Due on Blu: Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection

A Blu-ray box set of 15 Alfred Hitchcock movies, complete with 15 hours of bonus content, will be released on October 3.

NZ pricing has still to be confirmed but expect to pay around $150-$170 given at least one Australian retailer has listed it for $A130.

Only two of the movies, North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960), have been released here on Blu-ray.

And only last week a third, Vertigo (1958), hit the headlines for edging out Citizen Kane on Sight & Sound’s “poll shocker” of the 50 greatest movies ever made (Tui, anyone?).

Moreover, how a “masterpiece collection” can be described as such when it’s missing Strangers on a Train (1951) but includes Frenzy (1972) and Family Plot (1976) is as debatable as Sight & Sound’s choices.

It’s not clear if the Australasian release will include a 50-page book filled with “storyboards, costume sketches, correspondence, photographs, and much more” given it’s selling for well below the listed US price of $US300 — and invariably local releases of classics come without the US trimmings (note Universal’s realtively vanilla versions of 100th anniversary milestones like To Kill a Mockingbird and All Quiet on the Western Front).

Here is the full list of titles and extras:

Saboteur (1942)

• Saboteur: A Closer Look
• Storyboards: The Statue of Liberty Sequence
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Sketches
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

• Beyond Doubt: The Making of Hitchcock’s Favorite Film
• Production Drawings by Art Director Robert Boyle
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Rope (1948)

• Rope Unleashed
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Rear Window (1954)

• Rear Window Ethics: An Original Documentary
• A Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael Hayes
• Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of The Master
• Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
• Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts
• Masters of Cinema
• Feature Commentary with John Fawell, author of Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer
• Re-Release Trailer Narrated by James Stewart
• Blu-ray exclusives: BD Live, Pocket Blu

The Trouble With Harry (1955)

• The Trouble with Harry Isn’t Over
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

• The Making of The Man Who Knew Too Much
• Production Photographs
• Trailers

Vertigo (1958)

• Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock’s Masterpiece
• Partners in Crime: Hitchcock’s Collaborators
• Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts
• Foreign Censorship Ending
• The Vertigo Archives
• Feature Commentary with Associate Producer Herbert Coleman, Restoration Team Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, and Other Vertigo Participants
• Feature Commentary with Director William Friedkin
• 100 Years of Universal: The Lew Wasserman Era
• Theatrical Trailer
• Restoration Theatrical Trailer
• BD Live, Pocket Blu (Blu-ray Exclusive)

North by Northwest (1959)

• Feature Commentary by screenwriter Ernest Lehman
• The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style
• Cary Grant: A Class Apart
• North by Northwest: One for the Ages
• Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest
• Music-only audio track
• Stills gallery
• Theatrical trailers and TV spot

Psycho (1960)

• The Making of Psycho
• Psycho Sound
• In The Master’s Shadow: Hitchcock’s Legacy
• Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts
• Newsreel Footage: The Release of Psycho
• The Shower Scene: With and Without Music
• The Shower Scene: Storyboards by Saul Bass
• The Psycho Archives
• Posters and Psycho Ads
• Lobby Cards
• Behind-the-Scenes Photographs
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer
• Re-release Trailers
• Feature Commentary with Stephen Rebello (author of Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho)

The Birds (1963)

• Deleted Scene
• Original Ending
• The Birds: Hitchcock’s Monster Movie — New! (Blu-ray Exclusive)
• All About The Birds
• Storyboards
• Tippi Hedren’s Screen Test
• Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts
• The Birds Is Coming (Universal International Newsreel)
• Suspense Story: National Press Club Hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel)
• Production Photographs
• 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics
• 100 Years of Universal: The Lot
• Theatrical Trailer
• BD Live, Pocket Blu (Blu-ray Exclusive)

Marnie (1964)

• The Trouble with Marnie
• The Marnie Archives
• Theatrical Trailer

Torn Curtain (1966)

• Torn Curtain Rising
• Scenes Scored by Bernard Herrmann
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Topaz (1969)

• Alternate Endings
• Topaz: An Appreciation by Film Historian and Critic Leonard Maltin
• Storyboards: The Mendozas
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Frenzy (1972)

• The Story of Frenzy
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer

Family Plot (1976)

• Plotting Family Plot
• Storyboards: The Chase Scene
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer