This listing is for Alfred Hitchcock Thrillers Movie DVD.  

Actors: John Gielgud, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Young, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave

Writers: Alma Reville, Campbell Dixon, Charles Bennett, Ethel Lina White, Frank Launder

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

MPAA rating: Unrated (Not Rated)

Media Format: Multiple Formats, Black & White, Original recording remastered, NTSC

Run time: 4 hours and 20 minutes

Release date: January 6, 2004

Studio: Vintage Home Ent.

Number of discs: 1

Alfred Hitchcock Thrillers - The Man Who Knew Too Much/Secret Agent/The Lady Vanishes

The Man Who Knew Too Much is the oldest of the three movies and its print and sound quality are the most deteriorated. Nevertheless, the symphony scene and the final gunfight retain their suspensefulness. The movie holds its own against the 1956 remake; Leslie Banks is no Jimmy Stewart, but at least Edna Best doesn't sing.

Secret Agent features a young John Gielgud, only a year or two out of short pants, I'm sure. Peter Lorre steals the show here, however, as an assassin or curious nationality. Of the three, I felt this was the least Hitchcockian in comparison with his later - and greater - work. It works on a psychological level, like his very-early Blackmail, rather than building the suspense of the other two films on this DVD or terror of Psycho or The Birds. The "self-translating" cypher notes are a nice effect; the spinning bowls and train crash are nice attempts at special effects that fall a little short of the mark.

The Lady Vanishes is the most recent of these films, and sports the best sound and picture. It also has some of the most recognizable Hitchcockian touches. The poisoned brandies framed in the extreme foreground, the hero(ine) whose sanity is in doubt, etc. It's also the most comedic throughout (although Lorre and Robert Young play their roles for laughs in Secret Agent, too).

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