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MovieMail's Review
Alfred Hitchcock’s popularity and influence are stronger today than ever. He was far more than merely “The Master of Suspense”; he was also one of the cinema’s finest pictorial stylists. He made thrillers, of course, a most commercial form of filmmaking, but when film historian Robin Wood asked, “Why should we take Hitchcock seriously?”, he was suggesting that the director’s composition, lighting, and editing reveal him to be a serious, major artist.
Hitchcock made his name in England during the ‘20s and ‘30s with a series of suspense classics that included The Lodger, Blackmail, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, and The Lady Vanishes. In 1940 he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the greatest directors in cinema history. His sophisticated thrillers—Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho—were made within a commercial framework, yet each is as profoundly haunting as Sunrise, Citizen Kane, or Seven Samurai.
Optimum/Studio Canal’s Early Hitchcock collection showcases the director’s early British period. It includes four silent classics (The Ring, The Farmer’s Wife, Champagne, The Manxman) and five early talkies (Blackmail, Murder!, The Skin Game, Rich and Strange, Number Seventeen).
Blackmail, Britain’s first significant talkie, was released in June 1929. Hitchcock shot it as a silent film, at a time when dialogue pictures were very much a novelty. (Hollywood’s first talkie, Lights of New York, had been released in July 1928.) His studio, British International Pictures, wanted the last reel reshot as a talkie, but Hitchcock secretly remade the entire picture with dialogue. With its bold, innovative sound techniques, Blackmail was a landmark film and one of outstanding artistic merit. It was only his second picture to include the elements of suspense with which his career was forever associated. As many theatres were not yet equipped to exhibit talkies, both versions of Blackmail were released. British film historian Tom Ryall has called the talkie version “a film of central importance to the history of cinema. But the silent version must be regarded as a significant contribution to silent film art.”
9 discs. Re-mastered with new soundtracks for The Ring, Champagne, The Farmer's Wife and The Manxman
Alternate ending to Murder!
Introduction to each film by Noel Simsolo
52-min documentary on Hitchcock's early works
featurettes on Blackmail.
Film Description
Nine films from Hitchcock's very early period, including some of his silent work and Blackmail, his first talkie that used early sound technology brilliantly. Includes Blackmail, Murder!, The Ring, The Farmer's Wife, Rich and Strange, The Skin Game, The Manxman, Number Seventeen, and the DVD premiere of Champagne.
