- Numerous unusual worldwide releases don’t fit neatly into any standard Hitch videographies
- But many are essential collector’s items; some of the most significant ones are highlighted here
- Many major newspapers have given away both licensed and bootleg promo DVDs of his British films
- Essential: Dozens of unique booklets and essays exist only as extras with older, limited edition formats
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Films of Alfred Hitchcock collage by Adan Chance, 2010
Contents
VHS and DVD film magazines
Rich and Strange aka À l’est de Shanghaï (1931) Alfred Hitchcock, la collection au suspense insoutenable (unbearable) VHS magazine
In 1994 and again in 1998, French publishers Atlas issued a lengthy series of weekly magazines, AH: La Collection Atlas, with each one dedicated to every entry in Hitch’s available filmography. It even included the Hitch-directed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and every issue was accompanied by a licensed VHS cassette of the title in question.
The Man Who Knew Too Much French Carlton-Journaux.fr DVD
French publishers Journaux.fr repackaged and reissued the Atlas series on DVD from 2005–2007, this time titled La Collection AH en DVD: 2nd Edition, but without an accompanying magazine. All but 2on1 discs The Pleasure Garden/Mary (#47) and Easy Virtue/Elstree Calling (#49) have also been issued on regular French DVDs.
Also in 2007, French magazine Le Figaro produced a run of 20 reissues – the French really like their Hitchcock! This time, with the exception of the essential restored disc of Waltzes from Vienna/Downhill (#7), they’re all American Warner and Universal films; again without a dedicated magazine. The spines on the redesigned DVDs are all numbered and lettered, collectively spelling out his name (alt). Careful though: there are several runs of bootleg DVDs from different countries with very similar sleeve designs and typography. If picking them up, be sure to check the rear for the correct copyright notices and rights holders logos, such as Carlton International or Studiocanal.
On that note, even Le Figaro messed up when they unwittingly ‘licensed’ Jamaica Inn from notorious French bootleggers Bach Films for their DVD (rear) in 2003’s 10 Classiques du Polar [thriller] et du Film Noir box set. Of course, it should have been via then distributors Universal, who released their own DVD in 2006.
Immaculately restored Waltzes from Vienna/Downhill French Le Figaro DVD
Italy-based publishers De Agostini produced their own 48-part weekly series of Hitch’s films on VHS from 1993–1995, titled Il cinema di Alfred Hitchcock, and reissued most of it on 36 DVDs from 2004–2006. Each is accompanied by a tidy illustrated booklet but while the American films have licensed transfers, all the pre-1940 British films are boots, and with Italian intertitles or dubbed audio only. Argentina had a similar 36-VHS set in 2000, followed up with Digibook DVDs and De Agostini’s two-volume Alfred Hitchcock Colección: large books covering 13 and 18 films respectively, which appear to simply replicate the info in their previous booklets. Meanwhile, down Mexico way, De Agostini also distributed a 2006 set of 20 Spanish-language Hitch DVD-magazines of post-1940 films.
Staying in South America, in 2008 Brazil’s Abril Coleções launched their Cinemateca Veja, 50 classic film DVDs sold weekly from newsstands. Each comes handsomely packaged in a 60-page illustrated paperback with an extensive essay, and the collection includes Dial M for Murder and North by Northwest. Similarly, Brazil’s Folha newspaper has released three Hitch Digibook DVDs to date as part of different collections: Strangers on a Train in 2009 (archived), The Lady Vanishes in 2011 and Notorious in 2018 (archived).
On a related note, in mainland Europe and the Eastern Bloc, Universal issued their 14 Hitchcocks in very attractive Digibooks with illustrated essays. Predating these, in the same PAL countries, initial 2001 copies of the similarly designed keep case releases have illustrated booklets with production notes, as indicated on their rear sleeves and dropped for their 2005 reissues. Spain in particular has now had at least three Digibook-packaged runs of Hitch’s American films, including a 2007 “Gold Edition” series. But Spanish bootleggers Suevia swiftly followed suit with an identikit series of his British films, ripping off the previous editions’ name, artwork and packaging but in much poorer quality.
Also worthy of mention are some other interesting pre-DVD US releases, beginning with the 1986 Cinema Classics Collection from CBS Video Library on VHS and Betamax in silver foil-embossed, cardboard-clad clamshell cases. All include 12-page booklets with one new and several contemporary reviews, and there were nine titles initially with Notorious being added later; does anyone know of any others in the series? These were followed in 1987–1988 by the similarly-cased VHS and Beta Collector’s Edition with at least five Universal Hitchcocks but no booklets.
More comprehensively, from 1990–1992, Time Life issued 20 of the 30 American Hitchcocks on VHS in the Alfred Hitchcock Collection with stark B&W artwork on similar cases to the prior collections but housing previously issued tapes. Omissions are Foreign, Smith, Lifeboat, Paradine, Rope, Capricorn, Stage, Confess, Harry and Topaz. All of them, oddly apart from Spellbound and Strangers, also include four-page booklets with unique production notes. Finally, in 1993 Time Life released three more card-sleeved VHS cassettes with three episodes apiece of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A similar Humphrey Bogart Collection was released concurrently and the Hitchcock collection’s TV advert was later nominated for a Billboard award. But easily the most valuable of all VHS and Betamax releases are the three rare and little-known issues from the Criterion Collection, including the two best known British Hitchcocks.
SZ Cinemathek DVDs
This quartet of unique German Hitch discs were promoted by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper as part of their highly popular SZ Cinemathek series and though barebones, they’re all picture discs and come in a very attractive tri-fold Digipak with notes. The one for To Catch a Thief is inadvertently noteworthy: audio and subs are in English and German, but the former track is labelled as “3.0” channel, which if accurate would indicate it was the film’s fabled MIA 3.0 Perspecta track. However, it’s actually the original 2.0 mono mix prevalent on discs at the time. North by Northwest is among the other Hitch-directed entries but sadly only with the unoriginal 5.1 surround remix alongside the German dub.
- Spellbound (2012) – #1, 13-DVD Traum und Wirklichkeit (Dream and Reality)
- Notorious (2009) – #1, 12-DVD Politthriller (Political thriller); info
- To Catch a Thief (2008) – #13, 28-DVD Traumfrauen (Dream women); info
- North by Northwest (2005) – #25, 100-DVD Cinemathek: 1-50 | 51-100; info
Newspaper DVDs
The real thing: The Times promo DVDs.
For a few years from the mid-2000s, several UK newspapers – The Times, Telegraph and Guardian – issued freebie DVDs of various transatlantic Hitch films of the 1930s and 1940s. However, not all used restored, licensed transfers of his British films. Yup: The Telegraph and Guardian, those crusading pillars of the establishment, actually gave away bootlegs, contributing to an ever-growing pile of Hitch rip-offs, albeit more likely through ignorance than malice. Those have the usual terrible transfers, whereas the licensed discs look great, and the British films from The Times actually improve on some of the regular barebones releases in that they all have English subtitles.
The Times’ DVDs of the Hitch-Selznick films (1940–1947) are also barebones but The Telegraph’s discs of them are actually repackaged versions of the commercial releases, so retain their extras. Strangely though, all came in basic card wallet sleeves and The Times reissued their British films daily for a week in September 2008. Each round of The Times’ giveaways was accompanied by a series of related articles (05: July 6, 8, 12; Nov 10 | 08: Sept 4, 4a, 6, 7, 8), including one from Hitch’s authorised biographer addressing his alleged dark side. Meanwhile, The Telegraph’s series was led off by an excellent piece on Rebecca. All these DVDs, whatever their source, are cheap and plentiful on UK eBay but tread carefully and ensure you avoid the highlighted boots. Incidentally, in 2005 Scotland’s Daily Record gave away a copy of The 39 Steps’ 1978 remake.
British newspaper DVDs
- Murder! (1930) – Telegraph boot of US cut
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) – Times, also Guardian boot
- The 39 Steps (1935) – Times (alt long sleeve), also Guardian boot
- Secret Agent (1936) – Times, x2
- Sabotage (1936) – Times, also Guardian boot
- Young and Innocent (1937) – Times (Amazon)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Times (alt long sleeve)
- Jamaica Inn (1939) – Times
- Rebecca (1940) – Times and Telegraph
- Spellbound (1945) – Times (long sleeve only) and Telegraph
- Notorious (1946) – Times and Telegraph
- The Paradine Case (1947) – Telegraph
All the above titles and more have also been issued with newspapers in various other European countries, most notably Greece. Those are also common on eBay but predictably, many of them are bootlegs; I’ve listed the few confirmed licensed discs in their respective articles. There’s no shortage of other such illicit tie-ins; even the venerable old Reader’s Digest got in on the act, via thankfully defunct bootleggers Blackhorse Entertainment.
Caricature by Sete González
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
