Imprint: Alfred Hitchcock Box Sets

[domino harvey]

Orbit finally shipped mine, if anyone’s still waiting

May I ask which one is shipped?
I pre-ordered Hitchcock 9 in July. I inquired by email earlier today and got a very generic answer about street date being in October, so nothing was shipped.
Thank you!

Sorry for the confusion— the Alfred Hitchcock Hour shipped, as it and the modern Hitchcock remakes box were not delayed to October. I don’t think anyone has a shipped copy of the other two boxes, as they were delayed to the end of October as you mentioned

[videozor]

Thank you for clarification!

[domino harvey]

The Movie Room has international shipping according to their website.

I just ordered the 9 from the link, although I'm in the US. Never heard of the site before but it seems legit. BEYOND10 gets you an extra 10% off.

FOMO got the best of me and I ordered both from Movie Room. There are still ten copies of Nine and fifteen of Early Years Vol 1 left and the 10% off code still works, btw

[ryannichols7]

$233 for both sets ..do I really want to do this? I'm unlikely to be able to sell any of the Kino discs and I'd probably keep the Criterions. it would average out to $18 a movie

[domino harvey]

You will absolutely be able to flip the Imprint sets if needed, there is still demand above what’s available — the only reason these copies are even available is because no one’s heard of this website and no one here has narc’ed about their availability to the Blu-Ray forum. So you’re kind of insulated from buyer’s remorse at least

Of course, keep in mind these are the same justifications I used to excuse spending so much on titles I already have, so I have skin in the game. I’m in the sane position as you though— sell/give away the Kinos and keep the Criterions for their extras, so there zero net savings because I already bought most of these in other editions (and remember you’ll need to not accidentally clear out Murder! as it’s not included here)

Really looking forward to the second volume of the Early Years too, as it should have Sabotage and Young and Innocent plus Secret Agent (since Criterion are clearly not going to do anything with these)

[ryannichols7]

Imprint's new extras definitely look to be good too, so fairly worthy. I'll probably sit on this and it'll sell out before I buy in

you raise a good point with Early Years Vol 2 cause that will be a pretty indispensable release....decisions!!!

[domino harvey]

The extras are the reason I picked up the set. I’m getting to where archival extras from TV are my favorite supplements, because these broadcasters keep them uncirculating beyond licensed releases like this and they’re such great resources that I can’t just find an equivalent of in a book or podcast (like many interviews/overview extras)

[ryannichols7]

I punched it in. I support Imprint doing these boxes anyway and will probably go for the Powell and Pressburger one too. didn't really budget for this as I didn't expect I'd get to purchase but since I don't think I'll be rushing to get the Criterion Wes Anderson set, this seems like a better usage of my funds....

love all the archival stuff but the original poster covers + new commentaries on The Lodger and The 39 Steps kinda pushed it over the edge for me

quick, someone else on this forum grab these before the other forum finds out!

[Murdoch]

You can use the discount code BEYOND10 multiple times if you use a different email for each transaction. Not relevant to this thread but took the dive on the P&P set. There's an assortment of other Imprint releases as well, like the John Hughes set. I need someone to hide my credit card...

[Lowry_Sam]

quick, someone else on this forum grab these before the other forum finds out!

I only picked up the TV series when these boxes were first announced. I was on the fence about spending so much for a blu-ray box of just the first season, as I imagine the complete series will eventually make it to one blu-ray box. However, as a kid growing up in the early days of cable television, Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Hour & The Twilight Zone (and later AMC & TCM) was my gateway drug to watching older b&w tv/film and eventual love of noir, so I felt justified in splurging for the tv show. (Also, the fact that the US never got the final seasons on dvd and all the current shenanigans at Paramount convinced me there's a chance I'd regret not getting it). I have been happy with my upgrade to Imprint's The Prisoner box, so I splurged. I can say that the packaging for season 1 is as nice, however I would caution anyone getting this because of reading that these are "newly restored". I have only watched the first episode (with Robert Redford, RIP), but the film damage (scratches, hair, white spots etc) is very noticeable with the higher definition (which I don't remember from the few remastered episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents I watched while I had Peacock) and more noticeable than Gary Tooze's review indicates.

Though I would like to see the restorations of Hitchcock's early work in chronological early, the early works I have seen have been a mixed bag and therefore thought I would just pick up the UK set when discounted. I doubt I will want to revisit many a second time. But with the coupon code (and resellability once I've watched & the set becomes OOP), I couldn't resist picking up one of the silents (still passed on Early vol. 1 as I have the Criterion of those I want). So thanks for the mention (I was also able to also pick up the Eureka Mabuse & Krimi sets for $50 each under the same pretense of reselling them after I watch them & they go OOP).

[TMDaines]

Do we know why Juno and the Paycock is not getting a release here? My fear is that will end up as a random gap if buying the Imprint sets.

[domino harvey]

It and Murder! are conspicuously absent. I assume the next Early Years box will not contain them since they moved past these chronologically, but it’s possible they saved them for volume two so that a mix of bigger films were in each volume (ie 39 Steps can anchor a box, but Juno can’t… which means the second set wouldn’t be the presumable quintet of Sabotage/Secret Agent/Young and Innocent/the Lady Vanishes/Jamaica Inn)

[TMDaines]

I can pick up the Blu-ray of Murder fron Kino (annoyingly that is one of the few of theirs I do not have currently) but Juno is only in the big UK and French sets currently. It is annoying to have buy multiple big sets at great expense and loads of redundancy to complete the oeuvre. I have got a Nine set being shipped to my Stackry locker, thanks to the advice above, but am still considering the Early Vol 1. set.

[domino harvey]

Early Years Volume Two

Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent (1937)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Bonus film: Waltzes From Vienna (1934) (standard-definition)

Limited Edition 4-Disc Hardbox – 1000 copies only.


Sabotage (1936) – Imprint Collection #517

Praised by critics on release and still fresh with each contemporary viewing, Hitchcock’s Sabotage is often listed as one of the greatest British films of all time.

A detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is plotting to set off a bomb in London.

Starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, and John Loder, and adapted from the 1907 novel The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by writers and film experts Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
Audio commentary by author / film scholar Leonard Leff
NEW Film Critic Tim Robey on Sabotage
Introduction by film critic Charles Barr
On Location – featurette, introduced by Robert Powell
Archival episode of Cinema Then, Cinema Now featuring Professor Jerry Carlson, Professor George Custen, and Professor Ilan Stavans
Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock – audio interview
Archival introduction by actor Tony Curtis
Image Gallery
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Young and Innocent (1937) – Imprint Collection #518

This thrilling mystery was adapted from the novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, a “crisply paced, excellently performed film” (New York Times).

After seeing the body of a young girl washed up on a beach, Robert Tisdall runs away to secure help. He is seen by two girls who, believing him to be the murderer, inform the police. He must then attempt to prove himself innocent of a charge of murder based on circumstantial evidence.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by writers and film experts Kim Newman and Jo Botting
Audio commentary by authors Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn
NEW Film Critic Tim Robey on Young and Innocent
Introduction by film critic Charles Barr
A Profile of Alfred Hitchcock: The Early Years
Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock – audio interview
Hitchcock / Truffaut – audio interview segment
Archival introduction by actor Tony Curtis
Image Gallery
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Imprint Collection #519

Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave star in this iconic mystery, renowned as one of Hitchcock’s best films, and based on the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White.

During a journey aboard a Trans-Continental Express, a young woman strikes up an acquaintance with a middle-aged English governess who mysteriously disappears from her compartment. The girl is accused of hallucinating and begins to doubt her own state of mind. But as further enquiries are made, the curious behaviour of a group of foreign government agents is revealed.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by professor and film scholar Jason Ney
NEW Film historian Matthew Sweet on The Lady Vanishes
Introduction by film critic Charles Barr
Archival episode of City Cinematheque featuring Professor Jerry Carlson and Professor Royal Brown
Image Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Bonus film: Waltzes From Vienna (1934) (standard-definition)
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Imprint Collection #520

Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Hitchcock’s landmark spy thriller stars Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, and Herbert Marshall.

At the beginning of 1939, Jones, an American reporter, is sent by his paper to Europe. There, he is to investigate the possibility of a world war. In London, he meets an elderly Dutch politician, co-signatory of a secret alliance treaty whose details the Nazis will stop at nothing to discover.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
The Art of Film: Vintage Hitchcock
Trailers from Hell: Foreign Correspondent – featuring filmmaker Larry Cohen
Academy Award Theatre: Foreign Correspondent – 1946 radio adaptation starring Joseph Cotton
Theatrical Trailer
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

[domino harvey]

Foreign Correspondent makes absolutely no sense for the box’s theme. RIP hopes of finally having Secret Agent in a good copy or for Juno making an appearance

[JSC]

Juno can still be gotten with the StudioCanal set. I have to wonder if the film elements for
Secret Agent are in poor shape since it seems to have been passed over multiple times (it
also has one of my favorite Hitchcock setups).

Spoiler

When two men enter a church the soundtrack is nothing but a loud discordant noise that
plays for a good chunk of the scene until they realize that the church organist has been murdered
and has fallen forward onto the organ keys.

[ryannichols7]

Foreign Correspondent makes absolutely no sense for the box’s theme. RIP hopes of finally having Secret Agent in a good copy or for Juno making an appearance

and on top of that, there's nothing new with Foreign Correspondent, making it's inclusion all the more baffling

really wanted Secret Agent with the old Madman commentary

[domino harvey]

On the plus side, I missed the Network Blu of Sabotage and can get rid of their Blu of Young and Innocent, so that helps sugar the pill a little (plus the fact that it should only be around $80 once it’s up on Orbit) but man, now Juno is restricted to another giant box and I will not be getting it just for one film so we’re still here without a complete oeuvre despite all of these boxes

[nowhereisaplace]

It would be one thing if Juno were a good film.....

[TMDaines]

These Hitchcocks, man. Slightly regret going for Imprint over StudioCanal now, as I am still going to be incomplete.

[JamesF]

Having recently started what will hopefully be a year-long chronological complete Hitchcockathon (The Lady Vanishes is up next!), of which Juno has absolutely been the nadir so far, I'd say the opposite - rather wish I hadn't gotten the Studiocanal set as I'd be able to justify getting the Imprints otherwise. And hey, even the Studiocanal set didn't include Elstree Calling, if we're considering that part of the filmography...

[Aunt Peg]

I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who likes Juno and and Paycock.

[Tom Amolad]

There’s any number of “minor” Hitchcock I would have expected to have defenders, but Juno isn’t one of them — so now I’m curious. Say more?

For my part, I don’t dislike it quite as much as “The Farmer’s Wife” — but it’s also easier for me to imagine someone championing that one.

[domino harvey]

and on top of that, there's nothing new with Foreign Correspondent, making it's inclusion all the more baffling

As far as I can tell, the Art of Film: Vintage Hitchcock only appears on the UK Blu of the 39 Steps, so this will at least be new to most of us (it’s a thirty minute television documentary)

[Beloved Aunt]

Pauline Kael praised Juno and the Paycock, but she's deceased.