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Rare Hitchcock classics now with Bonus Features!
For Alfred Hitchcock movie fans, a new notable box set arrives next Tuesday, October 14, featuring rare older classics from the master of suspense, some with bonus features included for the first time ever!
MGM Home Entertainment (thru Fox distribution) presents the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PREMIERE COLLECTION, an 8-film collection (on 8 discs) featuring several great works from the legend's earliest years (SRP $119.98).
Three films in the set - Notorious, Spellbound and 1940 Best Picture winner Rebecca are also available individually (SRP $19.98 each), with the same bonus features.
While many fans are probably more familiar with Hitchcock's famous later films (from the 1950s on), these classics from his younger years are often of equal stature. Most include featurettes and bonus audio commentaries from historians (among other exciting bonus content).
LIST of films and brief synopsis (with the Bonus Features detailed further below)...
REBECCA (1940) - A young woman marries a fascinating older widower only to discover that she must live in the shadows of his first wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years before.
THE LODGER (1927) - Not long after a mysterious young "medical scientist" named Slade (Laird Cregar) rents a flat in the heart of London´s Whitechapel district, a series of brutal murders begins. But despite the fact that the murder victims are all female stage performers, the landlord´s niece Kitty (Merle Oberon), an ingénue, is unphased by the crimes – or by the unusual, brooding man in her family´s midst. As Kitty coquettishly interacts with a Scotland Yard detective (George Sanders), she becomes Slade´s object of obsession in this pulse-pounding thriller.
THE PARADINE CASE (1947) - Beautiful Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is accused of poisoning her older wealthy husband. Her barrister, the happily married Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) takes the case but also lets his heart rule his head when he falls hard for his client.
SPELLBOUND (1945) - When John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), the new director of a mental asylum arrives on the job, the staff is concerned. He seems too young for the position and his answers to their questions are vague and detached. Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), while knowing he is an impostor with emotional issues, nevertheless falls in love with him. Turning to her mentor, Dr. Alex Brulov (Michael Checkhov) and the use of psychoanalysis, she tries to get to the root of Ballantine's emotional problems.
NOTORIOUS (1946) - Daughter of an accused World War II traitor, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted to entrap one of her father´s colleagues in Brazil, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Raines). Her American contact, secret agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant), is openly contemptuous of Alicia and instructs her to wed Sebastian. It is only after she is wed that Devlin lets himself admit that he´s fallen in love with her.
YOUNG AND INNOCENT (1937) - In this witty, suspense thriller a police chief´s daughter helps a fugitive accused of murder prove his innocence.
SABOTAGE (1936) - A woman learns that her movie theater manager husband is actually a foreign agent when a bomb he has made kills her brother. Based on Joseph Conrad´s novel The Secret Agent.
LIFEBOAT (1944) - After their ship is sunk in the Atlantic by Germans, eight people are stranded in a lifeboat. Their problems are further compounded when they pick up a ninth passenger – the Nazi captain from the U-boat that torpedoed them. With powerful suspense and emotion, this legendary classic reveals the strengths and frailties of individuals under extraordinary duress.
> List of BONUS FEATURES included -
Rebecca (1940):
* Audio Commentary by film historian/author Richard Schickel
* Screen tests
* Making of Rebecca Featurette
* The Gothic World of Daphne Du Maurier Featurette
* Original 1938 Radio Play starring Orson Welles
* 1941 Radio Play presented by Cecil B. DeMille
* 1950 Radio Play with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: François Truffaut interviews Hitchcock
* 4-page booklet
The Lodger (1927):
* 1999 Score by Ashley Irwin presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround
* 1997 Score by Paul Zaza presented in Mono
Audio Commentary with film historian Patrick McGilligan
* The Sound of Silence: The Making of The Lodger Featurette
* Hitchcock 101 Featurette
* 1940 Radio Play directed by Alfred Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: François Truffaut interviews Hitchcock
* Restoration Comparison
The Paradine Case (1947):
* Audio Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
* Isolated Music and Effects Track
* 1949 Radio Play starring Joseph Cotton
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Restoration Comparision
* Still Galleries
Spellbound (1945):
* Audio Commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz & Charles Ramirez Berg
* Guilt by Association: Psychoanalyzing Spellbound Featurette
* A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming Featurette
* Dreaming with Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali Featurette
* 1948 Radio Play directed by Alfred Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: Film Historian Rudy Belhemer interviews composer Miklós Rózsa
* Still Gallery
* 4-Page Booklet
Notorious (1946):
* Audio Commentary with film historian Rick Jewell
* Audio Commentary with film historian Drew Casper
* Isolated Music and Effects Track
* The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious Featurette
* Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster Featurette
* AFI Tribute to Hitchcock
* 1948 Radio Play starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: François Truffaut interviews Hitchcock
* Restoration Comparision
* Still Gallery
* 4-Page Booklet
Young And Innocent (1937):
* Audio Commentary with film historians Stephen Rebello & Bill Krohn
* Isolated Music and Effects Track
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Audio Interview: François Truffaut interviews Hitchcock
* Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection
* Page 4 of 5
* Restoration Comparision
* Still Gallery
Sabotage (1936):
* Audio Commentary with film historian Leonard Leff
* Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich interviews Hitchcock
* Restoration Comparision
* Still Gallery
Lifeboat (1944):
* Audio Commentary by Hitchcock professor and film critic Drew Casper (University of Southern California School of Cinema & Television)
* The Making of Lifeboat Featurette
* Original Theatrical Trailer
* Still Gallery featuring photographs from the set
Detailed Synopsis (Notorious, Rebecca, Spellbound):
NOTORIOUS
Notorious woman of affairs...
Adventurous man of the world!
From legendary director Alfred Hitchcock comes this "torrid, tense, tinglingly suspenseful" (Cosmopolitan) film that ranks as one of his best. Oscar Winner Ingrid Bergman "is literally ravishing" (Pauline Kael), and Cary Grant and Claude Rains give "excellent performances" (Variety) in this "taut spy movie that delivers a romantic punch" (The New Yorker)!
In Notorious ia brilliant allegory of love and betrayal, Hitchcock fuses two of his favorite elements: suspense and romance. A beautiful woman with a tainted past (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted by American agent Devlin (Cary Grant) to spy on a ring of Nazis in post-war Rio. Her espionage work becomes life-threatening after she marries the most debonair of the Nazi ring, Alex (Claude Rains). Only Devlin can rescue her, but to do so he must face his role in her desperate situation and acknowledge that he's loved her all along. Stunning performances, Ben Hecht's excellent script, and Hitchcock's direction at its best make Notorious a perfect film.
REBECCA
The shadow of this woman darkened their love.
A young woman marries a fascinating older widower only to discover that she must live in the shadows of his first wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years before.
"Last Night, I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again."
Rebecca's haunting opening line conjures the entirety of Hitchcock's romantic, suspenseful, elegant film. A young woman (Joan Fontaine) believes her every dream has come true when her whirlwind romance with the dashing Maxim de Winter (Sire Laurence Olivier) culminates in marriage. But she soon realizes that Rebecca, the late first Mrs. de Winter, haunts both the temperamental, brooding Maxim and the de Winter mansion, Manderley. In order for Maxim and the new Mrs. de Winter to have a future, Rebecca's spell must be broken and the mystery of her violent dead unraveled. The first collaboration between producer David O. Selznick and Hitchcock, REBECCA was adapted from Daphne du Maurier's popular novel and won the 1940 Academy Award®™ for Best Picture and Cinematography (Black and White).
SPELLBOUND
The Maddest Love that ever possessed a woman... will he Kiss me or Kill me?
"The secret recesses of the mind are explored with brilliant and terrifying effect" (New York Herald Tribune) in this fascinating psychological thriller from Alfred Hitchcock. Featuring powerful performances from Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, this masterpiece of mystery, romance and suspense boasts an Oscar-winning score by Miklos Rozsa and a haunting dream sequence by Salvador Dali.
Dr. Constance Peterson (Bergman) is a dedicated psychiatrist who puts all her passion into her work - until she falls in love with Dr. Edwards (Peck). Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that Edwards is an impostor - an amnesiac - who may or may not be a cold-blooded murderer. Pursued by the police, Constance must decide whether to turn in her mysterious lover... or risk her life by trying to unlock the dark secrets in his mind.
Please Note - More details:
Be sure to check out the full details under related releases.
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