ALFRED HITCHCOCK
The Signature Collection

MSRP: $99.92
Amazon.com Price: $74.95 

Alfred Hitchcock's Signature Collection Rating: B

The master movie maker was from before my time. Being a movie buff like myself I have seen most of his work. 

In The Boxed Set 
Strangers on a Train 
Mr. & Mrs. Smith 
I Confess 
Stage Fright 
The Wrong Man 
Foreign Correspondent  
Dial "M" for Murder 
Suspicion 
North by Northwest 

Stars... Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Todd, Grace Kelly,  Robert Cummings, Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Joel McCrea, Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

These nine classics have been restored in a special Alfred Hitchcock boxed set titled "The Signature Collection".  During his career Hitchcock only worked with the best actors in Hollywood. The scripts were polished with great dialogue, mystery and intrigue.  

I grew up with most of these actors in the twilights of their careers. Unknown names that all the adults were familiar with. While only being in my young forties television as a youth was limited to three channels - ABC, CBS and NBC. Fox didn't start until my teens. VHS was very new and very expensive. Having a top loading VHS player was a special thing in the neighborhood. Households with them generally only had a movie or two, but allowed folks to record material that could be watched later. Movies on VHS in those days were a hundred dollars. It was pretty cool watching one thing and then being able to catch another show later that aired at the same time as the show you watched. 

Catching these movies then was very difficult. With the inception of cable television and the pay per view movie channels it was easier to see pretty much everything, even if much of it was with commercials and having been edited for time, content and a television rating. 

Hitchcock was a master filmmaker for his time. No one was close to matching the creative ability of a suspense film. Even today, many directors, writers, and actors have failed to learn what it is to make a good feature film. 

VIDEO
The quality for the age of these films is awesome. They aren't as good as many of the new films on DVD today. Most of these films were from the 1950's before the digital video and the Dolby five point whatever. The video is sharp and the color vibrant. The contrast is excellent. 

AUDIO
These are 1950's films. Don't expect the Dolby digital sound to blow you away. You can only do so much with the sound from an old film. But the audio is crisp. On the regular television speakers I did have to tweak the volume up quite a bit to hear the voices. 

EXTRAS 
There isn't much in the way of extras with these films. All nine films are in there original format preserving the aspect ratio of their original theatrical version.

*  Making of documentaries 
*  Trailers 

"Strangers on a Train" is the only special disc in the set. It's a two-disc special edition. It contains...

*  a preview copy found back in 1991. 
*  3 featurettes 
*  Making of Featurette 
*  Alfred Hitchcocks Historical Meeting Vintage Newreel. 
*  Theatrical Trailer 
*  Commentary from Director Peter Bogdanovich and Joeseph Stephano

OVERALL VIEW 
Alfred Hitchcock's Signature Collection is very good. I enjoyed watching all nine of the films. They are storytelling at its finest. The suspense, the horror... it's all still there - even today. If you like suspense films and Alfred Hitchcock this is an excellent piece of DVD material for you collection.

Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection Rating: B

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