Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock Collection (Sabotage / Man Who Knew Too Much / 39 Steps / Lady Vanishes / Young and Innocent / Number 17 / Rich and Strange / Murder / Secret Agent) [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Madacy appears to have quite a history of producing low quality transfers from film to DVD. All one needs to do is look at other Amazon reviews (look at some of the Charlie Chaplin DVD reviews). I was extemely disappointed with this DVD set and wished I could get back my money. It was a complete waste of money. We're lucky that Amazon has the ability to review these so others don't waste their hard-earned money also. Also fortunate that Amazon has technical info so we can see who has produced the DVD's.

Having seen all these superb Hitchcock films before, I was expecting to enjoy the wonder of DVD viewing to enhance the next times around. No go -- owing to poor encoding problems and horrible packaging from the producers (resulting in ALL of the discs coming off their spindles and perhaps being the culprit behing tiny surface scratches), only one of the pictures was even viewable. A gigantic waste of money. Go ahead and order if you must, but be prepared for the hassle of sending it right back to Amazon.

The editorial review from Amazon.com states, "The prints of the films used in this box set are serviceable and probably comparable to average 16mm classroom or museum presentations." All I can think is that Mr. Keogh is lying or didn't actually watch the discs. The transfers are among the worst ever on DVD, which is typical of all Madacy titles. The films on the discs are unfortunately great - too bad they're unwatchable. Avoid this collection like the plague, and wait for re-releases from reputable distributors.

I love Hitchcock, but .... The big disappointment in this set is that all of the movies look like they were copied from old videotapes -- they're out of focus and have an amazing number of dropouts, flashes, and flickers. Save your money. Tape them from late night cable.

This set is all in the packaging. The sounds quality is poor, the images have not been enhanced. Not worth buying.

This DVD set is an insult to the great master like Hitchcook! Madacy should have put more efforts making this DVD set more watachable. DVD collectors are different than normal VHS reviewers. I will never buy any DVD from Madacy ever again! Hope someday, somene like Criterion will remaster these films.

The contrast on the films can be poor. Limited special features not necessarily related to the film on the disk. No way to display the time or what chapter you are watching. It seemed that no effort was taken to ensure a good print was used to master from. Gosh, I wish I had the money I had spent on these discs so I could get decent copies of these movies.

The warnings given by other reviewers cannot be amplified enough -- I could not play any one of the five disks and had to return the package. For all I know, Madacy just stuck a bunch of blank disks in the package.

This set of Alfred Hitchcock videos is superb.Most of the videos included are his older ones but they are still wonderful. The Lady Vanishes ,Young and Innocent,secret agent,and the 39 steps are my favorite videos in this collection of 10 tapes . They are true Alfred Hitchcocks . They keep you in suspence until the murderer or kidnapper etc. is revealed and caught. I would suggest that if you like Hitchcocks you should definetley get this set it is a must for any Alfred Hitchcock fan . Your collection won't be complete without it!

The movie's in this series are very good and, in my opinion, worth owning. These early works are in themselves good movies but seeing them after seeing his later works you can see how Hitchcock formulated his ideas and used them again in his later works. The video quality of these movies is watchable but they are not letterboxed. The sound quality on some of them is really poor to the point that I had a hard time understanding some of the dialogue. The special features of the DVD are also not that great (eg. no subtiles)