Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection - October 14

[Escapay]

From DVDActive

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MGM Home Entertainment has announced the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection which includes Rebecca, The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Spellbound, Notorious, Young and Innocent, Sabotage, and Lifeboat. Each have been beautifully restored and remastered. As well as all the features listed below, the DVD collection also includes a 32-page notebook with trivia, production notes and more about the legendary director. Retail will be $119.98. We've attached the official package artwork and specs below:

(DVDActive doesn't allow hotlinking, so click the link above for the image)

Rebecca Synopsis
A young woman marries a fascinating older widower only to discover that she must live in the shadows of his first wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years before.

Special features:
• Commentary by film historian/author Richard Schickel
• Screen tests
• Making of Rebecca Featurette
• The Gothic World of Daphne Du Maurier Featurette
• Original 1938 Radio Play Starring Orson Welles
• 1941 Radio Play Presented by Cecil B. DeMille
• 1950 Radio Play with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Four-page booklet

The Lodger Synopsis
Not long after a mysterious young “medical scientist” named Slade (Laird Cregar) rents a flat in the heart of London’s Whitechapel district, a series of brutal murders begins. But despite the fact that the murder victims are all female stage performers, the landlord’s niece Kitty (Merle Oberon), an ingénue, is unphased by the crimes – or by the unusual, brooding man in her family’s midst. As Kitty coquettishly interacts with a Scotland Yard detective (George Sanders), she becomes Slade’s object of obsession in this pulse-pounding thriller that “packs an unsettling punch.” (At-A-Glance Film Reviews).

Special features:
• 1999 Score by Ashley Irwin presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround
• 1997 Score by Paul Zaza presented in Mono
• Commentary with film historian Patrick McGilligan
• The Sound of Silence: The Making of The Lodger Featurette
• Hitchcock 101 Featurette
• 1940 Radio Play Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparison

The Paradine Case Synopsis
Beautiful Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is accused of poisoning her older wealthy husband. Her barrister, the happily married Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) takes the case but also lets his heart rule his head when he falls hard for his client.

Special features:
• Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• 1949 Radio Play Starring Joseph Cotton
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Galleries
Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection

Spellbound Synopsis
When John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), the new director of a mental asylum arrives on the job, the staff is concerned. He seems too young for the position and his answers to their questions are vague and detached. Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), while knowing he is an imposter with emotional issues, nevertheless falls in love with him. Turning to her mentor, Dr. Alex Brulov (Michael Checkhov) and the use of psychoanalysis she tries to get to the root of Ballantine’s emotional problems.

Special features:
• Commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz & Charles Ramirez Berg
• Guilt by Association: Psychoanalyzing Spellbound Featurette
• A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming Featurette
• Dreaming with Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali Featurette
• 1948 Radio Play Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: Film Historian Rudy Belhemer Interviews Composer Miklós Rózsa
• Still Gallery
• 4-Page Booklet

Notorious Synopsis
Daughter of an accused World War II traitor, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted to entrap one of her father’s colleagues in Brazil, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Raines). Her American contact, secret agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) is openly contemptuous of Alicia and instructs her to wed Sebastian. It is only after she is wed that Devlin lets himself admit that he’s fallen in love with her.

Special features:
• Commentary with film historian Rick Jewell
• Commentary with film historian Drew Casper
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious Featurette
• Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster Featurette
• AFI Tribute to Hitchcock
• 1948 Radio Play Starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery
• 4-Page Booklet

Young and Innocent Synopsis
In this witty, suspense thriller a police chief’s daughter helps a fugitive accused of murder prove his innocence.

Special features:
• Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
• Isolated Music and Effects Track
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery

Sabotage Synopsis
A woman learns that her movie theater manager husband is actually a foreign agent when a bomb he has made kills her brother. Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel, The Secret Agent.

Special features:
• Commentary with film historian Leonard Leff
• Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
• Restoration Comparision
• Still Gallery

Lifeboat Synopsis
Nominated for three Academy Awards®, Alfred Hitchcock’s World War II drama is a remarkable story of human survival. After their ship is sunk in the Atlantic by Germans, eight people are stranded in a lifeboat. Their problems are further compounded when they pick up a ninth passenger – the Nazi captain from the U-boat that torpedoed them. With powerful suspense and emotion, this legendary classic reveals the strengths and frailties of individuals under extraordinary duress.

Special features:
• Commentary by University of Southern California School of Cinema & Television Hitchcock professor and film critic, Drew Casper
• “The Making of Lifeboat” featurette
• The original theatrical trailer
• Still gallery featuring photographs from the set

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I'm excited for this, as Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound have been out of print for years (and their Criterions go for big bucks...). Also, I've been meaning to get Lifeboat for awhile now (the disc here is the same as the Fox release from 2005), and I'm glad that The Lodger, Young and Innocent, and Sabotage are getting a restoration and great extras, as all three are public domain titles. And I think this is the first time The Paradine Case is coming to R1 DVD!

Here's hoping that MGM/Fox continues to restore other public-domain Hitchcock films! I'd really love to see a restored version of the original 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much as well as The Farmer's Wife.

For those interested, these are the Criterion-exclusive extras for Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound that won't be in the new MGM Premiere Collection...

Rebecca: Criterion-Exclusive Extras
-Commentary: "Hitchcock and Selznick" author Leonard J. Leff
-Isolated music and effects track
-1940 Academy Awards footage
-Hair, Make-Up, & Costume Tests (though this may all fall under the generic "Screen Tests" listing) - featuring Vivien Leigh, Anne Baxter, Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, and Joan Fontaine
-Behind-the-Scenes Photo Galleries - location scouting, set photos, wardrobe continuity, ads, posters, lobby cards, and promotional memorabilia
-Illustrated essay on Daphne du Maurier, author of original Rebecca novel.
-Phone interviews with star Joan Fontaine and Dame Judith Anderson from 1986
-Hitchcock's casting notes
-Production correspondance and casting notes
-1939 test screening questionnaire
-Reissue Theatrical trailer
-22-page booklet with liner notes by Robin Wood, author of the groundbreaking book "Hitchcock's Film" and "Hitchcock's Film Revisited"

Notorious: Criterion-Exclusive Extras
-Commentary: Hitchcock film scholar Marian Keane and film historian Rudy Behlmer
-Theatrical Trailer
-Photo Gallery - Production, Publicity, Rear Projection, Promotional posters, Lobby Cards
-Production Correspondence
-Script Excerpts: Deleted Scenes & Alternate Endings
-"The Song of the Dragon" Excerpt (source material for the film)
-Newsreel footage featuring Ingrid Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock
-Linear notes by Hitchcock scholar William Rothman, author of Hitchcock - The Murderous Glaze

Spellbound: Criterion-Exclusive Extras
-Commentary: Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane
-Illustrated Essay on the Salvador Dali dream sequence
-Behind-the-Scenes Photo & Document Galleries - Production, Psychoanalytical Research, Set Photos, Ads, Posters, Promotional Memorabilia (a still gallery is on the new MGM version, but it's not known how much will be included)

Albert

[PrincePhillipFan]

Very interesting. I've only seen Rebecca, Spellbound, Notorious, and a little bit of Lifeboat, but haven't seen the other films. I'm not really experienced on many of Hitchcock's earlier 1940s films, so I guess I have to pick this one up. The only other collection I really have is The Masterpiece Collection with Saboteur, Shadow Of A Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Pyscho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot.

*sigh* I'm going to go backrupt from August to October with Sleeping Beauty, Faerie Tale Theatre, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the Imagineering Legends, Art Of Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Field Guide books all coming out.

[castleinthesky]

Hopefully Rebecca and Notorious will be separate. If not I'll just buy their Criterions on ebay (should go down after this release in price).

The whole set is too expensive for me.

[Escapay]

a little bit of Lifeboat

You should watch the rest of it, Howard! It's not the typical Hitchcock film, with a very claustrophobic setting that, IMO, helps support the slightly-weaker "survival" story.

Hopefully Rebecca and Notorious will be separate.

The press release states that Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound are getting separate releases ($19.98 SRP). Lifeboat is already available separately, and the other four titles (The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young and Innocent) are boxset exclusives.

Albert

[castleinthesky]

Hopefully Rebecca and Notorious will be separate.

The press release states that Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound are getting separate releases ($19.98 SRP). Lifeboat is already available separately, and the other four titles (The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young and Innocent) are boxset exclusives.

Albert

Thanks! That's what I get for not reading the whole press release.

[Escapay]

The press release states that Rebecca, Notorious, and Spellbound are getting separate releases ($19.98 SRP). Lifeboat is already available separately, and the other four titles (The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young and Innocent) are boxset exclusives.

Albert

Thanks! That's what I get for not reading the whole press release.

No problem!

I knew that the press release stated the three films would be available separately, but the DVDActive link didn't include it, so I had to check at HTF to make sure. At the same time, I want to get the old Criterion versions (if possible) for their exclusive extras.

Albert