Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide, Part 2

by Brent Reid
Brent Reid
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British film restorations and collections

  • Think you’re a fan? If you don’t know his British films, you don’t know Hitchcock
  • Works from entire arc of his career should be seen in the best condition possible
  • Worst Hitchcock-related crimes of all involve grand theft, hacking and slashing
  • Most of his directorial output is largely known from poor quality, edited bootlegs
  • Barely surviving: the Master of Suspense’s superb silent films suffered worst of all
  • But after a years-long multi-million pound effort, all have been beautifully restored
  • Collecting quality releases was an impossible mission but here’s the secret to success
  • With this series of guides, you can build the ultimate Hitchcock home video collection
  • Streaming: like physical media, pirates outnumber official sources; here’s who to trust

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.

Part 1: Setting the scene, 2: British film restorations and collections, 3: US ABC and Warner Bros., 4: US Universal Studios

The Hitchcock 9 UK BFI poster, 2012

2012 UK poster

Contents

Early career

Alfred Hitchcock, mid-1920s

Young Alfred, mid-1920s

With hindsight, Alfred Hitchcock’s status as supreme master of the thriller genre looks predestined. With talents so perfectly attuned to the creation of suspense, to “putting the audience through it”, what other kind of movie could he have made? But at the outset of his career nobody – including Hitchcock himself – found it so obvious. It was not until he joined Gaumont- British in 1933, and embarked on the great run of thrillers that began with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), that the die was cast. Of the sixteen features he directed before that, only three or four can be classified as thrillers [sic]. The rest were romances, melodramas, comedies, filmed plays – and even something verging on a musical.

Hitchcock joined Islington Studios, at that time run by Famous-Players-Lasky (later to become Paramount), in 1919 as a designer of title cards. When FPL cut their losses and retreated back to Hollywood the studio was taken over by a new outfit, Balcon-Freedman- Saville; the versatile Hitchcock, rapidly diversifying into screenwriting and set design, stayed on as assistant to the company’s star director, Graham Cutts. Cutts became jealous of his talented sidekick and demanded he should be sacked, but instead Michael Balcon, the studio head, gave Hitchcock a film of his own to direct.

Hitchcock directed five films for Gainsborough, as the company was now known. Only The Lodger was a thriller; the other four (if accounts of The Mountain Eagle, now lost, can be trusted) were all melodramas, and the last of them, Easy Virtue, was adapted from a play by Noël Coward.

In 1927 Hitchcock was lured away to British International Pictures; he stayed there for five years, and was assigned an even more mixed batch of films. There were rustic comedies (The Farmer’s Wife), prestigious West End hits (Sean O’Casey’s JJuno and the Paycock, John Galsworthy’s The Skin Game), social satires. (The Ring, Champagne, Rich and Strange), and the adaptation of a then well-regarded novel, Hall Caine’s The Manxman. Some thrillers were in the mix too: Blackmail, the first British talkie; Murder!, another adapted. stage play, and really more of a whodunit; and the rubbishy [sic] Number Seventeen, which Hitchcock openly sent up.

Many of these films indicated clearly enough what were not Hitchcock’s strong suits. He could do little with the staginess of Galsworthy and O’Casey, or the solemnities of Hall Caine. Melodrama he handled better; there are some sharp, telling moments even in his very first film, The Pleasure Garden. Predictably, The Lodger and Blackmail found him in his element. Less expected is Hitchcock’s evident aptitude for social satire: incipient in The Ring, but fully developed in Rich and Strange, a sharp, beady-eyed tale with hints of moral desolation that recall Evelyn Waugh.

Rich and Strange, a film ahead of its time, nonetheless proved a critical and commercial disaster, perhaps convincing Hitchcock that this was not what the public expected of him. After leaving BIP he directed one film, Waltzes from Vienna, an inane pseudo-musical [sic] about the Strauss family. From this low ebb he was once again rescued by Michael Balcon, now head of production at Gaumont-British, who launched him on the run of thrillers that made his name as the ‘Master of Suspense’. The die was cast. – Philip Kemp/BFI/Criterion, UK BFI Lodger and Ring VHSs (1999)

Hitchcock’s Transition from London to Hollywood – Kristin Hunt

Restorations

BFI Rescue the Hitchcock 9 poster, 2010

UK poster, 2010

Sadly, like most silent films, the 10 Alfred Hitchcock directed from 1925–1929 have been subjected to much abuse and loss of footage since their original release, with one, The Mountain Eagle, completely lost. However, the rest were recently restored: In 2012, the British Film Institute concluded a three-year drive to produce comprehensive new restorations of Hitch’s nine extant silent features, which they dubbed ‘The Hitchcock 9’.

The Lodger was photochemically restored during the 1990s, so came with a head start rather than beginning from scratch, as with the rest. Overall, it was the largest and most costly such project the archive had ever undertaken and allowed the films to shine more clearly and completely than ever. Additionally, most of them received a new, specially commissioned score. The composers and musicians were a mixture of old hands at scoring silents and those new to the game, with the resultant accompaniments ranging from period to very modern and many points in between.

Trailer #2 | Why the Hitchcock 9 Matters – Joel Gunz

Thankfully, apart from his one missing short, there are no major issues with any of Hitch’s British talkies. They’re all in complete, as-originally-released condition via their licensed releases. Some, like The Man Who Knew Too Much and Jamaica Inn, have also had very recent digital restorations and now look and sound incredible.

Despite the BFI spearheading his silents’ high profile restoration, the rate of labels willing to take a punt on releasing them has been disappointingly slow. Of course, the worldwide abundance of bootlegs, especially of Hitch’s British films, has played the biggest part in killing demand for licensed editions, especially in this age of declining physical media sales. Only a few of the silents have appeared so far and though there are ongoing efforts behind the scenes to make them publicly available, unfortunately nothing concrete has been arranged yet. Do keep checking back though, as I’ll be posting updates as and when appropriate. What I can say is if and when there is an announcement about any restored release, do spread the word and support it all you can. The release of any subsequent silents very much depends on the success of the next one. And fans not buying those bootlegs. We all need to spread awareness of these points, otherwise it’s quite possible the restored Hitchcock 9 will never be available on any form of home video in their entirety.

3.3.2019 update: The Pleasure Garden is definitely coming, but its release will require some additional financial investment to make it happen – see how you can help here.

The Restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s Silent Films

Regardless, overall there’s never been a better time to sample Hitch’s British career and despite the seemingly confusing number of releases, there are fewer viable options than at first apparent, which makes things even easier. Do note: with relatively few notable exceptions, the majority of quality Hitch DVDs are European (region 2) PAL releases and there are only a handful of non-Euro (region B) BDs. If you don’t yet have multi-region playback capability, why on earth not? It’s easier and cheaper than you might think and crucial for acquiring the best versions possible.

Almost all authorised releases use the best prints available at the time of their production and most include a moderate to copious amount of extras. Transfers on more recent DVDs are often improved even further and post-2012 releases of the silents obviously feature the Hitchcock 9 versions. Specifically with regard to the talkies, all have excellent transfers of preserved prints and still more have HD-remastered transfers, while full digital restorations have also been afforded to Rich and Strange, Number Seventeen, Waltzes from Vienna, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes and Jamaica Inn. Of course, even – especially – for films as old as this, the best BDs and official streams look absolutely stunning and blow their DVD counterparts out of the water. Naturally, the uptick in terms of fine detail and grain resolution becomes more apparent the larger your screen. Having said that, despite not all of the latest restorations being released in HD, with the exception of The Pleasure Garden, the current editions all range from very good to magnificent.

Collections

If you’re as yet unfamiliar with Hitch’s British period and initially just want to dip your toes in the water, allow me: of his silents, The Lodger is easily the best-known and most widely available. However, instead I strongly recommend the more punchy, thrilling Blackmail as your first port of call. Quite honestly, The Lodger, as great as it is, wouldn’t even get my vote as second-best Hitch silent; that honour would likely go to the restored version of his first film, The Pleasure Garden. Ahead of its eventual – hopeful – home video release, I urge you to catch a live screening anytime you get the chance. As for Hitch’s talkies, you can’t go wrong with The Man Who Knew Too Much original, The Lady Vanishes or especially my fave, The 39 Steps. If you plan to pick up a goodly chunk or even all of Hitch’s silents and early talkies, you should start by getting at least one of these box sets covering the period.

The Swedish and Finnish Hitchcock Classic Collections, with four sets of subtitles, are identical bar translated packaging. The latter initially came in a slipcased foldout Digipak but was reissued in 2008 in a thick Amaray keep case. The same discs were also released individually in Norway (Star Media Entertainment) and in a Danish 4-disc set (On Air Video).

Retrospective

Hitchcock, So British!

The ownership of Hitch’s British films is evenly split between ITV and Studiocanal, with the exception of Jamaica Inn (Cohen), therefore most box sets tend to only consist of films from either company. All the above are derived from the same superb masters and pretty much interchangeable in terms of quality. It’s generally best to acquire whichever happen to be cheapest and easiest domestically, unless you really need subtitles in another language. Note that the first two French sets have non-removable subs, so choose another unless you’re prepared to put up with them. Alternatively, you may rip and reburn the discs, omitting the sub stream. A few players, like those from Oppo, have a useful “subtitle shift” feature to move them completely offscreen. Once again, these are all of the official box sets of Hitch’s early years. Any others are bootlegs.

Despite what the odd erroneous listing may say, almost all licensed releases worldwide are fully English-friendly with original English audio or intertitles by default and where present, optional subs. The sole exceptions are some French DVDs with forced French subs, including their German-language Mary. After you’ve acquired a suitable box set or two, you can fill in the gaps with individual releases, especially those from Network or Criterion. If you intend building a career-spanning Hitch DVD collection from the ground up, by all means start with one of the massive, English-friendly French or Benelux box sets. Just one of those will enable you to pick up half of his films in one go. Most links throughout the series of guides lead to places you can buy the item in question; if not it’s because they’re rare or deleted and I could only find temporary listings, eg eBay. In those cases, I’ve at least linked to relevant info on the release that may help you source it elsewhere.

Versátil: O Cinema de H discussion (Portuguese)

Streaming

Streaming video services may have largely usurped physical media in recent years but if you’re a fan of classic film and especially of Hitch, you’ll very quickly realise their limitations. Netflix, Disney Plus et al. may have their place but carry relatively little pre-2000s content, although the former is slowly improving in that regard. The Criterion Channel, Kino Now, TCM, Peacock and HBO Max are excellent options, providing you live in the US, while the UK’s BritBox and free-to-air Talking Pictures TV are also absolute champs. It’s also always worth checking out Sky UK and BBC iPlayer; you can also look up where individual films are streaming worldwide via JustWatch. But broadcasters and legit streamers like these aside, in most cases if you watch any old copy, especially – god forbid – via the likes of pirated uploads on YouTube and elsewhere, you’ve no way of knowing exactly which likely substandard version you’re getting. Just don’t do it: the Master deserves much better.

At least most of Hitch’s American films, apart from Under Capricorn and the four Hitchcock-Selznicks, can be bought widely in decent quality online. They feature the latest transfers, which thankfully correct various faux pas present on earlier physical releases, such as having the wrong aspect ratio, or the censored version of Psycho. But newest is not always best, as some introduce new faults of their own. Many Hitchcocks, including To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho, have gimmicky surround-remixed audio that’s nothing like what Hitch designed for them. Sadly, streaming copies only carry the revisionist remixes in addition to other ways they spoil the experience, so caveat emptor. With judiciously chosen physical releases, you at least get the option of experiencing them just as the Master intended; aspect ratio, editing, audio and all.

Amazon, Google Play, YouTube Movies and others are also awash with crappy pirated uploads, so bear in mind that only a handful of Hitch’s pre-1940 British films are officially available for streaming in the US and only two outside of it: Downhill and Jamaica Inn . Legitimate streams on Amazon and YouTube are detailed individually throughout this series; as ever, if it isn’t listed don’t watch or buy it. Some other services, like iTunes and Vudu, are more diligent about checking their sources are kosher, so buy with confidence. But for the foreseeable future, there’s no doubt that when it comes to properly experiencing and appreciating Hitchcock just as he intended, physical media is best overall.

Criterion Channel: British Hitchcock

Summary

We’re incredibly privileged to be able to collect almost all of Hitch’s British films in excellent condition on home video, but there are a few casualties. Aside from those missing in action, the only print of The Pleasure Garden currently available is heavily butchered and one to skip unless you’re desperate, in which case lower your expectations. At least we’ve the fully restored Hitchcock 9 version to look forward to, unlike with poor old Easy Virtue, which only survives in battered, incomplete condition. Not to worry: that still leaves us with a whopping 22 of the Master’s motherland masterpieces to enjoy unfettered, along with a couple of other films he also worked on and the prospect of more to come. Happy uneasy viewing!

Part 1: Setting the scene, 2: British film restorations and collections, 3: US ABC and Warner Bros., 4: US Universal Studios

This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

I started Brenton Film because I love film – quelle surprise! The silent era, 1930s and 1940s especially get my literary juices flowing, so you'll see a lot about those. For more, see the About page and read this before emailing.

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Pablo Glatz
Pablo Glatz
1st July 2020 06:05

Hello! First of all I love your content and I thank you for that. I’m beginning to get into Hitchcock’s work and I wanted to know if you know of a box set of his early british, silent films that are for Region 4 (South America, Australia and New Zealand) because I live in Mexico and I would love to have one of these sets of movies.
Greetings!

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