MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Ten early feature films from master director Alfred Hitchcock are collected in this budget-priced box set. Alfred Hitchcock -- The Master of Suspense includes the pictures Young and Innocent, Blackmail, Juno and the Paycock, Rich and Strange, The Ring, The Lodger, Secret Agent, The Lady Vanishes, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), and Sabotage. All ten movies have been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Several of the films are silent with musical accompaniments, while the others feature English dialogue with no multiple language options. All ten films have been given re-channeled audio tracks in Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, though they were all originally recorded and mixed in mono. Young and Innocent and The Man Who Knew Too Much are both paired with bonus short subjects, while the other titles feature no bonus materials. Please note that all ten movies are currently in the public domain, and are available from several different distributors. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 5
• Screen: Black and White
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Features:
  • Digitally remastered in virtual 5.1
  • Bonus short features
  • Interactive menus
  • Scene access

AWARDS

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1935

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Director - 1938 (Alfred Hitchcock)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2004

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Anny Ondra - Alice White
       Derrick de Marney - Robert Tisdall
       Charles Paton - Mr. White
       Betty Amann - The Princess
       Cecil Parker - Eric Todhunter
       Cyril Ritchard - The Artist
       Charles Carson - "R"
       Basil Radford - Erica's Uncle
       Basil Radford - Charter
       D.A. Clarke - Smith - Insp. Binstead
       Philip Leaver - Signor Doppo
       Catherine Lacey - The Nun
       Josephine Wilson - Mme. Kummer
       Googie Withers - Blanche
       Sally Stewart - Julie
       Albert Chevalier

• Director:

  Alfred Hitchcock

• Producer:

  Edward Black, John Maxwell, Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu

• Screenwriter:

  Edwin Greenwood, Gerald Savory, Alma Reville, Charles Bennett

• Book Author:

  Josephine Tey

• Screenwriter:

  Alfred Hitchcock, Benn Wolfe Levy, Michael Powell

• Play Author:

  Sean O'Casey

• Screenwriter:

  Val Valentine

• Book Author:

  Marie Belloc Lowndes

• Screenwriter:

  Ian Hay

• Book Author:

  W. Somerset Maugham

• Screenwriter:

  Jesse Lasky, Jr.

• Play Author:

  Campbell Dixon

• Screenwriter:

  Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder

• Book Author:

  Ethel Lina White

• Screenwriter:

  D.B. Wyndham-Lewis, A.R. Rawlinson, Emlyn Williams, E.V.H. Emmett, Helen Simpson, Campbell Dixon

• Book Author:

  Joseph Conrad

• Cinematographer:

  Bernard Knowles, Jack Cox, John Cox, Charles Martin, John J. Cox, Giovanni Ventimiglia, Curt Courant

• Composer (Music Score):

  Louis Levy, John Hubert Bath, John Reynders, Henry Stafford

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  John Reynders

• Composer (Music Score):

  Hal Dolphe

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Louis Levy

• Composer (Music Score):

  Arthur Benjamin

• Editor:

  Charles Frend, Emile de Ruelle, Winifred Cooper, Rene Marrison, Alfred Roome, R.E. Dearing, Hugh Stewart

• Production Designer:

  Albert Jullion

• Art Director:

  Alfred Junge, Norman J. Arnold, C. Wilfred Arnold, Frank Mills, Alexander Vetchinsky, Peter Proud

• Associate Producer:

  Ivor Montagu

• Set Designer:

  Norman J. Arnold, Wilfred C. Arnold, C. Wilfred Arnold, Albert Jullion, Otto Werndorff, Maurice Carter, Alexander Vetchinsky, Alfred Junge, Peter Proud

• Costume Designer:

  Marianne, Joe Strassner

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Dallas Bower

• Special Effects:

  Jack Whitehead

• First Assistant Director:

  Frank Mills

• Intertitle Writer:

  Ivor Montagu

• Short Story Author:

  Dale Collins

• Assistant Director:

  Roy Ward Baker

• Scenic Artist:

  Albert J. Whitlock

• Continuity:

  Alma Reville

• Recording:

  Sydney Wiles

REVIEWS:

• Alfred Hitchcock relished in playing off of his audience's suspicions, and this early suspense film accomplishes just that. Made when Europe was on the verge of war, Sabotage focuses on Mr. Verloc, the incarnation of the heavily accented neighbor who may not be as benign as he seems. This xenophobic approach works to the film's advantage, as the sight of Verloc and his shadowy associates plotting the destruction of London surely must have grabbed English audiences in 1936. Hitchcock's fascination with espionage and crime is evident, as always, especially in the scene where Verloc meets his contact in the aquarium. Another favorite Hitchcock element present is having a wife slowly come to distrust and fear her husband. Sylvia Sidney plays this transformation beautifully. In the early scenes she is warm and friendly, but as the film progresses, she begins to tighten up, and in the final scenes, her hatred toward Verloc is utterly convincing. As for Oscar Homolka, from the start it's obvious he's up to something, but he is convincing as a small cog in a much larger wheel, a pathetic man who is overwhelmed by the pressures imposed upon him. But the centerpiece of the film is the nerve-racking journey of Mrs. Verloc's younger brother Steve, as he travels through London unaware that the reel can he carries contains a bomb. The bomb, of course, is set to a timer, and each delay adds increasing tension as the hour of detonation approaches. The sequence is pure Hitchcock, as there is nothing more suspenseful than to see an innocent in danger. Sabotage may be a couple of notches below The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, but it is still classic Hitchcock. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, Rovi
• Blackmail is Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie, and not a bad effort at all. The whole film was almost completed, when sound came in and revolutionized the industry; Hitchcock was forced to re-shoot some sequences and add others to make the film a mostly-talking film, something like Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer (1927). Hitchcock's leading lady, Anny Ondra, had a very thick continental accent, not a problem for a silent film, but a real liability for a talkie. Hitchcock overcame the problem by having another actress speak the lines on-stage, offscreen, while Ondra simply mouthed them for the camera. Since dubbing was unknown at the time, this was the only method; then, too, the camera was confined to a soundproof shooting booth, and so the mobility of Hitchcock's camera is severely limited. During one long sequence, Cyril Ritchard as Crewe, the artist, sits down and plays a piano solo seemingly to keep the audience interested, but the film ends with a thrilling chase through the British Museum (mostly accomplished using miniatures, and the Schufftan Process, which allowed full-scale backgrounds to be reelected into the lens of the camera through a series of mirrors). It's interesting to see how Hitchcock deals with sound, when it was clearly thrust upon him at the last minute, and while not a front-rank Hitchcock, it is still a remarkable historical document of an artist finding his way through a medium that has suddenly been transformed by advancing technology. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, Rovi
• Deception is the order of the day in this solid espionage thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock. Based on Somerset Maugham's adventure stories and a play by Campbell Nixon, Secret Agent is deceptive in every way: characters hide their true intentions, beautiful locations mask the sinister deeds that happen in them, even the film's title is tricky since the story is about several agents rather than just one. All of this duplicity helps develop the suspense normally associated with Hitchcock's films, but Secret Agent falls a bit short of becoming one of the director's classics. The picture's primary shortcomings lie with the plot: John Gielgud is a spy whose assignment is to find and kill an enemy spy in Switzerland. The fact that the hero of the film is told to kill rather than save someone or steal something is a dark, edgy move, but it weakens the viewer's connection to Gielgud's character. In one of the most chilling sequences, Gielgud and Peter Lorre carry out the assassination only to discover that they've killed an innocent man. To a lesser degree, the cast is also a weakness. While the performances are decent, Gielgud, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young seem out of place in a Hitchcock film. Lorre is the bright, shining star, in the role of a Mexican general whose twisted black humor matches his murderous tactics. Lorre's character is neither a Mexican nor a general, but he steals the show. The most exciting sequence is the climax, in which the real spy is revealed amidst gunplay and a terrific train crash. Hitchcock had two slightly different endings prepared for the film, but neither was used. The director appears as a mourner during the fake funeral that opens the film. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• Described by Alfred Hitchcock himself as the "first true Hitchcock film," The Lodger is a suspenseful Jack-the-Ripper tale that features one of the master's most familiar themes: an innocent man who is blamed for a crime. In the case of this 1926 silent about a killer who targets blondes, that man is a mysterious lodger in a London apartment house played by British screen star Ivor Novello. The actor does a terrific job of casting suspicion on himself by alternating between being sinister and sincere. The plot is similar to that of 1941's Suspicion, but unlike the weak ending of that Hitchcock classic, The Lodger's conclusion is stunning: Novello being chased across town by an angry lynch mob that believes he is the killer. In only his third film, Hitchcock's creative style and willingness to innovate are already apparent. The story is carried entirely by its images, with only a minimal number of title cards used for dialogue. The director shot the opening scene as a combination of images that set up the entire plot and convey the terror of the situation, all with only a few words. In another chilling scene that shows the fright of the building's owners as they see a chandelier shaking, Hitchcock used a see-through Plexiglas ceiling to show that the movement is caused by the lodger, who nervously paces above them. The Lodger marked the first of Hitchcock's famed onscreen appearances, due to the fact that he was needed as an extra. He is seen in two spots, first as a man in a mailroom during the opening sequence, then again at the end as an onlooker to the mob scene. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• It's easy to forget, with all his successes, that Alfred Hitchcock's career suffered quite a few periods of commercial decline. Following his two international breakthroughs, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), the director produced three films with relatively disappointing box-office returns. In 1938, he broke out of this slump with the popular and entertaining The Lady Vanishes. The director's penultimate movie before leaving England, it's a very light picture, more dependent on comedy than almost any of his previous films. A good deal of the humor comes from the interplay between the definitively British tourists Charters and Caldicott, played indelibly by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, that the actors would reprise in several other films. Despite (or perhaps because of) its "Englishness," The Lady Vanishes made quite a splash in America, securing Hitchcock a place in Hollywood. The charming script by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat was based on the popular Ethel Lina White novel, The Wheel Spins. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi
• Rich and Strange is an off-beat and interesting, if not totally successful, film. Clearly, devotees of Alfred Hitchcock will take to it more than average filmgoers; the latter will probably be disappointed to discover that it is not a thriller, as they might expect from the "master." But if they can get over this disappointment, they will find much to appreciate, including a story that doesn't go exactly where one expects and an odd mixture of the comic and the melodramatic. True, Hitchcock doesn't blend these two styles seamlessly, but that helps to give the film its unique impact. The film is schizophrenic in other ways, especially in its attempt to be both a silent film and a talkie, and this can be disconcerting; but it does allow the director to take advantage of the fluidity of the silent camera. (He also has a delightful time experimenting with a few new effects, such as making the words on a dinner menu fly off the page.) And the opening commuter sequence is a gem. Henry Kendall and Joan Barry are a bit wan as the leads; she in particular has a peculiar delivery, and he has several moments that grate, but they overall they are adequate. Much better are Betty Amann as the gold digging princess and the wonderful Elsie Randolph, whose old lady is both annoying and strangely endearing. If the various components of Rich and Strange never really coalesce, the film is still intriguing and enjoyable. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi
• Though Alfred Hitchcock would remake the movie himself in 1956 with a bigger budget, the original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much is arguably a more historically significant and aesthetically interesting film. It was Hitchcock's first true international hit. Though he wouldn't have a major success in America until The Lady Vanishes, Man and the subsequent The 39 Steps helped establish the director's distinctive style and lay the groundwork for his popularity. Along with Hitchcock's trademark blend of suspense and humor and blurring of the normal and abnormal, the film also features his characteristically grand showpieces, most memorably the recreation of the true-life "Sidney Street Siege" and the famous Albert Hall scene. The film was also significant as German actor Peter Lorre's first English-language part. Having fled Nazi Germany in 1933, Lorre had to learn his lines phonetically, but he steals the film as the cruel but melancholic bad guy, and his difficulties with English barely show. The actor would go on to give memorable turns in such notable Hollywood productions as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi
• Young and Innocent plays like a warm-up for Hitchcock's later masterpieces. With some echoes of his earlier classic The 39 Steps, it follows the journey of a man wrongly accused of murder on the run with a woman who thinks he is guilty. The themes Hitchcock addresses here would return again and again in his future films, and would often be pulled off with more sophistication and style, but Young and Innocent remains entertaining and thrilling in its own right. Nova Pilbeam and Derrick de Marney lack the charm and chemistry of later Hitchcock stars, but they still give it an enthusiastic effort. Edward Rigby is good as Old Will, a bum who helps the young leads, and Mary Clare and Basil Radford give very different performances from their roles a year later in The Lady Vanishes. There are some truly Hitchcockian moments, such as the entire opening sequence (from the confrontation between a man and a woman to the discovery of her body on the beach), and the birthday party for Erica's niece. Equally impressive is a later scene when Tisdall, Erica, and Old Will flee to an old mine, and their car falls into the collapsing ground. The wrong man on the run was one of Hitchcock's favorite plots, as it allowed him to delve into some of his familiar themes; Young and Innocent falls short of the complexity of those later films, but is still a strong effort. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, Rovi