Category: Movie - Mystery / Suspense - Mystery / Suspense / Thriller - TV Shows - Television
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DVD Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One
When it premiered on CBS on October 2, 1955, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an instant hit destined for long-term popularity. The series' original half-hour anthology format provided a perfect showcase for stories of mystery, suspense, and the macabre that reflected Hitchcock's established persona. Every Sunday at 9:30 p.m., the series began with the familiar theme of Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" (which would thereafter be inextricably linked with Hitchcock), and as Hitchcock's trademark profile sketch was overshadowed by the familiar silhouette of Hitchcock himself, the weekly "play" opened and closed with the series' most popular feature: As a good-natured host whose inimitable presence made him a global celebrity, Hitchcock delivered droll, dryly sardonic introductions and epilogues to each week's episode, flawlessly written by James Allardyce and frequently taking polite pot-shots at CBS sponsors, or skirting around broadcast standards (which demanded that no crime could go unpunished) by humorously explaining how the show's killers and criminals were always brought to justice... though always with a nod and a wink to the viewer.
This knowing complicity was Hitchcock's pact with his audience, and the secret to his (and the series') long-term success. It's also what attracted a stable of talented writers whose teleplays, both original and adapted, maintained a high standard of excellence. Hitchcock directed four of the first season's 39 episodes, including the premiere episode "Revenge" (a fan favorite, with future Psycho costar Vera Miles) and the season highlight "Breakdown," with Joseph Cotten as a car-accident victim, paralyzed and motionless, who's nearly left for dead; it's a perfect example of visual and narrative economy, executed with a master's touch. (The fourth episode, "Don't Come Back Alive," is also a popular favorite, with the kind of sinister twist that became a series trademark.) Robert Stevenson directed the majority of the remaining episodes with similar skill, serving tightly plotted tales (selected by associate producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd) by such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy L. Sayers, and John Collier. Adding to the series' prestige was a weekly roster of new and seasoned stars, with first-season appearances by Cloris Leachman, Darren McGavin, Everett Sloane, Peter Lawford, Charles Bronson, Barry Fitzgerald, John Cassavetes, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, and a host of Hollywood's best-known character players. With such stellar talent on weekly display, Alfred Hitchcock Presents paved the way for Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and other series that maximized the anthology format's storytelling potential.
Packed onto three double-sided DVDs, these 39 episodes hold up remarkably well, and while some prints show the wear and tear of syndication, they look and sound surprisingly good (although audio compression will cause many viewers to turn up the volume). The 15-minute bonus featurette, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back" is perfunctory at best, but it's nice to see new anecdotal interviews with Norman Lloyd, assistant director Hilton Green, and Hitchcock's daughter Pat (a frequent performer on these episodes), who survived to see their popular series benefit from the archival convenience of DVD. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One
Lousy Treatment of Priceless Material
Just needed to add to the long list of outraged customers who bought this set, only to discover that the double-discs tend to be defective, often stopping or freezing halfway into episodes. When watching an often highly literary mystery program, it is especially infuriating when an episode cuts out and leaves you hanging, like the last few pages of a short story having been torn from the book. Worse still, given the fact that this is ALFRED HITCHCOCK and not something crummy (like Spielberg's almost unwatchable "Amazing Stories"), you would think Universal would actually bother to treat this property with an ounce of respect. Considering the fact that collectors/afficionados of this type of programming tend to be relatively discriminating, Universal should offer complete replacement sets. They've made a mint off Hitchcock!
As for the show itself, it's almost uniformly superlative. I had forgotten how gruesome and graphically violent these episodes tended to be, so it's been a pleasant rediscovery. All the more reason to resent Universal's appallingly shoddy treatment.
HMM... I 'M CONCERNED AS REGARDS "SKIPPING" AND "JUMPING BACK" AMID EPISODES.
Four stars given by me just because it's AHP. Five if I could feel confident of high quality regarding the infamous double sided DVD format.
I just recently made purchase and received the second season set to give as presents to my two young adult children who've only seen AHP a few times and loved it. However, I have yet to buy the first season set due to the comments of a number of folks regarding the double sided DVDs "skipping" and "jumping back".
I'd like to see some much more recent commentary from any purchasers of this first season set in this DVD configuration as to how they've fared with them.
I'd love to buy the first season set but am very reluctant to do so as other double sided DVD items I and others I know have bought have suffered similar problems.
What say any of you folks? Would appreciate hearing from any of you. Perhaps the AHP DVD manufacturers have any comments of reassurance they'd care to make.
Thanks.
A macabre feast for Hitchcock fans
Watching the immense season one of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS is like coming upon a treasure chest of lost Alfred Hitchcock masterpieces in miniature. Herein are 25 minute tales of murder, infidelity, more murder, the macabre, ironic twist endings, and still more murder. There is so much here that it seems like several seasons, not just one 39 episode season. It has taken me two months to get through the three disk set.
I don't even know where to begin, maybe with the key players. Vera Miles and Ralph Meeker as a married couple, a never-better John Qualen in at least three of the very best (especially "Help Wanted" with Lorne Greene), Pat Hitchcock (Hitch's daughter) in two of the best (that vanishing hotel is a lulu), John Forsythe in a town that seems haunted, Claude Rains as an eerie ventriloquist, several blackmailers and husbands who fake wives' deaths to collect on insurance policies they do not get, Charles Bronson, Cloris Leachman, gamblers (including Gene Barry) who run out of luck, Everett Sloane and Sidney Blackmer in several delicious gems as men whose murdered wives come back from the dead; the list goes on. The casting throughout, perhaps by associate producer Joan Harrison, is world-class.
The crew is great, including B&W photography, art direction on the Universal back lot and detailed interiors that belie low production costs, and sharp editing. The directors include the versatile Robert Stevenson (MARY POPPINS) and Hitchcock himself on a few playlets. Hitchcock is seemingly the producer on all 39 teleplays here, all of them with witty and acid introductions and closings with him.
But it is the writing that should get the highest praise here--the suspenseful and ironic plotting, superb dialogue, and surprise endings. Note, especially, how graphic violence is mostly off-screen, including at intermission fade-outs. There are no bloodbaths here, or in most of Hitchcock's theatrical masterpieces. Your mind only thinks there is. The TV writers include Francis Cockrell, Ray Bradbury, and Robert C. Dennis. Their work is magnificent on these spine-tingling little tales of the macabre. The talented actors could not do their jobs without the words to say. ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (Season One) gets my highest recommendation for fans of the macabre and the supernatural. You will definitely lose sleep over most of these stories. Good eve-ning.
Related DVD's Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" appears to be the guiding philosophy behind season 2 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Like season 1, these 39 episodes (totaling 16 hours, 52 minutes, and originally broadcast from September 30, 1956 to June 23, 1957) follow the established formula that made the series so popular, with self-contained tales of murder, suspense, and intrigue (mostly running about 26 minutes each) based on short stories from a variety of new and established writers in the mystery genre. (Many of these stories also found their way into Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.) By latter-day standards of intensity, most of these episodes play like tame, parlor-trick mysteries or single-room chamber pieces that accommodated the show's emphasis on budget-friendly... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 17 October 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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