MGM: Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection

[manicsounds]

Individual releases for Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young And Innocent coming on Feb. 10th, at $19.99 each

[Jeff]

Individual releases for Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young And Innocent coming on Feb. 10th, at $19.99 each

Huzzah! I knew it!

The Lodger is coming that day too. DVD Empire has them all for $14.19.

[Joe Buck]

Individual releases for Paradine Case, Sabotage, and Young And Innocent coming on Feb. 10th, at $19.99 each

Yes! Great news! I sold my Criterions but have held off from the box due to the reported problems and due to it's ridiculous girth. I saw it in Barnes and Noble and I certainly wouldnt' want that thing disrupting my DVD shelf.Not that I am tickled by the artwork of the individual dvd titles, but hey, all I'm ever going to see is their spines. I'll gonna pre-order them all pronto.

[knepo]

Does anyone have any news about this set?
I just noticed that it is no longer available from amazon.com....
Maby there will be a new edition...

[Tolmides]

Does anyone have any news about this set?
I just noticed that it is no longer available from amazon.com....
Maby there will be a new edition...

Well, well, well...that's some good news at last. Just when I was beginning to think I'd have to buy the releases individually.

[knepo]

Does anyone have any news about this set?
I just noticed that it is no longer available from amazon.com....
Maby there will be a new edition...

It's available again, so i guess it wasn't good news...

[Caligula]

My order got depatched from Barnes & Noble before the reports pertaining to the defects started coming in (Note to self: never pre-order again, wait for reviews first). The set arrived seemingly intact, with no tears or cracks in the outer case.

Filled with dread, I ran the whole set through my player (Denon DVD 2900), skipping through the films.

The Lodger was probably the worst. Trying to load it sounded like a cross between a lawnmower and a dentist's drill in my player, and eventually just froze. Both Rebecca and Spellbound sounded horrible in my player, and Notorious had that milky appearance and glue-like substance on the playing side that has been mentioned elsewhere before.

So I contacted Barnes & Noble for a refund. Because I live in South Africa with the resultant high cost of returning the package, they let me keep the set, whilst at the same time refunding me in full. It's been some time since I've been this impressed with an e-tailer's service.

I'll probably wind up buying the individual release of (at least) The Lodger (already have the Criterion, Masterpiece & Signature sets), once reviews indicate the manufacturing soundness thereof.

[zedz]

So I contacted Barnes & Noble for a refund. Because I live in South Africa with the resultant high cost of returning the package, they let me keep the set, whilst at the same time refunding me in full. It's been some time since I've been this impressed with an e-tailer's service.

They did the same for me with Ford at Fox, which made me punch-drunk for at least a week. Fortunately, all of my damaged discs seemed to be playable.

[Shrew]

I couldn't resist the $45 price tag at the Deep Discount sale and plunged in, despite the warnings. I spot-checked the DVDs and let a few play a bit longer, and none had any problems save for Rebecca and The Lodger, which both exhibit the terrible motorcar noise. And the films don't play at all or play as a dying stage actor, all wild gesticulations disconnected and floating in space. So that's a bigger problem.

Since it's just the two discs with issues, couldn't I just contact Fox for some replacements, or do I have to go through Deep Discount?

[brendanjc]

I received my set from Deep Discount yesterday. First impression - the packaging is terrible terrible terrible. However, I went through and spot-checked each disk and none of them had any playback issues or visible scratches, so it appears that there are some good sets out there along with all the previously-reported bad.

[filmnoir1]

Has anyone purchased the single disc release of The Lodger? If so, could you inform us if it has the same problems that were attributed to the box set?

[zone_resident]

I don't have it; but Beaver suggests that at least the copy they reviewed is fine.

[Feego]

From what I understand, there was nothing wrong with the discs themselves (when they were manufactured). It had to do with the terrible packaging, which caused the discs to become warped. The single releases, which are in standard keep cases, should be fine. I don't have either the set or any of the single releases, I'm just relaying what I've read.

[Jonathan S]

From what I understand, there was nothing wrong with the discs themselves (when they were manufactured). It had to do with the terrible packaging, which caused the discs to become warped. The single releases, which are in standard keep cases, should be fine. I don't have either the set or any of the single releases, I'm just relaying what I've read.

That was also my belief until I came across a few postings by people having the same trouble with even the single releases (the first batch) in keep cases. For example, from Amazon:

My disc is having problems playing (the Premiere Collection "Rebecca" individual release, not from the boxset). Apparently many people who own this release and the boxset have the same complaints I do. There is extremely loud buzzing when the disc is put in the player (this most likely indicates a warped disc). It either freezes up during portions of the film or refuses to even play on some players. Obviously this is the fault of the manufacturer if there have been so many consumer complaints. Let's hope we'll hear of a recall soon since this is shoddy business on their part.

Maybe Fox are taking discs from their hundreds of returned Premiere sets and putting them in keep cases? On the other hand, it could be a manufacturing fault - there were similar problems reported with even (some) pristine copies of 7th Heaven in their Murnau-Borzage set...

[psufootball07]

I went ahead and purchased Notorious, Rebecca and Spellbound releases in December, and recently watched my Rebecca copy with no issues. Yes they come in individual cases, and after having watched all 3 films and many of the extras, I cant recollect any major or minor issue with these discs at all.

[htdm]

Same here. I recently purchased the set and have yet to experience any of the problems that were being reported. I hope this means they've gone back and fixed the problems.

[MoonlitKnight]

About time. I remember MGM was planning this box set back before it was taken over by Sony (and then its home video releases given to Fox). Now where's that box set of David Lean's early films that was also planned around the same time? :-k

[cana7cl]

The Paradine Case (individual release) going out-of-print.

[denti alligator]

The Paradine Case (individual release) going out-of-print.

is the picture quality better than the old R1 disc?

[PillowRock]

So did they ever do another production run of the box, or anything?

Translation: Are the odds of getting a box set that I don't need to return any better now than they once were?

[mfunk9786]

Just got a copy of this "Like New" and the disc for Lifeboat doesn't match the rest? Rather than the turquoise disc advertised on the back of the package, it's a disc that is apparently from a Fox special edition of Lifeboat… can anyone confirm/deny that it is supposed to be this way?

[domino harvey]

Mine matches the other discs in the set

[mfunk9786]

Snarfle. I have a feeling that this guy tried to pull a fast one on me.

[martin]

My Lifeboat disc also matches the rest of the Premiere set (It says PREMIERE COLLECTION at the top of the disc, which I can't imagine is the case with the Fox Lifeboat disc?).

[matrixschmatrix]

I got mine sealed, and the cover on Lifeboat is a special edition rather than the look of the rest of the discs.