Tweet Major Hitchcock Blu-ray set & "DIAL M" in 3-D

[Christopher Jacobs]

Can't believe nobody's posted this amazing announcment yet, which means that almost half of Alfred Hitchcock's surviving films will be available on Blu-ray this fall.

Warner Brothers just announced that DIAL M FOR MURDER will get a 3-D Blu-ray release in October, and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN will debut on Blu-ray the same day. Details at http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=9000" target="_blank" target="_blank with lists of bonus features.

Universal, just the day before, announced the top news of the week, its 15-film "Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection" Blu-ray box set due out on September 25th. This will feature various films originally released by Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., and MGM, featuring only two titles** previously issued on Blu-ray (and one of those somehow borrowed from Warner). This set includes SABOTEUR, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, ROPE, REAR WINDOW, THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956), VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST**, PSYCHO**, THE BIRDS, MARNIE, TORN CURTAIN, TOPAZ, FRENZY, and FAMILY PLOT. More details at http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8987" target="_blank" target="_blank including lists of bonus features. It looks like only REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO will have commentaries besides NORTH BY NORTHWEST and PSYCHO, which already had them. The "appreciation," storyboards, and alternate endings of TOPAZ should be of interest, as TOPAZ is one of his weakest films. I just hope Universal gives each of these titles as good looking a transfer as their PSYCHO stand-alone release.

With what Hitchcock has already been released on Blu-ray by Criterion, MGM-Fox, and Paramount, now all we need are the rest of the British Hitchcocks and several scattered 1940s-50s titles for a definitive collection.

Does anyone know how the 3-D will be displayed on this Blu-Ray release? I have a standard projection system in my home theatre, and have been awaiting classic titles in Blu-Ray 3-D. Not sure if I will need a 3-D projector. The titles I'm really looking for are HOUSE OF WAX and KISS ME KATE, both of which have surviving 2 strip elements.

Saw DIAL M FOR MURDER in 3-D in a theatre a few years ago, and the only really great depth was in the main titles and a few other scenes.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Does anyone know how the 3-D will be displayed on this Blu-Ray release? I have a standard projection system in my home theatre, and have been awaiting classic titles in Blu-Ray 3-D. Not sure if I will need a 3-D projector. The titles I'm really looking for are HOUSE OF WAX and KISS ME KATE, both of which have surviving 2 strip elements.

Saw DIAL M FOR MURDER in 3-D in a theatre a few years ago, and the only really great depth was in the main titles and a few other scenes.

It will be the current Blu-ray 3-D standard, requiring a special 3-D Blu-ray player connected to a 3-D TV or a 3-D projector and the LCD shutter-glasses that can separate the two images to each eye. The package also includes a standard 2-D Blu-ray of the film, so you can still watch it in HD until you decide to upgrade to a 3-D projector. The only way to make home 3-D available without a special projector or TV set with the expensive shutter glasses is to use the anaglyph red/blue, red/green, or in some cases purple/green double-image on screen with matching glasses. The CORALINE Blu-ray does this, as well as the DVDs of the Columbia 3 Stooges 3-D shorts and a few other DVDs, and while the 3-D can be perceived, the picture still has a faint double-image and gets to be a big pain (literally) by the end of the movie, besides distorting the color and being rather dark overall. The shutter-glasses give a beautiful 3-D image on the demos I've seen, and are comparable to the Dolby 3-D theatrical presentations with shutter-glasses (though I still prefer the polarized presentations in theatres).

According to the Warner Bros. press release, it sounds like if there are decent sales that HOUSE OF WAX might be next as a 3-D Blu-ray, with possible plans for most or all of Warner's 15 3-D titles from the 1950s (which would include KISS ME KATE). Great news if that actually happens, and if Universal puts its three major 3-D horror classics onto 3-D Blu-rays as well, I'll probably get myself a 3-D projector the next time my lamp reaches the end of its life (in which case I probably won't bother with a little 3-D flatscreen HDTV).

Maybe I'm just not seeing it but is there a price on there for the set - the Masterpiece Collection I mean?

[Christopher Jacobs]

Maybe I'm just not seeing it but is there a price on there for the set - the Masterpiece Collection I mean?

Blu-ray.com's page for the collection at http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Alfred-Hi ... ray/45102/ now shows it available for pre-order. The list price is $300 for 15 films ($20/film) with Amazon's price currently at a reasonable $210 (or $14/film). I suspect that by November or December there may well be pre-Christmas sales closer to $150 for the set.

There is so far no pre-order price up for DIAL M FOR MURDER, but STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, coming out the same day, already has a pre-order price of $14 (list price $20).