Product Details

• Actors: Anthony Perkins, Barbara Bel Geddes, Cary Grant, Edward Platt, Eva Marie Saint
• Format: Box set, Color, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 1.0), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Dubbed: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: October 4, 2011
• Run Time: 605 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B005EVY8MQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,395 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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Psycho
For all the slasher pictures that have ripped off Psycho (and particularly its classic set piece, the "shower scene"), nothing has ever matched the impact of the real thing. More than just a first-rate shocker full of thrills and suspense, Psycho is also an engrossing character study in which director Alfred Hitchcock skillfully seduces you into identifying with the main characters--then pulls the rug (or the bathmat) out from under you. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates, the mama's boy proprietor of the Bates Motel; and so is Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who makes an impulsive decision and becomes a fugitive from the law, hiding out at Norman's roadside inn for one fateful night. --Jim Emerson

Rear Window
Like the Greenwich Village courtyard view from its titular portal, Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rear Window is both confined and multileveled: both its story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's imprisonment in his apartment, convalescing in a wheelchair, from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbors. Cheerful voyeurism, as well as the behavior glimpsed among the various tenants, affords a droll comic atmosphere that gradually darkens when he sees clues to what may be a murder.

Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.

Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.

At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland

North By Northwest

A strong candidate for the most sheerly entertaining and enjoyable movie ever made by a Hollywood studio (with Citizen Kane, Only Angels Have Wings and Trouble in Paradise running neck and neck). Positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960), North by Northwest (1959) is Alfred Hitchcock at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite"; seminal Hitchcock critic Robin Wood (in his book Hitchcock's Films Revisited) makes an airtight case for this glossy MGM production as one of The Master's "unbroken series of masterpieces from Vertigo to Marnie." It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O. Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And, of course, there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide), and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. Plus a sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score. What more could a moviegoer possibly desire?--Jim Emerson

Vertigo

Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the 1992 survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, Vertigo is as lovely as it is haunting. --Jim Emerson

Birds
Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes." From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and--despite the sci-fi trappings--one of Hitchcock's most serious films. --Robert Horton

Product Description

Five of Alfred Hitchcock's most iconic films are available together in this one collection. This essential collection from the Master of Suspense captures the most memorable moments in the career of a true cinematic master. Collection includes the films Rear Window, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho (1960) and The Birds.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 96 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hitch at the apex of his career October 28, 2011

By Thomas E. Davis TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Though he was an undisputed genius of the cinema, not everyone needs the complete Hitchcock features. If you're a keen fan, they're available on the 15-disc Masterpiece, nine-disc Signature, and eight-disc Premiere Collections, which will run you between $50 and $100 per box. But many Hitchcock lovers recall the five films on this reasonably-priced five-DVD set most fondly, and they are without question among his finest achievements, all of them produced in Hollywood between 1954 and 1963.

Presented here in digitally restored, crisply remastered editions with a few interesting extras and options, they will do nicely for most folks (though not for the angry Blu-Ray aficionados who've given single-star ratings to this excellent set; this may come as a shock to them, but some people who are just discovering Hitch have ordinary DVD players and 32-inch TVs and are not planning to spend thousands to upgrade their collections or their equipment).

Following is a brief review of each film in this set.

Rear Window: Jimmy Stewart is a housebound photographer who thinks he's witnessed a neighbor (Raymond Burr) commit a murder. He enlists his girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly, to investigate, and they're both drawn deeper and deeper into hotter and hotter water. A master class in the art of suspense.

Vertigo: Stewart plays a detective haunted by loss, while Kim Novak portrays two women, one of whom is a doppelganger of the other. Is she a twin or a ghost? This is a mysterious, compelling tale of obsession, madness, and death, with one of the most brilliant climaxes in the history of film.

North by Northwest: Cary Grant is an innocent man on the run in this gripping spy thriller. Eva Marie Saint plays his love interest and James Mason his nemesis. The film is propelled by renowned set pieces--a stabbing at the UN, a chase by a crop duster, and a literal cliffhanger atop Mount Rushmore.

Psycho: An embezzler played by Janet Leigh meets Anthony Perkins, a motel manager with maternal issues, in one of most influential horror movies ever made. "Psycho" is filled with twists that don't just shock; they chill you to the bone. You may want a hot shower after this one (or maybe not).

The Birds: Tippi Hedren follows Rod Taylor to a small town where birds suddenly start terrorizing the inhabitants. We never learn why; in fact, the randomness and lack of reason are among the most frightening things about the film. A terrific movie and a fitting conclusion to this must-see collection.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great set!! October 9, 2011

By MOTORCITYMIKE

Format:DVD

This DVD box set is Beautiful, Great Art work! It is nice to see that this came with every movie on its own disk. Many company's are putting 2-3 movies on one disk. Also for never owning any of these movies there are many extras. I see that people are wanting it on Blue which I do not buy but I am sure it will come out eventually. I own about 12 Box sets and this is the nicest one I have bought and for 17 Dollars it was A steal.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Four Fantastic Films in One Place! October 11, 2011

By J. S. Greene

Format:DVD

These films are classics and it's about time that they have released these four movies in a single pack, i have been waiting for these to come out for a while now. Although I already have Psycho on DVD, I would thoroughly enjoy having these movies together in one package. Any body who appreciates film would understand that we are rating the product on DVD, those who have blu-ray complaints should take it out towards Universal or WB. Ragging on his for it's lack of overrated blu-ray capabilities is like beating up a man who didn't do anything wrong. It remains pointless. So please, check out these films if you haven't even seen them (yes i do know some people who actually haven't seen these movies yet), or especially if you don't own these movies yet! They are amazingly well crafted pieces of art!