Alfred Hitchcock 10 Movie Set - Decent

Alfred Hitchcock - Master of Suspense

Ten movies for the price of one. Pretty good deal considering they are mainly above average and they are pretty well preserved for public domain fodder.

The DVD set is from the bargain bins and includes ten old Alfred Hitchcock's from his British career BEFORE he was discovered and came to Hollywood. Even during the silent era, Hitchcock was one of the most innovative directors with a great eye for staging scenes, showing action, and punctuated with lots of Hitch's patented black humor.

Hitchcock has a number of characteristic visual techniques that he demonstrates in these older black and white films that are frankly as innovative as anybody has ever been and indicate what a great eye he had. Hitchcock has such an eye that he is easily in the ranks with such renowned visualists as John Ford, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles. Anybody who is a student of film, of great directors, or just plain likes old movies will find a good bargain with this set.

For those who know the later work of Alfred Hitchcock, they will be delighted to see that he early established his "wrong man" theme and his obsession with beautiful young blonds far antedates Grace Kelly.

There are ten movies in all, on five DVD disks all in the plastic container from Brentwood Home Video. The worst movie is probably 3 stars and the best is five, including Sabotage, and other seldom seen classics such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Lady Vanishes, Blackmail, and Secret Agent - movies that should be on every film buff's viewing list.

The full set of titles include:

* Young And Innocent [1937] - rich dowager murdered and wrong man pursued - a theme Hitchcock would return to over and over. Above average
* Blackmail [1929] A young woman defends herself against a rapist, then is blackmailed by an unseen bystander. Above Average
* Juno And The Paycock [1930] - uncharacteristic maudlin Irish family doings for Hitch, more like something John Ford might have done. Interesting premarital pregnancy dilemma. Good
* Rich And Strange [1931] - Newly rich working class couple find out it ain't so hot when they take a world cruise. Good
* The Ring [1930] - silent sports film about a pug boxer and his estranged wife. OK
* The Lodger [1927] - silent - early view of Jack the Ripper and demonstrates some of Hitchcock's brilliant visual techniques that he would use over and over in his future career. Watchable
* Secret Agent [1936] John Gielgud gets "killed off" and must infiltrate and break up a German spy ring. Good
* The Lady Vanishes [1938] Maybe the doddering old lady never was there, after all. Good.
* The Man Who Knew Too Much [1934] police work to forestall a pending assassination. Fair.
* Sabotage [1936] A mad bomber terrorizes London. With Oskar Homolka. One of the best!

The movies are all public domain, so they haven't been restored but they are all in fairly well preserved condition with a few defects and audio defects as well. And most titles have not been released on this side of the Atlantic unless they are in egregiously expensive editions by Criterion or Kino. I recommend this set for anyone who wants to get up to speed on Alfred Hitchcock, without making a major investment.