Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection (1954)

Though he was an undisputed genius of the cinema, not everyone needs the complete Hitchcock features. If you're a keen fan, they're available on the 15-disc Masterpiece, nine-disc Signature, and eight-disc Premiere Collections, which will run you between $50 and $100 per box. But many Hitchcock lovers recall the five films on this reasonably-priced five-DVD set most fondly, and they are without question among his finest achievements, all of them produced in Hollywood between 1954 and 1963.

Presented here in digitally restored, crisply remastered editions with a few interesting extras and options, they will do nicely for most folks (though not for the angry Blu-Ray aficionados who've given single-star ratings to this excellent set; this may come as a shock to them, but some people who are just discovering Hitch have ordinary DVD players and 32-inch TVs and are not planning to spend thousands to upgrade their collections or their equipment).

Following is a brief review of each film in this set.

Rear Window: Jimmy Stewart is a housebound photographer who thinks he's witnessed a neighbor (Raymond Burr) commit a murder. He enlists his girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly, to investigate, and they're both drawn deeper and deeper into hotter and hotter water. A master class in the art of suspense.

Vertigo: Stewart plays a detective haunted by loss, while Kim Novak portrays two women, one of whom is a doppelganger of the other. Is she a twin or a ghost? This is a mysterious, compelling tale of obsession, madness, and death, with one of the most brilliant climaxes in the history of film.

North by Northwest: Cary Grant is an innocent man on the run in this gripping spy thriller. Eva Marie Saint plays his love interest and James Mason his nemesis. The film is propelled by renowned set pieces--a stabbing at the UN, a chase by a crop duster, and a literal cliffhanger atop Mount Rushmore.

Psycho: An embezzler played by Janet Leigh meets Anthony Perkins, a motel manager with maternal issues, in one of most influential horror movies ever made. "Psycho" is filled with twists that don't just shock; they chill you to the bone. You may want a hot shower after this one (or maybe not).

The Birds: Tippi Hedren follows Rod Taylor to a small town where birds suddenly start terrorizing the inhabitants. We never learn why; in fact, the randomness and lack of reason are among the most frightening things about the film. A terrific movie and a fitting conclusion to this must-see collection.

This DVD box set is Beautiful, Great Art work! It is nice to see that this came with every movie on its own disk. Many company's are putting 2-3 movies on one disk. Also for never owning any of these movies there are many extras. I see that people are wanting it on Blue which I do not buy but I am sure it will come out eventually. I own about 12 Box sets and this is the nicest one I have bought and for 17 Dollars it was A steal.

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These films are classics and it's about time that they have released these four movies in a single pack, i have been waiting for these to come out for a while now. Although I already have Psycho on DVD, I would thoroughly enjoy having these movies together in one package. Any body who appreciates film would understand that we are rating the product on DVD, those who have blu-ray complaints should take it out towards Universal or WB. Ragging on his for it's lack of overrated blu-ray capabilities is like beating up a man who didn't do anything wrong. It remains pointless. So please, check out these films if you haven't even seen them (yes i do know some people who actually haven't seen these movies yet), or especially if you don't own these movies yet! They are amazingly well crafted pieces of art!

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I'll add my voice to the chorus calling this set a pointless cash-in. These recycled transfers are really out-of-date in light of recent high-def restorations of some of these films. For example, Psycho here is presented in the same master as the Masterpiece Collection, not the superior one from the later special edition. And the extras added to that release are not included here. Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Birds are presented with a similar lack of concern here.

Universal has a history of not giving viewers the best releases of the Hitchcock films they own. When they reissued Vertigo with better picture quality in their Legacy Series, they didn't fix the existing botched color, and they dropped the original mono track, including only the 1996 soundtrack with all the doctored foley work/sound effects. Another example is The Man Who Knew Too Much in the Masterpiece collection, which had inferior picture quality to Universal's earlier DVD of the film. More recently, they release just Psycho on Blu, and then a year later we get this.

It seems to me that anyone wanting to own Hitchcock films on DVD would either want to pick and choose favorites from among the standalone releases or, for those with a serious interest in Hitchcock's work, get the whole Masterpiece Collection -not have some arbitrary choice of "Essentials" made for them, and not even a great bargain to boot. The Masterpiece Collection has often been priced only slightly higher than the SRP of this "Essentials Collection," and it has 15 discs compared to this set's 5.

Hopefully the recent announcement of Notorious and Rebecca on Blu from Fox (and recent Blu of The Lady Vanishes) will prod Universal to get with the program -and to get the technical quality up to par, as with their excellent Psycho disc.

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Universal has previously released Psycho, US and Europe, cut : when Arbogast the detective is stabbed down the staircase, the knife when he is lying on his back goes down once (cut versions) or three times (Europe TV). How many times here ?

About North by Northwest, Warner released it on dvds and bluray US and Europe, image cut on 3 sides : the screen captures on dvdbeaver site of Mr Hitchcock stopped at the bus door, show 1 him cut at ankles, 2 the number of windows facing the camera seen above the bus are 3, 3 on right the number painted in front of the bus is 293 and a spot, while recorded from TCM in France 1 Mr Hitchcock is seen full including shoes and still pedestrian walk under him, 2 there are 4 (four) windows facing the camera above the bus, 3 the number painted on the bus is 2930 with last digit almost complete. Warner owns Tcm but never released the full image version, cutting it on 3 sides!

Finally, about Read Window, the Universal dvd for Europe had for all languages except English the sound a bit late, and at chapter 21 when James Stewart speaks alone looking at the two women down for the flowers in the yard, there are a few seconds between his lips move and the words arriving : it this fixed at last ?

It is a pity in some companies the people in "charge", still "charge" the price of dvds and bluray without correcting their mistakes.

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