Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection: which movies live up to the title?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by mdekoning, Jan 7, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I found two out of the three. The following scene opens with my favorite line. Then see if you can spot the kid prematurely sticking his fingers in his ears.

     
  2. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
  3. Cryptical17

    Cryptical17 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Rope is my favorite Hitchcock. Although that’s one movie I always wished we got more back story. I found Brandon and Philip and interesting pair. What was their life like before the day of the murder? How did they get such a beautiful apartment? What was Brandon’s occupation? Unfortunately you can’t get it all from a 90 minute movie.
     
  4. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I had to leech this snippet out of "Shadow of a Doubt." He's so nasty. I know Hitch loved this bit of dialog. No one has even watched it on youtube. No wonder Universal hasn't made me pull it down. Subscribing would be appreciated

     
  5. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Phillip Walch likes this.
  6. Phillip Walch

    Phillip Walch Forum Resident

    I think this is just as Amazon had run out of stock so it went to the next price. It will be back in stock next week I bet.
     
    misterjones likes this.
  7. Robur

    Robur Paperback Writer

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Behold, I got the House of Hitchcock yesterday. Amazon.com, 65.99 - and they sent me the 18 movie version from the UK (region free), bless their hearts.

    The box even arrived without any damages - these days, I unpack Amazon packages with a sense of foreboding versus joy because of that.
     
  8. Phillip Walch

    Phillip Walch Forum Resident

    Great result on all fronts :D
     
    Robur and longdist01 like this.
  9. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Excellent buy! I decided to get the 15-disc Blu-ray set for $50.
     
    Robur and longdist01 like this.
  10. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Very true. I feel that way regarding music and video purchases from everywhere now. It has cut into my purchasing, and I could see it ending it. But maybe that’s a good thing.
     
  11. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    plan to watch Rear Window again on Blu-Ray tonight!
     
    misterjones and Jazzmonkie like this.
  12. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    In the not too distant future, I will have 15 Hitchcock movies on Blu-ray. If the chains loosen up a bit, I'll have access to more at the library (some Blu-ray, some not) and maybe a box of oldies. The question is, where to start? I usually like to watch stuff in chronological order, but I don't think I'll do that in this case.
     
  13. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Anyone have any preferences regarding collections of his earlier, British films? I don't think these are (or maybe even need to be) on Blu-ray. There's this:

    [​IMG]
    And there are other Blu-ray sets that would fill in some of the gaps . . . if they weren't so expensive!
     
  14. ando here

    ando here Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Pole
    The taut Shadow of a Doubt is the closest thing to masterpiece in my eyes. And, although it has perversity in it, it doesn't feel perverse, unlike most The Master's oeuvre.

    A thanks. Got something good to watch tonight (though I don't believe Bernard Hermann did this score)!

     
    Last edited: May 22, 2020
    Jazzmonkie likes this.
  15. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    This website takes a dim view of St. Clair releases - Category:Released by St. Clair Vision - The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki

    I suspect there might not be a substantial (10-20 flms) quality release of Hitchcock's pre-war films.
     
  16. Deja Doh

    Deja Doh QUARANTINED

    Location:
    South Pasadena, CA
    Hitchcock is interesting to watch. Not my favorite director, but top 10.
    My 10 favorite Hitchcock's films are:

    Notorious
    North By Northwest
    Suspicion
    Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    Psycho
    The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 version vs 1934)
    To Catch A Thief
    Saboteur
    Strangers On a Train
    The Birds

    My preference in movies is characters and their relationships.
     
  17. Phillip Walch

    Phillip Walch Forum Resident

    Don't touch that 6 DVD set, please, I beg you haha. It will not aid in any enjoyment of the movies.

    For the US folks here take a look at this list Alfred Hitchcock on Blu-ray - Blu-ray Forum by MikeyHitchFan. It will give you all the info you need on bluray releases.
     
    misterjones likes this.
  18. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Excellent list. I think I will use it to create my own list of what’s available at the library here. I don’t think I would buy any of them individually because of the cost. It’s too bad there aren’t quality sets (Blu-ray or otherwise) of the older pictures like there are of the newer films. I guess there isn’t as much interest in the older stuff. The multi-disc set being sold now sounds like junk.
     
    CusBlues and Phillip Walch like this.
  19. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Between the 15-disc Masterpiece Collection (Blu-Ray) and what's available at the library (31 movies, including eight Kino and ten Criterion releases), there remain only seven films. Only one of the library copies I don't have is Blu-ray, however.
     
  20. Yeah Thar’s my favorite gaffe. Hitch realized most folks wouldn’t notice So went with it.
     
  21. Thar’s not a bad list.
     
  22. Great scene. I think Cotten gets the short stick from Simon Callow in his Welles bio. He stated that Cotten was a good actor but at his best, he was pretty great.
     
    Jazzmonkie likes this.
  23. It’s back to 79.99
     
  24. Sordel

    Sordel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    Those are my two personal favourites: both are inside my current top ten favourite films of all time. But I think I can find some room for more Hitchcock films on a list of masterpieces:
    • Shadow of a Doubt: Hitchcock's favourite of his own films also has one of the best scripts, and his contains most effective portrait of a psychopath, played by Joseph Cotten. Hold it up to the light the right way and this movie is the forerunner to Halloween.
    • Rear Window: one of my wife's favourite films and (aside from Lifeboat and Rope) probably Hitchcock's most high concept film. It's a film that you can “say a lot about” but also a hugely effective thriller.
    • Dial M For Murder: film fans dislike it for Grace Kelly's central performance and “just” being a filmed play, but it's a great play filmed well, and the performances from Ray Milland and John Williams are a treat.
    • Vertigo: not a film that I much care for personally, and I think that the final scene is very silly indeed, but there's classic misdirection in the transition between the first and second halves of the film and too many critics have called it a masterpiece for it to be left off any list.
    • Psycho: has lost a lot of its impact with repeated viewing but there aren't many low-budget shockers with a stronger claim to being great art.
    Maybe worth adding that there are a lot of Hitchcock movies that I wouldn't class among his masterpieces and I would take - any day of the week - over the masterpieces of lesser directors. e.g. Suspicion, The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, the original Man Who Knew Too Much, Spellbound, Foreign Correspondent.
     
    Jazzmonkie and fr in sc like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine