The four classic films included in this Box Set are: 'Rebecca' 'Spellbound' 'The Paradine Case' 'Notorious
After 50 years the ultimate nightmare returns in stunning high definition on Blu-ray with superior picture spine-chilling sound plus a host of extras. More chilling than ever before Alfred Hitchcock's landmark masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as the troubled Norman Bates whose old dark house and adjoining motel are not the place to spend a quiet evening. No one knows that better than Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) the ill-fated traveller whose journey ends in the notorious shower scene. First a private detective (Martin Balsam) then Marion's sister (Vera Miles) search for her as the horror and suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed.
Alfred Hitchcock's final film Family Plot is understated comic fun that mixes suspense with deft humour, thanks to a solid cast. The plot centres on the kidnapping of an heir and a diamond theft by a pair of bad guys led by Karen Black and William Devane. The cops seem befuddled, but that doesn't stop a questionable psychic (Barbara Harris) and her not overly bright boyfriend (Bruce Dern, in a rare good-guy role) from picking up the trail and actually solving the crime. Did she do it with actual psychic powers? That's part of the fun of Harris's enjoyably ditsy performance. --Marshall Fine
Alfred Hitchcock himself called this 1934 British edition of his famous kidnapping story "the work of a talented amateur", while his 1956 Hollywood remake was the consummate act of a professional director. Be that as it may, this earlier movie still has its intense admirers who prefer it over the Jimmy Stewart--Doris Day version, and for some sound reasons. Tighter, wittier, more visually outrageous (back-screen projections of Swiss mountains, a whirly-facsimile of a fainting spell), the film even has a female protagonist (Edna Best in the mom part) unafraid to go after the bad guys herself with a gun. (Did Doris Day do that that? Uh-uh.) While the 1956 film has an intriguing undercurrent of unspoken tensions in nuclear family politics, the 1934 original has a crisp air of British optimism glummed up a bit when a married couple (Best and Leslie Banks) witness the murder of a spy and discover their daughter stolen away by the culprits. The chase leads to London and ultimately to the site of one of Hitch's most extraordinary pieces of suspense (though on this count, it must be said, the later version is superior). Take away distracting comparisons to the remake, and this Man Who Knew Too Much is a milestone in Hitchcock's early career. Peter Lorre makes his British debut as a scarred, scary villain. --Tom Keogh
Cary Grant is the screen's supreme man-on-the-run in his fourth and final teaming with Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock. He plays a Manhattan adman plunged into a realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted framed for murder chased and in a signature set-piece crop-dusted. He also hangs for dear life from the facial features of Mount Rushmore's Presidents. Savour one of Hollywood's most enjoyable thrillers ever in this State-of-the-Art Restoration: its Renewed Picture Vitality will leave you just as breathless as the chase itself.
After being accused of poisoning her blind older husband the lovely Mrs. Paradine hires lawyer Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) to represent her. Though Keane himself is married to a striking and devoted woman he finds himself strangely drawn to his glamorous defendant. However his deepening feelings convince him that she is innocent even though the evidence and his usual sense of logic and reason suggest otherwise...
All your favourite films from the ultimate filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. 16 of his best loved classic films digitally restored in stunning high definition. Exclusive film tins including Vertigo Psycho The Birds North By Northwest Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. Plus... A 16-page Companion Booklet Movie Poster Art Cards New Original Letters Storyboard Special Features and more... Titles Comprise: Saboteur Shadow of a Doubt Rope Rear Window To Catch a Thief The Trouble with Harry The Man Who Knew Too Much Vertigo North by Northwest Psycho The Birds Marnie Torn Curtain Topaz Frenzy Family Plot
Hitchcock's first great romantic thriller is a prime example of the "macguffin" principle in action. Robert Donat is Richard Hannay, an affable Canadian tourist in London who becomes embroiled in a deadly conspiracy when a mysterious spy winds up murdered in Hannay's rented flat--and both the police and a secret organisation wind up hot on his trail. With only a seemingly meaningless phrase ("the 39 steps"), a small Scottish town circled on a map, and a criminal mastermind identified by a missing finger as clues, quick-witted Hannay eludes police and spies alike as he works his way across the countryside to reveal the mystery and clear his name. At one point he finds himself making his escape manacled to blonde beauty Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), whose initial antagonism is smoothed by Hannay's charm. It's classic Hitchcock all the way, a seemingly effortless balance of romance and adventure set against a picturesque landscape populated by eccentrics and social-register smoothies, none of whom is what he or she appears to be. Hitchcock would play similar games of innocents plunged into deadly conspiracies, most delightfully in North by Northwest, but in this breezy 1935 classic, Hitch proves that, as in any quest, the object of the search isn't nearly as satisfying as the journey. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Psycho: The classic Hitchcock thriller involving a series of murders at a lonely motel where the deaths are attributed to the mother of the young owner. (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 1960) (Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono - English Spanish French) Psycho 2: Norman Bates is coming home after spending 22 years in a mental institution. He plans to renovate the old Bates Motel the place where his first murders occurred... (Dir. Richard Franklin 1983) (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English French German ; Dolby Digital 2.0 - Italian Spanish) Psycho 3: The Bates Motel is again the site of some nasty doings as the rehabilitated Norman who has installed a new ice machine attempts to put his life back together. But old habits die hard... (Dir. Anthony Perkins 1986) (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English French Italian ; Dolby Digital 2.0 - German Spanish)
Rear Window (1954): Alfred Hitchcock amply demonstrates why he's been called ""The Master of Suspense"" with this both witty and macabre tale of voyeurism and murder starring two of cinema's all-time favourites James Stewart and Grace Kelly. L.B. Jeffries (Stewart) a photographer with a broken leg takes up the fine art of spying on his Greenwich Village neighbours during a summer heat wave. But things really hot up when he suspects one neighbour of murdering his invalid wife and burying the body in a flower garden. The Birds (1963): Wealthy reformed party girl Melanie Daniels enjoys a brief flirtation with lawyer Mitch Brenner in a San Francisco pet shop and decides to follow him to his Bodega Bay home. Bearing a gift of two lovebirds Melanie quickly strikes up a romance with Mitch while contending with his possessive mother and boarding at his ex-girlfriend's house.One day during a birthday party for Mitch's younger sister a flock of birds attacks the children in what seems to be a random incident. In fact it signals the beginning of a massive and organized avian assault on the residents of the town--a mysterious assault that no one can explain...and from which no one might come out alive. Vertigo (1958): Set in San Francisco James Stewart portrays and acrophobic detective hired to trail a friend's suicidal wife (Novak). After he successfully rescues her from a leap into the bay he finds himself becoming obsessed with the beautiful and troubled woman...
To Catch a ThiefThis minor 1955 work by Alfred Hitchcock, one of the lighter entries of his creative peak in the 1950s, is still imbued with the master's stock themes of shared guilt and romantic ambivalence. It is also hardly lacking in Hitchcockian cinematic inventiveness, such as a famous, often-imitated sequence in which some smooching between stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly is intercut with a fireworks show that just happens to be going on outside in a Riviera setting. Grant plays a reformed cat burglar who is suspected of reviving his trade, though he knows someone else is using his old methods. A very enjoyable experience, but don't get this confused with Hitchcock's other Cary Grant film of that decade, a true masterpiece: North by Northwest. --Tom Keogh The Country GirlIn retrospect, George Seaton's adaptation of The Country Girl seems like the movie that was made to prove that both Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly could act. The tale of an alcoholic actor and singer (Crosby) and his long-suffering wife (Kelly) whose marriage is put to the test when he gets a second chance at stardom, Clifford Odets' drama is chock full of twists and turns designed to give actors a gruelling workout, with its hidden secrets, tortured love story, and frank depiction of the horrors of alcohol abuse. Crosby and Kelly sank their teeth into the meaty roles with gusto (it helped that a rock-solid William Holden was there for each to spark off of), and both were showered with accolades that remained high points of their careers. Crosby was lauded with kudos for turning his charming persona inside-out, but it was Kelly who stole the show, possibly because at the time she was one of the hardest working women in show business. In 1954, the actress appeared in four films, including the Alfred Hitchcock classics Dial M for Murder and Rear Window, and finally ascended to leading-lady status after her stellar supporting turns in High Noon and Mogambo. In typical Hollywood fashion, though, it was only when Kelly shrouded her breathtaking beauty in plain clothes and a dowdy hairdo that she was taken seriously and awarded a Best Actress Oscar--one of the most highly contested ever, as she beat out comeback star Judy Garland's ferocious performance in A Star Is Born. --Mark Englehart
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
A welcome second volume of classics from the Master of Suspense, this seven-disc Hitchcock Collection box-set consists of the following: The Birds: Based on a Daphne Du Maurier short story, The Birds (1963) is Hitchcock at his most terrifying, as the residents of a small town are attacked by thousands of apparently homicidal birds. Marnie: Tippi Hedren and newly Bonded Sean Connery star in this excellent 1964 thriller, which finds a calculating thief who robs her employers pursued by a her new boss, who is desperate to unlock her secrets Torn Curtain: This 1966 spy thriller, pairing Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, finds Newman as a world-famous physicist intent on defecting to East Berlin in order to obtain funding for his latest project. Topaz: Based on the Leon Uris novel, Hitch's 51st film, made in 1969, concerns a CIA agent who learns of Russian missiles in Cuba. With the aid of a French agent, they negotiate a plethora of corruption and murder. Frenzy: This critically acclaimed 1972 film was Hitch's first British-made film for more than 20 years. A classic Hitch story of an innocent man accused of being the "necktie murderer"--a vicious sex criminal terrorising London--he eludes the authorities and seeks the real killer. Family Plot: Hitchcock's final film, made in 1976, is a blackly funny mix of murder, theft and kidnapping as a cab-driver and a psychic team up to find a dead man--not actually dead--in exchange for a $10,000 reward. Bonus Disc--Vertigo: An irreducible masterpiece, this 1958 double-identity thriller finds Hitch serving aces, as Jimmy Stewart's detective is drawn in to a complex plot when the girl he loves apparently falls to her death. On the DVD: Like the first volume, this is an equally impressive package that will satisfy the rotund fright-master's fans. Along with the standard selection of trailers, production notes and picture galleries, each disc houses an impressive "making of" documentary, each expertly detailing Hitch's meticulous work. The Birds features Tippi Hedren's screen test and--in storyboard form--deleted scenes and the alternative ending. Topaz has no less that three alternative endings, while Torn Curtain includes scenes scored by composer Bernard Herrmann before his music was rejected by Hitch. The Vertigo disc features an excellent group commentary from producer Herbert Coleman and restoration experts Robert A Harris and James Katz, as well as a documentary, "Obsessed with Vertigo". Housed in attractive fold-out packaging, this is an excellent opportunity to obtain a rich slice of Hitchcock's dark magic.--Danny Graydon
Rear Window (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 1954): Alfred Hitchcock amply demonstrates why he's been called ""The Master of Suspense"" with this both witty and macabre tale of voyeurism and murder starring two of cinema's all-time favourites James Stewart and Grace Kelly. L. B.Jeffries (Stewart) a photographer with a broken leg takes up the fine art of spying on his Greenwich Village neighbours during a summer heat wave. But things really hot up when he suspects one neighbour of mur
Double bill from legendary Director Alfred Hitchcock. Contains: 'Rich and Strange' and 'Young and Innocent'.
The 1934 version of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' was an international hit for Alfred Hitchcock and transformed him from a British filmmaker to a worldwide household name. The story centres on a British family who befriend a jovial Frenchman while vacationing in Switzerland. The Frenchman is soon mortally wounded and before he dies whispers a secret to Banks. Foreign agents witness this incident and kidnap Banks' daughter to prevent him from revealing this terrible secret. The acting a
Grace Kelly Collection
Hitchcock: The Wartime Resistance Films - Bon Voyage And Aventure Malgache
A young woman Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) becomes ""the notorious Mrs. Filton"" when a young artist in love with her commits suicide and she ends up divorcing her drunkard husband. Life looks like it is taking a turn for the better when she meets John Whittaker in the south of France. John the scion of a respectable family marries her without being aware of her past but his mother soon learns of Larita's tainted background and schemes to break up the marriage and uncover Larita's
39 Steps: Alfred Hitchcock considered The 39 Steps to be one of his favourite films partly because it launched his classic theme of the innocent man on the run from villains and lawmen. Robert Donat stars as Richard Hannay in this freely adapted version of John Buchan's story. Despite repeated remakes Hitchcock's riveting original remains unequalled. The Man Who Knew Too Much: A husband and wife's holiday in Switzerland goes horribly wrong when their daughter is kidnapped leading them into a web of mystery and intrigue...
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