The Hitchcock Collection-Volume 1 (RW, Psy, etc) (1942)

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    Universal Home Video have gone to some trouble to provide common theming across the six new DVDs and there is, for instance, a uniformly high quality in the extras packages. The film transfers are generally of a good standard, although obviously this has to be taken in the context of seven films spreading across eighteen years and both black and white as well as colour transfers. Certainly there is nothing here that could be considered to be sub-standard, and in some cases it is decidedly better than expected (most notably the films acquired from Paramount and which underwent restoration).

    Overall, I would have to rate this collection as good and if you have any interest at all in the films of Alfred Hitchcock, it is obviously an essential purchase - not the least because of the good value of seven films for $150. When you consider the sort of discounts obtainable from the discount department stores and online, there is little reason that this could not be bought in the $125 range with ease, which is about as good a value as you could expect. If you have only a passing interest in the films of the maestro though, you are left in a little quandry. Whilst Psycho and Rear Window are obvious purchases as solo DVD releases, which others are worthy single DVD purchases if you cannot afford the whole set? My personal choices would be The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Trouble With Harry, but obviously this may not accord to everyone's tastes.

    The collection is presented in a gatefold style package, similar to the packaging used for X-Files season releases. The six new DVDs are included in the gatefold, whilst Psycho is in a seperate envelope inserted where the production note booklet goes. This is the sort of packaging that I am not enamoured with at all. As far as I am concerned, the only way to package the seven DVDs is in separate Amaray cases within a cardboard presentation slip cover. A far more sensible packaging, and bound to last a lot longer than any gatefold design.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Saboteur (1942)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-(35:24) Storyboards Gallery-Hitchcock Sketches Gallery-Art Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (1:55) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1942
Running Time	104:19
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (81:11)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Priscilla Lane Robert Cummings Norman Lloyd Otto Kruger Alan Baxter Alma Kruger Dorothy Peterson Clem Bevans
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Frank Skinner

   The time is World War Two and the war industry of the United States is cranking up and cranking out production like crazy. Since this is the war, the United States is in the grip of paranoia about Nazis and Japs as only the United States can get gripped about such things. Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) works at an aircraft factory in California, and has an inadvertent meeting with a bloke he presumes is a fellow worker, Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd), as they head out for the evening meal break on the night shift. As they are enjoying their break, the workers are roused by a fire alarm. Dashing to the scene of the fire, Barry and his best mate are the first there to tackle the blaze. Fry passes Barry an extinguisher which his mate then grabs and heads off to fight the flames. Only problem is the extinguisher is filled with gasoline and the whole place goes up in a fireball that kills the young man. As the investigation commences, it would seem that no person known as Frank Fry is employed at the factory and thus the sabotage that killed the young man seems to have been the act of Barry Kane. The only hope for Barry is to try and locate Fry and thus he eludes capture and heads off in search of Fry - based upon the only thing he knows, the envelopes that Fry was carrying when they met, which had his address as a ranch in Springvale. Naturally the search is not that easy and at the ranch Barry meets Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) who seems to be involved with Fry. Tobin has Barry arrested but he manages to escape and heads off in flight, which results in him meeting Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane). What follows is a cross country jaunt to clear Barry's name and locate the true perpetrators of the sabotage at the aircraft factory - before they can strike again at the Brooklyn Naval Dock Yards.

   This is certainly not a classic as far as the story goes and this is matched by the lack of any classic performances amongst the cast. Indeed, about the only classic thing here is the special effects and even those are so well known that they don't hold the same sort of wow factor they did fifty years ago. Frankly, I have never understood what sort of performance Robert Cummings was aiming for in the film, as at times he has the most ludicrous grin/smirk I have ever seen in what is supposed to be a suspense/thriller film. It is almost like someone has made a school yard dirty joke and he cannot get over it. Priscilla Lane (yes, she of Arsenic And Old Lace fame) plays the token blonde female lead well enough, even though it was not a role that Hitch required much from. Perhaps the standout amongst the reasonably ordinary cast was Otto Kruger, but I can't help but feel that it was more to do with the lack of quality around him rather than his own great thespian skills. Apart from a few interesting techniques, notably the climatic scene which has been dissected many times over the years, this was Alfred Hitchcock in almost film-by-the-numbers mode.

   Not amongst the best thing to ever come from Alfred Hitchcock, and a film that is not wearing the years well at all. Still, perhaps you might have seen the film a few less times than I and will find more to enjoy here than my jaded self.

Video

    It is generally a reasonably sharp transfer throughout, although there are a few noticeable lapses here and there to just highlight the age of the film a little. Detail is at best only good, but more often is only reasonable throughout, which no doubt reflects the time in which the film was made. Many of the backgrounds are seemingly obviously painted sets, and the background often lacks any sort of depth at all. Shadow detail is quite poor, which reflects the fact that this is a dark transfer and any time there is dark involved, it gets really dark. There is significant grain present throughout most of the transfer, that whilst not really serious is nonetheless noticeable and a tad distracting. Clarity as a result is not as good as we would perhaps like. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    This is something of a dark transfer as indicated above and as a result the black and white is not amongst the best I have seen. Indeed, having now seen what Universal have managed to do with the material, I am now inclined to be a little less harsh of the Laserlight transfers of even earlier films available through MRA Entertainment. With the transfer tending towards the dark side of things, the overall palette here is not the best. It lacks something in the way of vibrancy to start with, which compounds a relatively narrow band of black and grey tones. At times, this does not really aid the definition of the transfer, and overall has to be considered only reasonable looking. There is something of a lack of serious solidity to the blacks at times, whereas at others there is a little too much depth.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is an exceedingly unusual artefact in the pan shot between 1:35 and 1:40, and my attempts to describe it are going to be woefully inadequate. It appears in the background against the corrugated wall and looks like a whole bunch of elongated black ovals moving from left to right across the wall during the pan. I don't know what it is but it is pretty obvious and quite off-putting. The only other artefact of note is between 46:15 and 46:45 where there is some noticeable wobble, but only in the shots of Bones, the human skeleton - suggesting that something was awry with the camera used for shooting these scenes. Other than that there did not appear to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, just some very minor aliasing that is barely noticeable. Film artefacts are quite prevalent and are occasionally quite obvious and very distracting, especially the large hairs.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 81:11. Well after a couple of shockers in this area, I suppose anything would be seen as an improvement. Well, this almost is, for they were obviously trying to place it in a black scene change. The only problem is that they missed it by about one tenth of a second. A near miss is still a miss, and in this case is too obvious a miss: the scene starts to fade to black, stops shy of actually getting black, layer change progresses with a ghostly image on screen, before continuing on to the actual black scene change. This really just looks sloppy, and as a result is very annoying and disruptive to the flow of the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue comes up reasonably clear and is generally easy to understand in the transfer, but there are a few places where the dialogue gets just a little recessed. I am supposing that this is the result of problems in the source material. There did not appear to be any serious audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The original music score for the film comes from Frank Skinner, but really the film is probably highlighted by the lack of music rather than the score itself. Nowadays you get so used to the climatic scene of a film being telegraphed by hackneyed music that completely fails to do the job it is supposed to. Here, you get to the climatic scene and - where is the music? Yes, there is silence, broken only by small bits of dialogue as the climatic scene unfolds. Pretty decent change of pace in my view. When music is present however, it is not really that memorable.

    The standard style of soundtrack for the DVDs in the box set and nothing to really complain about. It starts out a little stridently in the Universal logo (thankfully they have left the original here which is a really nice change), and the thoughts immediately are that this is going to be an ear-shattering experience. Thankfully, it soon settles down to a more acceptable level and really sounds a typical mono soundtrack, totally central and nothing else. It is free of any distortions or noticeable blemishes, and does not tax the old speaker system too much.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Saboteur - A Closer Look: The Making Of Saboteur (35:24)

Storyboards

Hitchcock's Sketches

Gallery - Art

Theatrical Trailer (1:55)

• Nothing

• Production Notes

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-(34:47) Gallery-Production Drawings Gallery-Art Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (1:23) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1943
Running Time	103:23
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (75:32)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Teresa Wright Joseph Cotten MacDonald Carey Patricia Collinge Henry Travers Wallace Ford Hume Cronyn
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Dimitri Tiomkin

   This is typical small town United States in abundance, being set in in Santa Rosa in California. Not only is this typical small town USA but the Newton family are a typical American family: slightly nutty father Joseph (Henry Travers), devoted homemaker Emma (Patricia Collinge) and beautiful, intelligent daughter Charlie (Teresa Wright), along with minor sprogs Ann (Edna May Wonacott) and Roger (Charles Bates) and unusual family visitor Herbie Hawkins (Hume Cronyn), who seems to have nothing but crime on his mind. So a typical American family in a typical American small town. So what is the big deal? Well, being typical means that life is typically boring and Charlie is not too thrilled about it. In fact she is so unthrilled about it that she is looking for ways to spice up life a little. She is about to get her desire with spades. For her uncle, Charles Oakley (Joseph Cotton), is about to descend upon the family for a stay. Now Uncle Charles is a bit of a mystery man, and at the moment he is well blessed with money and with two obvious police types trying to inconspicuously keep tabs on him. Obviously it is too easy for a man to evade tails in a place like New Jersey and heading off to small town USA on the other side of country is going to make it really tough to do so, but Charles does exactly that. His niece is overjoyed to see him, as is his elder sister, but a dark cloud starts to descend over Charlie's feelings for her uncle. His strange behaviour with a newspaper is a good starting point, especially when Charlie discovers what the story he was hiding was all about. Things get a little darker when two obvious police types turn up to interview the family at random for some form of poll. Of course, handsome Jack Graham (MacDonald Carey) is soon smitten by Charlie and vice versa. But Charlie is not quite so sure about her uncle after what she is told and wants nothing more to do with him as suspicions rise as to his true nature. But there is a twist in this tale, with a second thrown in for good measure, and you really will need to watch the film to find out what they are.

   Whilst it might sound rather mundane, the story is actually quite nicely crafted. The setting is well chosen as the means of establishing familiarity and complete ease with the situation of the Newton family, but as that dark cloud descends the familiarity and ease becomes questionable and uncomfortable. It is a very decent set up for the twist, and the effective counter twist, which is quite well-handled by Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, the film tends to leave you wondering where this tale is going as it builds to something obvious, then pokes you in a different direction. Apart from the story, the other reason why it is so effectively executed is due to the performances. Teresa Wright does a good job in her portrayal of the naive young optimistic lady, slowly coming to terms with something she does not want to believe and in the process having her ideals turned almost completely around. She is however probably outshone by Joseph Cotten in a very deceptive performance, one that looks effortless and a little shallow, but one that is anything but. His ability to turn the mood in an instant and do it so perfectly is essential to the selling of the way the story unfolds. The rest of the cast is good but not terrific, but that is not entirely unexpected as the two central characters are really the whole point of this film. The appearance of MacDonald Carey does serve to confirm that yes he did actually do something other than Days Of Our Lives.

   This is a slightly stronger film than the previous two reviewed from the box set in all honesty (Rope and Saboteur), and as you analyse the film a little more it becomes a little clearer as to why Hitch had his views of it. It does an effective job of taking the familiar and comfortable, making the viewer familiar and comfortable with it (almost revelling in the mundane nature at times), and then derailing those feelings in a major way. A worthy enough film but not quite in the gem category, although this view is clearly at odds with those of the voters on the Internet Movie Database who have this film ranked at 215 in the Top 250 Films of all time at the moment.

Video

    This is a generally sharp transfer throughout, with just a few odd lapses here and there to cause a bit of chagrin. There is especially a period between 72:00 and 73:00, during the bar scene, where the image is noticeably diffuse. These odd lapses tend to detract somewhat from the overall transfer. Like quite a few of the films in this box set, detail is at best only good, let down by some background work that looks decidedly false. Shadow detail is quite decent in this transfer, reflecting the slightly brighter tone of the film, and even during the night-time scenes there is little to complain about in this regard. There is again some grain present throughout most of the transfer, but nothing that really detracts too much from the enjoyment of the film - and that certainly does not impinge upon the clarity of the transfer in any serious way. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    In comparison to Saboteur, this is a much better looking transfer, not suffering at all from being overly dark. Whilst I would still have preferred a little more depth to the black and white tones here, this is not too bad a colourscape. The grey scales are reasonably well defined and there is little evidence of murkiness here at all.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. The only really noticeable film-to-video artefact in the transfer is some cross colouration issues throughout the film, especially during the period between 36:00 and 37:30 in the pinafore worn by Charlie Newton. There is also some really minor aliasing at a few points in the transfer, but nothing really noticeable. Film artefacts are very prevalent in the transfer and the odd snowstorm here or there is just a little too obvious to ignore.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 75:32. It took them a little while to get it right, but this one is just about spot on! It comes during a black scene change and would have been completely undetectable had it not been for a slight interruption to the sobbing from Charlie Newton.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Well, you must be getting a bit fed up of me saying that there are two soundtracks on offer on the DVD, and that they are an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack and a German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack. And of course you do by now know that I only listened to the English soundtrack.

    The dialogue comes up well in the transfer and is generally easy to understand, funnily enough probably sounding the best of the "older" films included in the box set. There did not appear to be any serious audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The original music score for the film comes from Dimitri Tiomkin, but this is not the best I have heard from him. At times it sounds rather clichéd and some of the music is reminiscent of other music, both film and recorded that I have heard (but cannot necessarily immediately place where - which is the really annoying thing). Personally, I find it a little heavy-handed in its support of the film, but this probably suits the lack of subtlety that Americans seem to prefer in their films.

    The soundtrack is well up to the standard of the soundtracks set by the other DVDs in the box set and nothing at all to complain about. A rather nice mono sound is offered here, not at all strident and almost mellow in its tone that suits the style of the film very well, albeit probably unintentionally. Apart from some rather obvious extraneous distortion in the sound at 3:41, this is free of any distortions or other blemishes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Beyond Doubt: The Making Of Hitchcock's Favourite Film (34:47)

Production Drawings

Gallery - Art

Theatrical Trailer (1:23)

• Nothing

• Production Notes

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Rope (1948)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-(32:27) Gallery-Art Trailer-Trailer Compilation (6:14) Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:26) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1948
Running Time	77:27
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	James Stewart John Dall Farley Granger Cedric Hardwicke Constance Collier Joan Chandler
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Leo F. Forbstein

   Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger) are a couple with some unusual views - or at least Brandon has and forces them upon Phillip. Out of interest, they decide to experiment with that view upon David Kentley (Dick Hogan), the current beau of a former girlfriend of Brandon's in Janet Walker (Joan Chandler). In celebration of their experimentation, they hold a party to which not only Janet is invited but also David's father Henry (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and another former beau of Janet's in Kenneth Lawrence (Douglas Dick). Also invited is the boys' former prep school teacher in Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), the man who actually inspired their unusual views. Making up the party is David's aunt Anita Atwater (Constance Collier). Most of what goes on here is quite irrelevant as there really is only one person who can call the boys on this one.

   But to be quite honest, the story here is subservient to Alfred Hitchcock's desires for experimentation. The shooting of the film in a small number of long, continuous takes is even today something of a rarity in film. The result is a fluidity of action that is refreshing enough but the edit points are rather unnatural (such as close ups of peoples backs, then pull backs to take in the action). However, whilst this sort of shooting would be fairly easy to do today with cameras such as steadicams, back in the 1940s with the huge Technicolor cameras it was something of a nightmare, and it shows at times with some of the most obvious camera movement you will ever see. The single set imposes its own limitations that are perhaps not quite overcome as well as they were say in the vastly larger and more intricate set used in Rear Window. This is a much sparser set and much more unnatural in its design. But really and truly the big reason the film does not work is the fact that Hitch unusually decided to let the entire raison d'être for the film be shown in all its glory in the first couple of minutes. By doing so, there really is no suspense at all here - we know what happened and where it happened and even why it happened. Not much suspense there at all really, and notably the screenwriter also disagreed with Hitch making the deed so obvious. Had he not done so, I cannot help but feel that the suspense would have been much heightened - where is he, what happened to him?

   The need to play down the outright homosexuality of the play meant that there was a degree of stiffness to the performances that does not really create enough emotion in the play. And to be honest I find little of conviction from the performances of any involved, not even the usually reliable James Stewart. Clearly he had something of an issue with the role and it seemed to carry over into a slightly reticent performance, albeit one that is still the best on offer here.

   This is Alfred Hitchcock very much in experimentation mode, and it is not an overly successful experimentation either. It is by no means an outright dud, for I doubt even Hitch in experimentation mode could actually create such a beast, and still has some merit compared to the overrated trash many directors come up with. But if you were looking for a good place to enjoy the art of the maestro, this is not by a long way what you are looking for.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is extremely close to the theatrical ratio of 1.37:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is actually a quite sharp transfer, which I was not expecting at all. There sure are a couple of lapses here and there but they are relatively minor. As indicated, the set is a little sparse and this is quite evident in the flat look to the whole picture. Indeed, it is so flat that the cityscape outside the window is so obviously a painted background that it is not funny. Still, whatever detail there is in the set is brought out well enough by the transfer. Shadow detail is not an issue here, as the lighting is fairly constant throughout the film. A little surprisingly, there is not much of an issue with grain and the overall transfer is quite clear. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    Unlike some of the later Technicolor films in the 1950s, the overall look here is of matte colours, with a tendency to undersaturation. The skin tones are not really that natural and there is a degree of unbelievability as a result. However, you soon adjust to the palette and find little to complain about. There is nothing in the way of oversaturation here at all and colour bleed is not an obvious issue either. There is something of an inherent problem in the early part of the film, right after the deed, in that there is a slight issue with the solidity of the blue colour of the suit worn by Brandon. This is accompanied by a blue colouration on the print itself that flashes on and off for about two minutes around this time.

    There is a consistent loss of resolution in pan shots here, which I would attribute to the camera operators not being able to move those bulky cameras as quickly as they would like. Other than that there did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are little in the way of problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, apart from a few minor instances of moiré artefacting in Rupert's tie (around 71:34 is a good illustration of this). There are quite a few film artefacts floating around the transfer but nothing more than would be reasonably expected in a film of over fifty years of age.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 60:43. If I thought the layer change in The Man Who Knew Too Much was appalling, then this one has to be abysmal. Once again it occurs mid-scene during motion, this time with a gun being placed into a pocket - just before the gun is slipped into the pocket, stop everything! We have the layer change to throw in here. I am beginning to wonder just exactly how they chose the layer change points in these films, especially here as it is not a long film and there are several Hitch inserted natural change points.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue comes up clear and easy to understand in the transfer. There did not appear to be any audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The original music for the film comes from Leo F Forbstein, but this is not a real high point of the film and nor was it designed to be. The film is a play and was shot as a play, and thus does not demand much from any musical support.

    Another somewhat unmemorable soundtrack, that is free of any serious problems but does not offer any real excitement. In comparison to the other films reviewed so far in the box set, it is a better overall soundscape, somewhat more believable and less mono sounding (although it still is mono of course). This is one film where the lack of surround encoding and bass channel support is not entirely missed.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Rope Unleashed: The Making Of Rope (32:27)

Gallery - Art

Trailer - Trailer Compilation (6:14)

Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

• Trailer compilation

• Production Notes

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Rear Window (1954)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-Rear Window Ehtics (55:11) Gallery-Art Trailer-Trailer Compilation (6:14) Theatrical Trailer-1.66:, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:40) Featurette-Interview with John Michael Hayes (13:11)
Rating
Year Of Production	1954
Running Time	109:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (93:18)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	James Stewart Grace Kelly Wendell Corey Thelma Ritter Raymond Burr
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Franz Waxman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English German Dutch Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   I don't know about everyone else, but when it was announced that we were to get the boxed set Hitchcock Collection Volume 1, I was more than happy. After all, any collection containing the films of Alfred Hitchcock has a fair chance of including at least one of his true gems. And so it has proven. However, from the seven DVD set, there was but one new film that was going to get an individual release under the initial plans (thankfully reappraised) - and it is an absolute gem and a half: Rear Window. Exactly why is this film such a gem? After all, it is an exceedingly boring-sounding story, since it is based entirely upon one person in one room.

   Mind you, that one person is James Stewart and that one room looks out onto one of the largest and most intricate sets ever assembled for a film up to that time.

   The simple story here is of one L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart), a professional photographer currently recuperating from his latest exploits, which resulted in a broken leg. He is thus confined to a wheelchair and has been for six weeks, which is enough to drive any globetrotting photographer insane. All he has to do in his apartment is gaze across the courtyard into a neighbouring apartment block - which actually proves rather interesting. There he finds: Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy), a dancer prone to doing some exotic dances in minimal clothing; Miss Hearing Aid (Jesslyn Fax), a modern artist who seems to have some weird artistic ideas; a newly married couple (Rand Harper, Havis Davenport), who keep to themselves through the simple expediency of the young bride's insatiable sexual appetite; a couple (Sara Berner, Frank Casey) with a penchant for sleeping on the fire escape for heat relief; Miss Lonely Heart (Judith Evelyn) who does all sorts of things in her place; a songwriter with a serious lack of inspiration (Ross Bagdasarian); and a costume jewelry salesman, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and his wife Ann (Irene Winston).

   It really is interesting stuff that these ordinary people get up to, for it completely distracts Jeff, even when he is visited by his gorgeous girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly). Indeed, the fascination with the next door neighbours' lives is seriously jeopardising the likelihood of him ever marrying the lovely Lisa. Well, that and the fact that he thinks she is far too good for him and totally unsuited to the life of globetrotting and living out of a suitcase. Which of course totally mystifies his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), who rightly sees Lisa as the epitome of every man's dreams. Well, that and the fact that Lisa is madly in love with him.

   As the story slowly unfolds, it becomes apparent that skullduggery is afoot in the apartment block and even though confined to his room and his wheelchair, through his voyeuristic peeping Jeff has to prove that Lars may have actually murdered his dear wife Ann. He attempts to do so with minimal input from Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey), former war time pilot for Jeff and now one of New York's finest. Slowly but surely though, both Lisa and Stella come to agree with his point of view and jump in to assist Jeff. The rest is only divulged by watching the film!

   Rear Window is a rare film in that it displays excellence in just about every way. It begins with a fantastic screenplay that was enormously detailed and brought every necessary nuance to the subjective point of view that is the basis of the film. In fact, about the only problem I have with the entire screenplay is the fact that not even Hitch could convince me that the goings on next door hold more attraction than Grace Kelly... But even beyond a great story, you need even more excellence. That comes in spades with a terrific cast. James Stewart starred in quite a few films for Hitch for the simple reason that he was so darned good. He is here in what must have been a difficult role, just sitting around in a wheelchair with his leg stuck up in a cast. The quality of his performance is demonstrated in the nuances, and none is better than the look of relief as he relieves the itches caused by the plaster cast. The beautiful Grace Kelly had previously starred in Dial M For Murder (the preceding film to Rear Window, and she would appear in the immediate follow-up To Catch A Thief), but this is an infinitely better performance - although blessed with one of the most memorable introductions of all times. Grace Kelly really was one of the true beauties of the screen and this really demonstrates that in abundance. Thelma Ritter brought a wonderful comedic sense to her role as the nurse coming in to look after Jeff, and is perhaps the most memorable performance here. But across the entire film, there is a distinct ring of quality in the performances.

   Then, you have the whole thing set on one of the best sets ever created. The story of how it was created is fascinating, as detailed in the making-of featurette, and the way it looks on screen is superbly convincing. It completely reinforces the peeping tom/voyeuristic nature of what Jeff is doing, and takes us right inside the private lives of the characters inhabiting the apartment block. Then you add in the classic touches of Alfred Hitchcock, even down to some of the nice little comic touches that raise a grin here and there. The result is a gem of a film that even today manages to maintain a grip upon you. It is for these reasons that Rear Window is such a highly rated film - appearances in the American Film Institute Top 100 Films of the century and Internet Movie Database Top 250 Films (currently at number 14) amongst them.

   You want excellence in film? It is very difficult to go past one of the very best films from one of the very best directors of all time. If you want rubbish, then I respectfully suggest that you look elsewhere, amongst more recent films. Rear Window is a strongly recommended purchase.

Video

    It is important to understand that Rear Window, along with Rope, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo, is one of the films acquired by Universal from Paramount in the early 1980s. When these films finally got into the hands of the restoration team of Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, they were in pretty diabolical condition. Indeed, the damage that had been inflicted upon this film is quite staggering, to the extent that many sections were suffering almost terminal damage. The efforts required to get this film restored, briefly touched upon in the featurette, are quite amazing and the result is very good. However, this is by no means a perfect restoration and nor should we realistically expect a perfect restoration. In comparison with other restorations seen (notably Vertigo), this is perhaps not quite as good. Despite that, however, this is still a fine restoration in most respects. You might however be interested in the review of the Region 1 version of the film on The Big Picture DVD - it does explain some of the apparent inconsistencies in the transfer, which appear to have carried over to the Region 4 release.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. People with non-overscanning display devices will notice the slight mail-slotting required to achieve this aspect ratio (the preferred presentation method for 1.66:1 transfers).

    It may be forty seven years old, and may have been brought back from virtual film death, but what we have gotten in the way of a transfer is remarkably good. It is generally quite sharp throughout, with just a few odd lapses that are readily accepted given the age of the source material. Detail is very good throughout - perhaps too good, as some of the background looks distinctly unreal! There is certainly nothing missed in the whole narrow confines of the courtyard viewed from Jeff's small apartment. Shadow detail is perhaps the one place where the film shows it age - it is not the best, but certainly is no worse than would be expected for a film of this sort of vintage. Clarity was generally good throughout, but there is a degree of grain present throughout the film. It is noticeably poorer towards the start of the film, and improves quickly thereafter. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    One of the features of the restoration has been to bring the saturation level of the colours up, and the result is what I call the typical Technicolor look of the period - a tendency to oversaturation at times. Certainly, some of the building shots exhibit a slightly too saturated look in my view that is not quite natural, but overall this is a very believable transfer. It should be noted that there are inconsistencies in the colours (see the colour "pulsating" at around the 89:00 minute mark as an example), which are the result of source material degradation which the restoration process could not completely overcome. The earlier part of the film has a slight tendency towards oversaturation, but nothing really extreme and at times throughout the film there are some issues with the skin tones, but I would not call these at all distracting. There does not appear to be any problem with colour bleed in the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, apart from a loss of resolution in pan shots. I would suspect that these are more the result of deficiencies in the source material rather than mastering problems. Apart from some quite minor shimmer issues during the earlier parts of the film, there did not appear to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. There was one instance of some jitter around 47:19, but this is unlikely to have been caused by the telecine process as it is up-down, not side-to-side. Despite the extensive restoration, this is still not a completely clean transfer at all, although it has to be admitted that none of the remaining artefacts are really that distracting.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 93:18. This is just at a scene change, but due to the presence of music is just a little too obvious and disruptive to the film. I feel that the layer change could have been placed a little earlier without creating any such issue.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks are on offer on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack and a German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack. I listened only to the English soundtrack.

    The dialogue comes up reasonably clear and easy to understand in the transfer. There did not appear to be any serious audio sync problems with the transfer.

    The original musical score for the film comes from Franz Waxman, another of the great names from the pre- and post-war period. This is a really good score and deserving of an isolated music soundtrack, simply to demonstrate how the music propelled a film which lacks a lot of the sound effects trickery of most films. Silence is effectively used by Alfred Hitchcock once again, a fact that seems to be continually missed by modern directors.

    There is definitely nothing too memorable about the soundtrack on offer here. It does its job fairly well in conveying the dialogue, but just every so often you felt that that a nice surround encoded soundtrack would have done an even better job of conveying the feeling of the film. Even so, the quality of the original material still shines through and there is reasonably appropriate distance in the sound to emphasise the strong subjective point of view of Jeff. Thankfully free of any major distortions, this obviously has no contribution from the surround and bass channels.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A nice extras package has been put together by Universal for this release. I would STRONGLY advise you to watch the film before watching the supplemental material, for it does contain major plot spoilers.

Menu

    Whilst they are 16x9 enhanced, and the main menu does come with audio enhancement, the theming is only decent albeit consistent with the other new releases in the collection. Decent enough without being truly spectacular.

Featurette - Rear Window Ethics: The Making Of Rear Window (55:11)

    Featuring interviews with some of the crew members involved in the film, and with film makers like Peter Bogdanovich and Curtis Hanson, this recent effort (made last year) is quite an interesting voyage through the making of the film. It also contains some audio bites from an interview with Alfred Hitchcock himself, which are suitably disparaging at times and indicate the rather dry sense of humour of the man. The featurette concludes with a look at the restoration process, including some before and after comparisons that to my mind indicate a much more distinct difference that is actually the case with the after comparisons. Presented in a Full Frame format, with film excerpts at their correct ratio, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It is a very good featurette overall and well worth indulging in after watching the film.

Featurette - Screenwriter John Michael Hayes On Rear Window (13:11)

    This is a somewhat different perspective upon the film and really was deserving of far greater length than it was given. He has some interesting observations to make and overall this was well worth the effort of watching. It too is presented in a Full Frame format, with film excerpts at their correct ratio, is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Gallery - Art

    Comprising 45 stills of publicity and behind-the-scenes photographs together with poster work for the film, they are all unannotated. Whilst decent enough quality, a bit of indication as to what we are looking at would not have gone astray. It would also have helped if some of the posters were not slightly cropped in the presentation. The quality is quite excellent as befits its recent origin.

Trailer - Trailer Compilation (6:14)

    Narrated by James Stewart, this is an extended promotional effort for the five films acquired from Paramount by Universal, duly restored and reissued in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, it is blessed with some oversaturation of the red credits, as well as some noticeable dot crawl. The presentation is in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The quality is pretty good overall.

Theatrical Trailer (2:40)

    Another slightly different approach to promotion of an Alfred Hitchcock film, albeit for the re-release of the film in 1962, it really is showing its age somewhat. As such, it provides a good indication of what the unrestored film would have generally looked like, with its slightly washed-out colours. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

    The Region 1 version misses out on:

• Nothing

    The Region 4 version misses out on:

• Production Notes
• Biographies - Cast and Crew
• DVD-ROM features

    Unless you desperately need the DVD-ROM features, there is nothing really different between the two versions, and judging upon the reviews sighted there is a degree of similarity in the transfers. Probably call this one even.

    Rear Window is one of Alfred Hitchcock's crowning achievements from his last great creative period. Given the apparently dreadful state of the film prior to restoration, it is doubtful that it has looked this good in years. Despite the odd blemishes here and there, this is overall a quite decent transfer in every respect and the presentation has been enhanced by some quality extras that add significantly to the enjoyment and understanding of this great film. If you do not want to extend to the full seven DVD collection, then you should certainly be adding this single DVD to your collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Trouble with Harry (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Black Comedy	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-(32:07) Gallery-Art Trailer-Trailer Compilation (6:14) Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:26) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	95:18
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (77:58)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Edmund Gwenn John Forsythe Shirley MacLaine Mildred Natwick Mildred Dunnock Jerry Mathers Royal Dano
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bernard Herrmann

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English German Dutch Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   The trouble with Harry is that he is dead. Now that would not be too much of an issue except that he is discovered out in the woods by Captain Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), who has been out doing a spot of slightly illegal shooting. Since he was shooting in the woods and Harry Worp (Philip Treux) appears to have been shot, Captain Wiles makes the rather reasonable assumption that one of his three rather wild shots must have killed Harry. Since there seems to be no one around, he decides to do the honourable thing and bury the poor deceased Harry. However, before he can do so, the isolated spot in the woods suddenly becomes busier than Grand Central Station. Amongst the visitors are virtually the entire population of the small village of Highwater: young Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers) who runs off to tell his mother, local spinster Miss Ivy Gravely (Mildred Natwick) and Arnie's mother Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine), plus eventually Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe), the local artist. The latter two hold the key to the story but they aren't too keen to reveal them and indeed both are almost thrilled that Captain Wiles intends to bury the deceased. Indeed, Miss Gravely is so happy, she invites Captain Wiles to afternoon tea as the first man to break the no-man barrier at her home. Slowly but surely, the full story is revealed but it still centres around the poor deceased Harry, who spends the day being buried and unburied.

   This is a nicely done little story, with some delightful pieces of comedy both verbal and visual. The only slight downer is the handling of the sudden romantic twinge in the story - it was simply not really there and then suddenly there as the centre of the film.

    This story was brought to life by a very good cast. Edmund Gwenn is terrific as the poor suffering Captain Wiles, who suddenly acquires a lifetime of grave digging experience in a single day. He provides a sparkling performance that swings across a range of emotions with delightful ease. Matching his performance is a great one from Mildred Natwick, the oh-so-grateful spinster. Shirley MacLaine, an actress I have little time for, is actually quite decent here and is very aptly cast, whilst John Forsythe is terribly reliable as the artist. The whole thing was well-stirred by Alfred Hitchcock, proving that he was not just a master of one genre. He had a real deft touch here and I would hazard a guess that the maestro's famed sense of humour found much of its way into this film!

   This really is a terrific film and one that I believe is sadly underrated. I would rank it far superior to say Shadow Of A Doubt, but then again my views as far as The Hitchcock Collection Volume One is concerned are somewhat at variance to those expressed by others it seems. I really wish that this film was given a separate release, for it would enable people who did not want the whole collection to be able to obtain this very worthy comedy.

Video

    This is a nicely sharp transfer in general with just a few odd lapses to soft focus, not entirely unconnected with the presence of Shirley MacLaine on-screen it seems. This is another transfer where detail is hampered a little by some scenes having little depth in the background and looking a little false, but the on-location shots look really good. Overall though, this is a nicely detailed film that holds up better in comparison to most of the others in the collection. Shadow detail goes somewhat awry during the dusk/night scenes when they are burying Harry for some reason, as in the featurette they come across much lighter and more detailed in tone. However, apart from that sequence there is nothing much wrong with the shadow detail. Grain was not an issue in the transfer, and this is a pretty clear transfer. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer. Overall, I was quite impressed with this transfer, visually the best I think of the efforts in this collection.

    After a couple of black and white films, it is very pleasing to return to this rather nice colour transfer. Unusually for a Technicolor film of this era, the colours are if anything just a little undersaturated, which I find a rather pleasant change. This especially considering that any oversaturation was going to turn those lovely Vermont autumn colours into overly garish colours that would have looked pretty terrible. So with the slight undersaturation, we end up with a rather nice looking transfer that is colourful without being especially vibrant, and arguably the best looking of all the transfers in this collection. There is nothing much approaching oversaturation here at all, and colour bleed was not an issue. The only real point of note is that the exterior shots were done in Vermont, but they then moved to California and did most of the scenes involving the burying of Harry on a set. You will notice that there is a slight difference in colour as a result, but nothing really huge.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. The did not appear to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. Whilst broadly speaking this is a relatively clean transfer, there are nonetheless a few noticeable dirt marks to be found here.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 77:58. It is perfect! Right bang in the middle of a black scene change, with no audio intrusion to highlight what is for all intents and purposes an almost undetectable layer change. I suppose after all the practice they had, they were bound to get one spot-on in the collection.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue comes up well in the transfer and is easy to understand. There did not appear to be any serious audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The original music score for the film comes from Bernard Herrmann, and it is a good one indeed. Featuring some scatty sounding music that superbly supports the quirky, black comedy, this is deserving of an isolated music score. The film would not have been anywhere near as good without the music score.

    Rather boringly, this is again up to the standard of the soundtracks set by the other DVDs in the box set and nothing at all to complain about. A rather nice mono sound is offered here, quite a relaxed sounding effort that is wonderfully conducive for the witty dialogue on offer. This is free of any distortions or other blemishes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - The Trouble With Harry Isn't Over (32:07)

Gallery - Art

Trailer - Trailer Compilation (6:14)

Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

• Trailer compilation

• Nothing

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Man Who Knew Too Much (Universal) (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-(34:18) Gallery-Art Trailer-Trailer Compilation (6:14) Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:08) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	114:55 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (82:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	James Stewart Doris Day Brenda de Banzie Ralph Truman Bernard Miles
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bernard Herrmann

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Varies	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English German Dutch Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   And it is yet another return to that favourite theme of Alfred Hitchcock - the ordinary man put in extraordinary circumstances. Hitch might have flogged this theme to death, but he did it so much better than anyone else ever has that you never really tire of seeing it, time after time after time...

   The cast is headed by Alfred Hitchcock's quintessential ordinary man of an actor, James Stewart. This time he plays Dr Ben McKenna, a surgeon from Indianapolis, Indiana who is taking a vacation side-trip with his wife Josephine "Jo" (Doris Day), former Broadway singer Jo Conway, and son Henry "Hank" (Christopher Olsen) to Morocco and in particular Marrakech. The bus ride down to this famous town is highlighted by Hank inadvertently tearing the veil off a woman, thus enraging her husband. This provides a meeting with Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin), a mysterious man who aids them in their argument with the enraged husband, and befriends the McKennas. Whilst in Marrakech, the McKennas arrange to have drinks and dinner with Mr Bernard, but he makes an unexpected exit, forcing them to the restaurant alone, where they just so happen to befriend an English couple, Lucy Drayton (Brenda de Banzie) and her husband (Bernard Miles). After a pleasant evening highlighted by Mr Bernard turning up at the same restaurant with a woman, the McKennas and the Draytons agree to join each other for a wander around the famed markets on the morrow. Whilst enjoying the sights and sounds of the markets next day, they are eventually accosted by Mr Bernard who just so happens to have a knife in his back. As he dies, he whispers something to Ben McKenna and instantly the McKennas are plunged into an extraordinary situation.

   It all involves a kidnapping, the disappearance of the Draytons and a desperate flight back to London to save Hank. And nothing further shall be revealed.

   It is perhaps a bit unfortunate that this film was watched straight after one of the maestro's true gems in Rear Window, for the inevitable comparisons are decidedly not in favour of The Man Who Knew Too Much. It is also perhaps a response to the 1934 version of the film, which does tend to give some plot hints away, but the 1956 version simply does not seem a particularly great film. A bad sign for any film is the number of times you hit the time remaining button whilst watching it: this one copped that fate four times. Whilst Hitch might have liked the treatment, frankly I find it a little laboured and it could have done with some judicious pruning here and there in my view without really destroying any of the suspense that might actually be here. By anyone else's standards, this is a good film, but by Hitch's standards I frankly find it a little average. And it is also a fact that Hitch should have told Paramount where to go when they insisted upon a song for Doris Day to sing. Okay, it is no average song, being Que Sera, Sera (which copped an Oscar for best song in 1956), but an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with a hit song? Mon dieu!

   The ever reliable James Stewart does his usual decent job, but this certainly is no performance in the league of that in Rear Window. Whilst not being especially memorable in any way, there is nothing really disappointing about the performance. The pairing with Doris Day is also not quite that with Grace Kelly, and in some ways the casting of Doris Day seemed an odd choice. At the time, she was almost exclusively known as a singer, and it must have been a bit risky to cast her in what was quite a dramatic role. She certainly ended up doing a decent enough job though. The rest of the cast were really only there to make up the numbers and that they did without much trouble. The featurette reveals that this was the first occasion that many had seen Alfred Hitchcock working in something other than a suit. Not only was he a bit relaxed in his choice of clothing in the Moroccan heat it seems, but that relaxation extended just a little to his direction. In hindsight, this might actually have worked in favour of the film, for the slight relaxation allowed perhaps a more natural style to the film.

   This is not amongst the true gems of Alfred Hitchcock's output, and whilst in my personal view is something of a disappointment, it remains a good film by everyone else's standards. Indeed, many a filmmaker alive today could only dream of being able to attain this sort of film-making ability.

Video

    The transfer is generally quite sharp throughout, with little in the way of lapses. Even those that are present are quite acceptable given the age of the source material. Detail is a little problematic throughout: many of the shots, especially in Marrakech, give the distinct impression of being shot against blue screen. The background is really quite flat-looking and lacking in any serious depth to the image. It takes just a little getting used to, as it is almost certain that the scenes were shot live action. Other than that, the detail is quite acceptable. Shadow detail is again a place where the film shows it age - it is quite good but certainly not good enough to bear comparison with more recent films. There is a consistent presence of grain in the transfer, but nothing that is especially distracting. As a result clarity is not quite as good as perhaps it could be. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    The colours on offer here are very evocative of the locations, which means that those in Marrakech have a suitably dusty look to them. Overall, the colours are quite well saturated and entirely believable in the the respective colourscapes of both Marrakech and London. There are just a few minor inconsistencies in the colours as a result of source material degradation. There does not appear to be any issue with oversaturation or colour bleed in the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. The film-to-video artefacts in the transfer comprise some relatively minor aliasing at times (none of which is that noticeable), plus some cross colouration in the suit worn by James Stewart early on (2:10, 8:04 and 8:22 being the worst examples). There is also some evidence of telecine wobble around the 88:35 mark but this is only mildly noticeable. There were quite a treasure trove of film artefacts on offer in the transfer, but nothing that was especially large so nothing that was especially distracting. There was a sequence around the 42:00 minute mark which is blighted with some spots that would appear to be residual blemishes of mildew.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 80:22. The immediate reaction to this one was appalling and even after watching it several times, I can think of no better way of describing it. It comes mid-scene as Doris Day is walking back down the street, boom she stops and then starts again. There would have to have been many places where the layer change could have been better hidden.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue comes up reasonably clear and easy to understand in the transfer. There did not appear to be any serious audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The original music score for the film comes from Bernard Herrmann, who also gets the rare treat for a composer of appearing in the film. Unusually, since the music he conducts is the pivotal scene of the film, he elected to stick with a reorchestration of the piece of music from the original film. However, his own score is actually quite excellent and provides an effective contribution to the film.

    There is nothing terrific about the soundtrack on offer here. It does its job fairly well but you do on the whole miss the additional oomph of some surround encoding or even some bass channel support. The quality of the original material is quite possibly not the best, and so the soundstage here is perhaps not the best, being quite central as it should be, but it is by no means the worst mono soundtrack that I have ever heard. It is free of any serious distortion, which is perhaps the most important point here.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - The Making Of The Man Who Knew Too Much (34:18)

Gallery - Art (4:16)

Trailer - Trailer Compilation (6:14)

Theatrical Trailer (2:08)

• Trailer compilation

• Production Notes
• Biographies - Cast and Crew
• Additional theatrical trailer

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Psycho (1960)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Production Notes Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, Dolby Digital 1.0 Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1960
Running Time	103:59
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alfred Hitchcock
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Anthony Perkins Vera Miles John Gavin Martin Balsam John McIntire Janet Leigh
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bernard Herrmann

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Greek	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a struggling assistant in a real estate agency. She has a lover, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), who is in debt to his ex-wife. Once his debt is cleared, he intends to marry Marion. Marion's boss makes a big real estate sale, which the purchaser settles in cash, all $40,000 worth. Marion is entrusted with the task of taking this hefty sum of cash to the bank (in the remake, the cash amount has multiplied by a factor of 10), but temptation proves to be too much and she heads for Sam's residence. Along the way, she stops at the Bates Motel, run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), which is where things go from bad to worse.

    How do the two versions compare? Well, for starters, the original is genuinely edge-of-your-seat thrilling whereas the remake is rather dull. This is despite the two versions being shot-for-shot identical. There is something about the original that is simply far more convincing, not the least of which is the characterizations of the principal players, which simply seemed wrong in the remake. The fact that the original is black-and-white adds to the tension markedly. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I had not seen the original version of this movie until I viewed this disc - the first time I saw this movie was last month when I reviewed the remake.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was reasonably sharp and clear most of the time, with a small number of scenes exhibiting some film grain. Shadow detail was reasonable in the brightly lit shots, but lacking in the lower-lit shots. There was no low level noise in the transfer.

    The film is black-and-white, so no comments can be made about the colours.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. There was some image wobble present, especially early on in the movie, but I suspect that this was on the original print rather than something that was an issue with the transfer. In regards to film artefacts, there were some nicks and scratches that were visible at times, but they remained perfectly acceptable for a transfer of this vintage. Indeed, I was expecting to see more artefacts than were actually present. The opening logo and credits exhibited lots of film artefacts, but this settled down as the film proper began.

    English, French and Greek subtitles are available on this disc, and are selectable at all times. The packaging incorrectly states that the only subtitles on this disc are English.

Audio

    Dialogue was relatively clear and easy to understand given the compressed and frequency-limited monaural nature of this soundtrack. Significant hiss intruded into the dialogue at times.

    Audio sync was somewhat problematic with this disc. Early on, the sync wandered in and out, and then settled down for the majority of the movie until the very end, when the psychiatrist's speech was again significantly out of sync. This sync problem was the same on both my DVD player (Pioneer DV-505) and on my DVD-ROM setup (Panasonic SR-8583 and PowerDVD 2.0), so it is inherent in the disc. It is my belief that this is most likely inherent in the original print of the movie, but I would need to compare this version of the disc to the Region 1 version of this disc and thence to the movie to confirm that this is not a mastering error.

    The score by Bernard Herrmann is excellently suited to the on-screen action. The frequently strident and jarring strings add enormous tension to the proceedings.

    The surround channels were not used.

    The .1 channel was not used.

Menu

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

Theatrical Trailer

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• 16x9 Enhancement

• Making-Of Documentary (90 mins)
• Five additional trailers for the movie
• Newsreel footage
• Multiple photo galleries
• Storyboards

    The video quality is acceptable given the vintage of the movie.

    The audio quality is poor, and sync is a problem.

    The extras are good but limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall