By Lee Pfeiffer
One of the most eagerly-awaited DVD releases of the year, Warner Home Video's 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest lives us to the hype. This is the first Hitchcock film to get the Blu-ray treatment and the remastered transfer from the original MGM VistaVision print makes the characters virtually jump off the screen. The color quality is exceptional and, even if you've seen the film countless times, this will rejuvenate the experience. Hitchcock called the movie the epitome of his work in the American cinema, and for my money it's arguably his best thriller: a timeless, almost flawless masterpiece that finds the perfect balance between suspense and comedy. The film also demonstrates why Cary Grant's talents were always taken for granted: he made outstanding performances look too damned easy.
Although there is a standard definition DVD of this release that
contains much of the same material, only the Blu-ray comes creatively
packaged as a hardcover book that offers 44 pages of interesting
information about the making of the film, complimented by some
outstanding stills and archival movie posters.The disc itself recycles
all of the material from the previous release, including an audio
commentary track with the late screenwriter Ernest Lehman,
Destination Hitchcock (a featurette done in the year 2000 with Eva Marie Saint), the excellent TCM documentary
Cary Grant: A Class Apart, a
photo gallery of extremely interesting behind the scenes photos and a
trailer and TV spot gallery that includes a teaser trailer with Hitch
taking us on a tongue-in-cheek tour of the film locations. New
additions to this release are two documentaries,
The Master's Touch: Hitichcock's Signature Style and
North by Northwest: One for the Ages. They
present recent interviews with contemporary directors who extol the
continuing influence of Hitch on the cinema. My only disappointment is
that Warners have not packaged this release in one of those
shelf-breaking boxed sets loaded with memorabilia. Nevertheless, it's
one of the "must-have" DVD releases of the year.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER BLU-RAY EDITION DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON AND TO VIEW RARE HITCHCOCK TEASER TRAILER
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER STANDARD DVD EDITION