Posts filed under Blu-ray

More New to Blu-ray!

I’ve just spotted that Elephant Films are releasing a batch of Hitchcock Blu-rays in France during October, including the British Film Institute’s recent restorations of Easy Virtue (Le Passé ne Meurt Pas), Downhill (C’est la Vie) and The Lodger (Les Cheveux d’Or). The 3 films are also being released in a box set along with The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps. The releases are listed on Amazon France: The Lodger Downhill… (read more)

Revisiting “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934) cameo

Way back in 2007, I did some DVD screen grabs of a possible Hitchcock cameo in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Even with the best quality DVD transfer available, it wasn’t particularly conclusive. Anyway, I’ve just gone back and taken a new set of grabs using the Criterion Bluray transfer. See what you think (I’ve boosted the contrast to make them easier to view)… …the figure then crosses the road and is in… (read more)

The first Hitchcock toilet?

Everyone knows that Psycho (1960) was one of the first — if not the first — Hollywood feature film to show a flushing toilet, but was it the first Hitchcock film to show a toilet? The Lodger (1927) has a scene set in a bathroom, but no toilet is shown. Perhaps the Buntings only have an outside toilet? Nor do we get to see Sir John Menier’s toilet in Murder! (1930) whilst he shaves in… (read more)

Dental Anachronism

As Patrick McGilligan notes in his biography of Hitchcock, the director detested “the plausibles” — those who analysed his films too deeply and who delighted in finding plot holes. “I’m not concerned with plausibility,” Hitchcock liked to boast. “That’s the easiest part, so why bother?” Or, as he put it on another occasion, “Must a picture be logical, when life is not?” I was reminded of this when I stumbled across this little article published… (read more)

Criterion Collection: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Criterion have just announced that they’ll be releasing Hitchcock’s original 1934 version of “The Man Who Knew Too Much on DVD and Blu-ray. The features are listed as: New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition New audio commentary featuring film historian Philip Kemp New interview with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro The Illustrated Hitchcock, an extensive interview with director Alfred Hitchcock from 1972, conducted by journalist Pia Lindstrom and film historian… (read more)