Hitchcock comes to Blu-ray … with a vengeance

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, long under-represented on Blu-ray, is finally getting the treatment he deserves. Last December the Criterion Collection released one of his best British films, and three American Hitchcock classics, all produced by David O. Selznick, just made their Blu-ray debuts last month from MGM-Fox Home Video. Two more Hitchcocks are scheduled for later this year. The four earliest Hitchcock films currently on Blu-ray are from the middle of his career and show him exploring many of the same themes that distinguished his films a decade or two later when he was at his peak.

“The Lady Vanishes” (1938), a highly entertaining mystery-comedy from near the end of his British period, continues Hitchcock’s established themes and sets the prototype for much of his best American work over the next few decades. An English girl (Margaret Lockwood) vacationing with friends in a small eastern European country before her impending wedding boards a train with an eccentric old lady (Dame May Whitty) whom she befriends. Soon after they’re underway, however, the lady is nowhere to be found and none of the other passengers will admit she even existed, although a young British musicologist (Michael Redgrave) agrees to help her investigate. Naturally, they both get into more than they bargained for, as sinister motives by various other passengers and dangerous plans gradually become revealed.

Picture quality is outstanding on this Blu-ray, extremely sharp with fine contrast range and only minor wear visible. Sound quality is very strong for the era. Criterion has one of its better collections of bonus materials for this release, including the usual illustrated booklet of illuminating essays, plus a good audio commentary, an interesting featurette on Hitchcock and the film, an audio clip of François Truffaut’s 1962 interview with Hitchcock, and a nice stills gallery. There’s even a full-length high-definition feature comedy, “Crook’s Tour” (1941), a silly but amusing spin-off starring the two cricket fanatics who were comic-relief characters in “The Lady Vanishes,” here mixed up in their own adventure of spies and international intrigue.
T HE LADY VANISHES on Blu-ray—Movie: A / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: A

The three MGM-Fox Hitchcock Blu-rays compare favorably with Criterion’s standards for quality and interesting bonus features, lacking only the booklet inserts Criterion always provides and separate disc menus (using only pop-up menus).  “Rebecca” (1940) was Hitchcock’s first American film and won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Cinematography, as well as earning nine other Oscar nominations. Adapted from a popular novel, it’s a stylish and expertly crafted gothic romance that gradually turns into a more Hitchcockian mystery-thriller. Putting over the sometimes heavy-handed melodrama is its brilliant performance by Joan Fontaine as the shy, insecure second wife of moody aristocrat Laurence Olivier, with a strong supporting cast led by Judith Anderson and George Sanders.

MGM-Fox’s Blu-ray boasts superb, film-like picture quality, with reasonably good audio quality. There’s an adequate audio commentary by critic Richard Schickel (the weakest of the three discs’ commentaries), an isolated music/effects track, a good featurette on the making of the film and another on the novel’s author, plus a trailer and complete screen tests of Margaret Sullavan and Vivien Leigh for the part that went to Joan Fontaine. There are also three audio-only radio dramatizations (including one starring Sullavan, directed by Orson Welles in 1938), and audio interviews with Hitchcock by Peter Bogdanovitch and François Truffaut.

REBECCA on Blu-ray—Movie: A+ / Video: A+ / Audio: A- / Extras: A

MGM-Fox’s Blu-ray of “Spellbound” (1945) includes the overture and exit music used at original showings. This mystery-thriller was the first major Hollywood film to use psychological theories as a central element of the plot, rather than merely as the background basis for characterizations. Ingrid Bergman plays a sexually repressed psychiatrist who falls for an amnesiac patient (Gregory Peck) who may or may not have murdered the man he’s been impersonating. Famed surrealist artist Salvador Dali designed an elaborate dream sequence central to the story, providing clues for the psychoanalysis that ultimately leads to the truth. “Spellbound” received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Director, and won the Oscar for Miklos Rosza’s evocative music score.  The Blu-ray has very good picture quality and decent sound. Bonuses include an informative commentary by two film professors, interesting featurettes on Salvador Dali, on the film’s use of psychology, and on Rhonda Fleming (who had one of her earliest screen roles in “Spellbound”), as well as a trailer, a radio play version, and a Hitchcock audio interview.

SPELLBOUND on Blu-ray - Movie: A- / Video: A / Audio: A- / Extras: A

“Notorious” (1946) is another top-notch Hitchcock romantic thriller, earning an Oscar nomination for screenwriter Ben Hecht (who’d also scripted “Spellbound”), and a nomination for Claude Rains as Best Supporting Actor. Ingrid Bergman stars again, this time as a world-weary notorious party girl whose Nazi-sympathizer father was convicted of treason. Cary Grant plays the dashing government agent who recruits her to infiltrate a group of ex-Nazis in Brazil to learn what they’re plotting. Of course he unwillingly falls in love with her in the process. Rains plays the urbane rich industrialist she must seduce to obtain her information.

Image quality is mostly excellent, though many brief sequences suffer from the higher contrast, grain, and softness that results from the optical duplication needed for special effects. Audio is good, with occasional mild distortion. Bonus features this time include two separate audio commentaries by film experts, an isolated music/effects track, featurettes on the making of “Notorious” and Hitchcock’s spy films, plus one on Hitchcock’s American Film Institute Award. There’s also a trailer, a radio play version, audio interviews with Hitchcock, and a brief restoration comparison.

NOTORIOUS on Blu-ray—Movie: A / Video: A- / Audio: A- / Extras: A

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