hanging onto something for moral support it was that terrifying. The one hour format gave Hitchcock time to really develop the story and characters and get the audience ready for the always shocking ending for which he was famous.
Thank God they finally decided to release these gems and now we can see them again and again, and those who missed them the first time around can see what television was like during the time when quality took precedence over any other considerations and producers and directors actually treated their audiences with respect for their intelligence.