Check out Alfred Hitchcock's rear... window!

Advantages: Deliberately slow build-up of tension
Disadvantages: May be a bit too slow for some

...In case you're wondering, I'm having a bit of an Alfred Hitchcock week, and I've been watching a few films by "the master of suspense". Rear Window was made in 1954, and it's hailed as one of his finest achievements, even being voted number 14 on IMDb's top 250 films! That's above Citizen Kane and Lawrence of Arabia! Plus it was nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Screenplay and Best Director! It stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly as a couple who become sure that there's something suspicious going on in the flat opposite... Stewart plays Mr Jeffries, a newspaper photographer who has been confined to his apartment for six weeks with a broken leg, after a car accident. With nothing else to do, he watches his neighbours, and since there is a heat wave and everyone leaves their windows open, he has the perfect opportunity to...

l-m-n-o-p 04.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Rear Window (DVD)

39 classic episodes...

Advantages: 39 episodes in one place, classic television
Disadvantages: Addictive

...Alfred Hitchcock Presents? Season One This box set includes 6 discs from the first Season, which aired in 1955. Watching every single episode in this box set will take up 16 hours of time. I remember Alfred Hitchcock presents from the remakes in the 80s. When I spotted this box set I decided to buy it as the 1950's originals held more appeal for me. These episodes are classics and in my opinion better than the remakes. Each episode is introduced by Alfred Hitchcock, his introductions are funny and a good set up to the episode that is just about to be seen. He also appears at the end of each episode. I find this box set very addictive as well. I sit down to watch one episode and it seems to stay on for a lot longer. Each episode lasts about half hour and the episodes are very different, it was a very original show. All...

Jo586 11.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Hitchcock suspense

Advantages: Great cinematography
Disadvantages: Somewhat old-fashioned

...Introduction I've had this film on my shelf for a few years now and much as I love Hitchcock films, have always been put off by the title - somehow it seems very staid and uninteresting. I couldn't have been more wrong. Those are the last adjectives that should be used to describe this film. Made in 1940 not long after Hitchcock had moved to Hollywood, his second American film, it was nominated for 6 Oscars. The director Alfred Hitchcock, AKA the Master of Suspense, was born in the East End of London and started his film career as a title writer in London. He began his directing career when one of the directors from the film studio for which he worked fell ill and Hitchcock was asked to take over. By 1940, he had moved to Hollywood, where he made his most famous films, including Psycho. His last film before his death was family...

sunmeilan 14.12.2005 · Read review
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Review of Foreign Correspondent (DVD)

Pure Hitchcock

Advantages: Interesting aspects and visional tricks
Disadvantages: Not really very much to it

...for a few minutes, Christopher Walken, Mandy Patinkin, Same Levine and Charles Napier to name just a few. But despite these appearances it's a very much two handed movie between the two leads, the other actors presence being basically irrelevant, regardless of how quirky they may appear. Margolin in particular gives a good performance, one of her last in fact after a reasonable career including leading roles in Serpico, and Annie Hall she took a 10 year break from acting until Ghostbusters 2, shortly after she died of cancer. Last Embrace looks and feels like a Hitchcock movie, and this could be its flaw, you see you either love Hitchcock or hate him; and to be honest with you I was never that enamoured with the director although I did enjoy Psycho and Frenzy. Some argue that Last Embrace is an attempt to replicate Hitchcock, with Demme...

sghawken 08.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Last Embrace DVD

Terror strikes London - Hitchcock 1

Advantages: Hitchcocks genius, an incredibly tense scene & all around greatness
Disadvantages: None at all relly.

...Sabotage ? Wilful destruction of buildings or machinery with the object of alarming a group of persons or inspiring public uneasiness. Such is the dictionary definition of the word and the first thing you see on screen when you watch Sabotage. Made in 1936 Sabotage is another of the movies made by Alfred Hitchcock in the UK before he headed off to Hollywood and even bigger worldwide acclaim. Mr Verloc owns a small cinema in central London that he runs with his wife. They live out in the back of the building along with her younger brother Stevie. What no one knows about Mr Verloc though is that he is an agent of a foreign power that has plans to wreak havoc on the general populace of London by setting off a bomb on the Underground at Piccadilly Square. Sabotage is based on the novel Secret Agent written by Joseph Conrad, who also...

Ailran 13.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Sabotage (DVD)

Hitchcock's Final Plot [Film Only]

Advantages: Witty dialogue, sense of fun, good mix of characters
Disadvantages: Not the strongest story, opening is too long

...Following the success of The Birds in 1963, legendary director Alfred Hitchcock?s seemingly-evergreen career at the peak of Hollywood finally began its slow descent into the wilderness, after more than twenty years of revelling in the glitz of show business. Ego clashes and allegedly excessive pay demands soured Hitchcock?s working relationship with actors Paul Newman and Julie Andrews during the filming of Torn Curtain, and his decision never to work again with A-list performers symbolised the end of his run at Hollywood?s heights. Hitchcock would hit a critical and commercial low with 1969?s Topaz, a long-winded tale set during the Cuban Missile Crisis that was dull in its execution and alienating to long-time fans expecting more of his trademark suspense. After a brief return to Britain where he made his most violent picture Frenzy...

tom1clare 09.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Family Plot (DVD)

Hitchcock's final film

Advantages: Intriguing
Disadvantages: Slow and hard to follow to begin with

...Introduction I came across this film by accident at the weekend when I was checking some old videos to see what was on them. I had watched the film before, but had absolutely no recollection of what it was about, so didn't have terribly high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. The film is quite different from many of Hitchcock's other films - it is more in the line of a black comedy than the usual suspense movie, nevertheless it was very entertaining. All I can say is I must have been drunk when I watched it the first time. The director Born in London, Alfred Hitchcock also began his career there, before moving to Hollywood in 1940, where he made most of his more famous films, including Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest. He apparently had a cameo role in each of his films - sometimes it is easy to spot him, sometimes not...

sunmeilan 25.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Family Plot (DVD)

Often Overlooked But One Of Hitchcock's Best

Advantages: Great performances, story, direction, camara work
Disadvantages: None

...This film is hugely under-rated in the Hitchcock filmography. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains this film must rank amongst one of the best thrillers of it's time, and any other for that matter. Why it is not spoken about in the same breath as North by Northwest or Night of The Hunter is a mystery to me. The film contains the perfect balance between dark thriller and dark romance and reaches a nail biting climax. Alicia Huberman (Bergman) accused WWII traitor father commits suicide and in an attempt to prove her allegiance to the US cause agrees to be enlisted by US secret agent Devlin (Grant) to court and marry neo-nazi Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains) in order to monitor Nazi activities. Sebastian learns that his wife is a spy and reluctantly through pressure from his mother he...

Nixu1980 10.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Notorious (DVD)