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Hitchcock’s Notorious Returns To DVD October 14th

Posted by Dirty Harry on Thursday, August 7th, 2008

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Notorious (1946) isn’t only Hitchcock’s greatest film, it’s one of the greatest ever and unabashedly patriotic [liberal translation: jingoistic] to boot. Also being re-released are Spellbound and Rebecca. As Reader Jonathan said in his heads-up email: “These have been unavailable for a long time and anybody wanting to purchase them would have to deal with exorbitant prices for the out-of-print Criterion releases or even older bare-bones versions that looked conspicuously like Chinese imports.”

Yes, they do look like Chinese imports. I should know. I own all three.

Special features below the jump:

Notorious (1946)
Daughter of an accused World War II traitor, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted to entrap one of her father’s colleagues in Brazil, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains). Her American contact, secret agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) is openly contemptuous of Alicia and instructs her to wed Sebastian. It is only after she is wed that Devlin lets himself admit that he’s fallen in love with her.

BONUS FEATURES:

  • Commentary with film historian Rick Jewell
  • Commentary with film historian Drew Casper
  • Isolated Music and Effects Track
  • The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious Featurette
  • Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster Featurette
  • AFI Tribute to Hitchcock
  • 1948 Radio Play Starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman
  • Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
  • Audio Interview: Francois Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
  • Restoration Comparision
  • Still Gallery
  • PLUS: A 4-Page Booklet

Rebecca (1940)
A young woman marries a fascinating older widower only to discover that she must live in the shadows of his first wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years before.

BONUS FEATURES:

  • Commentary by film historian/author Richard Schickel
  • Screen tests
  • Making of Rebecca Featurette
  • The Gothic World of Daphne Du Maurier Featurette
  • Original 1938 Radio Play Starring Orson Welles
  • 1941 Radio Play Presented by Cecil B. DeMille
  • 1950 Radio Play with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier
  • Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
  • Audio Interview: François Truffaut Interviews Hitchcock
  • PLUS: A Four-page booklet

Spellbound (1945)
When John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), the new director of a mental asylum arrives on the job, the staff is concerned. He seems too young for the position and his answers to their questions are vague and detached. Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), while knowing he is an impostor with emotional issues, nevertheless falls in love with him. Turning to her mentor, Dr. Alex Brulov (Michael Checkhov) and the use of psychoanalysis she tries to get to the root of Ballantine’s emotional problems.

BONUS FEATURES:

  • Commentary with film historians Thomas Schatz & Charles Ramirez Berg
  • Guilt by Association: Psychoanalyzing Spellbound Featurette
  • A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming Featurette
  • Dreaming with Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali Featurette
  • 1948 Radio Play Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  • Audio Interview: Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Hitchcock
  • Audio Interview: Film Historian Rudy Belhemer Interviews Composer Miklós Rózsa
  • Still Gallery
  • PLUS: A Four-page booklet

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13 Responses to “Hitchcock’s Notorious Returns To DVD October 14th”

  1. wanketteon 07 Aug 2008 at 9:09 am 1

    I love that Rebecca comes with radio versions — now THAT would be a most excellent scary night with lights out/fire going/popcorn…

    DH, another request for the email address. I know your cup runneth over, but — I have a list.

    HARRY HERE: mtaylor19481@yahoo.com — you can always find it in my bio above.

  2. Mr. Wolfon 07 Aug 2008 at 9:19 am 2

    Wow! And I say again, wow!

    Notorious. Best. Movie. Kiss. Ever.

    ^..^

  3. Bobon 07 Aug 2008 at 9:25 am 3

    Note - “Notorious” takes place in Argentina, not Brazil, but nevertheless: this is surely the best picture of the mid-career Hitchcock, and probably his best overall. (Best early-career Hitcock is either “The 39 Steps” or “The Lady Vanishes”; “NxNW” is the best late-career Hithcock … despite the raves of sickos for “Vertigo”.)

    “Spellbound” is pretty dull, and Peck doesn’t help. “Rebecca” is good, but not interesting. The great Hitchcock movies include a sense of threat to the society or community - and the patriotic dimensions of “Notorious,” “39 Steps,” “Lady Vanishes,” “NxNW” provide that in spades. Most of his other movies just bore in on the weirdness or psychosis of individuals and their danger to others. That road leads straight to “American Beauty.”

  4. Ratherreadon 07 Aug 2008 at 9:46 am 4

    Yes!! I love Notorious! I think it’s one of Hitchcock’s best ever and I think that Claude Rains should have won an Oscar for it.

    Was there ever a more timeless beauty than Ingrid Bergman? She never went overboard with exotic makeup or hairdos and, as a consequence, she does not look dated in her movie roles.

  5. Ginaon 07 Aug 2008 at 9:50 am 5

    This made my day! I’ll be first in line to buy the “Notorious” DVD. I might even be in front of Harry. ;-)

    (It does take place in Brazil, actually.)

  6. photomanon 07 Aug 2008 at 10:08 am 6

    There really is a SANTA CLAUS!!!!

  7. photomanon 07 Aug 2008 at 11:02 am 7

    BOB: ‘ “Rebecca” is good, but not interesting. ‘

    What?! Are we talking about the same movie?

  8. Dumb_Blondeon 07 Aug 2008 at 12:04 pm 8

    All I can say is … YIPEE! My first stop on October 14th will be Dirty Harry’s Place so I can click through to Amazon and get my hands on Notorious and Rebecca ;) Thanks for the heads up!

    P.S. Actually, Dirty Harry’s Place is usually my first stop of the day!

  9. blackhawk12151on 07 Aug 2008 at 12:40 pm 9

    The re-release of these three films is actually a part of the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection. It will also have remastered versions of The Lodger, Young and Innocent, Sabotage, Lifeboat, and The Paradine Case. I believe these three are the only ones being released separately from the collection.

    All in all, a pretty good collection that will definitely end up sitting atop my DVD rack

  10. Bobon 07 Aug 2008 at 2:39 pm 10

    Sorry photoman. “Rebecca” is not interesting. The atmosphere is creepy, it’s disturbing, etc. But it’s “Jane Eyre” all over again, and that makes it sort of one-dimensional. The threat Mrs. D presents is to Fontaine (yawn) and Olivier (yawn yawn), not to us, and our concern for their safety/happiness is nonexistent.

  11. Hitchcock’s “Notorious” returns « The Fuming Pewon 07 Aug 2008 at 2:41 pm 11

    […] Check out the extras! […]

  12. maatkareon 07 Aug 2008 at 6:08 pm 12

    Sorry, Bob, Rebecca is great. i just watched it recently–I think it’s definitely a chick flick, but it’s so well done. Also full of excellent supporting cast, the heroine does indeed grow up during it–I lvoe it. But I already have the Criterion Notorious so I won’t drop $ on another version. I did just eBay the Criterion “Last Emperor” though. It’s purty!

  13. photomanon 07 Aug 2008 at 7:32 pm 13

    Bob, We don’t have to feel threatened personally. We only need to feel suspense and/or fear for a character we empathize with or care about. Because we are in the dark about the reasons for Olivier’s anger and mood swings we fear for the heroine. And the movie is nothing like Jane Eyre or, at least, most versions of Jane Eyre.

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