Hitchcock DVD Collection - Dial M For Murder / I Confess / Stage Fright / The Wrong Man / Strangers On A Train / North By Northwest

North by Northwest is one of Hitchcock's great thrillers. Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint star. The mistaken identity plot plays well to Grants strengths as the man confused by the insistence of others that he is George Kaplan, the mysterious spy. The balance between thriller and comedy is very well judged. The look of this movie is the key to its success along with the many set pieces. The frantic struggle of Grant against the hood's attempts to pour a bottle of scotch down his throat conveys real violence and panic.

I Confess is better remembered for its star, Montgomery Clift, than as one of Hitchcock's great movies but it is still powerful stuff. The theme is a strong one that has been copied and adapted elsewhere. Clift's character has to wrestle with his conscience after a murderer reveals his crimes in the confessional. This could, in less experienced hands turn this into more of a melodrama

The Wrong Man - is based on the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson. Henry Fonda is fantastic alongside and excellent Vera Miles never stooping to melodrama this is powerful stuff. Fonda clam insistence on his innocence with a certain lack of emotion, the bulk of which is focussed on Miles, is compelling.

I am a fan of Stage Fright for its atmosphere and tensions. It explores the common Hitchockian theme of the wanted man trying to prove his innocence. Eve Gill (Jane Wyman), an aspiring young actress, shelters a fellow acting student, Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd), from the police. He is suspected of murdering the husband of his mistress, Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich who plays the dangerous seductress that she so often played), he claims that he became implicated only when he tried to help Charlotte destroy the evidence. This movie has lots of classic Hitchcock's twists and turns and the level of suspense and tension is kept high throughout.

Dial M for Murder - Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings. Filmed pretty much on the single set with a few, dialogue free shots, outside the apartment and the dinner scene where the alibi is being established. This is a neat adaptation the stage play of the same title by Frederick Knot. The play premiered in 1952 as a BBC television play before being performed on the stage in the same year. Hitchcock knew and awful lot about claustrophobic sets, as also used in The Rope, and he makes a virtue out of the confined set as the key to the police understanding of the death is the limitations on access to the apartment. Milland is inspired casting as usual for Hitchcock who only experienced difficulties with "stars" later in his career with the difficulty Torn Curtain (which Andrews and Newman spoiled) and on one other occasion where he miscast Doris Day in his remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much

Strangers on a Train - Tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam (Rogers), in order to marry, Anne Morton (Ruth Roman). Guy meets the unstable and psychopathic Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) on a train and Bruno tells Guy about his idea to exchange murders: Bruno would kill Miriam if Guy kills Bruno's father. Guy does not take Bruno seriously Bruno murders Miriam. This plays, again, on one of Hitchcock's favorite themes of the innocent man who unwittingly gets caught up on a murder and can not go to the police without further implicating himself. Patricia Hitchcock (Alfred's daughter) plays Anne Morton's sister superbly acting as both some comedic counterpoint to the tense drama and as the stimulus to the veil of normality being briefly lifted from Bruno's public persona. The fact that she wears glasses and therefore looks similar to the murdered Miriam draws her to Bruno's attention triggering an iconic scene in the movie. The glasses play a part in another iconic scene during the murder itself and Bruno's desperate attempts to retrieve Guy's cigarette lighter from a drain is compelling. Leo G Carroll is brilliant as Anne's father. He appeared in several other Hitchcock movies, including Spellbound and North By Northwest. His great strength is the relaxed authority that he brings to the role which is required here as he is playing a senator. My only gripe with this movie is the ending. I know they grappled with how to end it and still hadn't resolved this until well into shooting the movie but to contemporary eyes a policeman carelessly shooting into a carousel with women and children onboard seems wrong. No thought is given to the poor carousel operator who is shot.

the masters finest films are among this set and as such worth buying, super quality of transfer as well, a definate purchase, recommended.

As a lifelong admirer of Hitch's work this was a must have for me. Very occasionally, art and entertainment meet unforgettably on equal terms - Hitch's films are a blend in point - and in Hitch's case that overworked word "genius" is entirely appropriate. If, like me, you are a Hitch addict, acquiring this box set means you need never again suffer withdrawal symptoms. Even the colours - once fading sadly - have now been restored to pristine condition. All this, and only £1 per film!