More Criterion Hitchcock on the way?

There were some Hitchcock movies released on LD through Criterion, but
not all have made it to DVD. I don't expect to see North by Northwest
reissued by Criterion when there is a fine DVD from the studio
available, but what about Blackmail, Sabotage, Secret Agent, and Young
and Innocent? Any hope Criterion will be able to put these on DVD?
--

"If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in
Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned
out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?"

--C.S. Lewis

 

Well, according to The Digital Bits' 5/20/2004 "Rumour Mill" column...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html

....MGM is issuing _Sabotage_ and _Young and Innocent_ (along with _The Lady
Vanishes_, _Notorious_, _The Paradine Case_, _Rebecca_, _Spellbound_ and
_The 39 Steps_) in November. And while both films are public domain -- as
evinced by their having been released repeatedly by the likes of Madacy,
Delta and Rykodisc -- I doubt that Criterion will want to go head-to-head
with MGM on them. So the MGM discs will probably be the ones to have.

I'll be picking the MGM releases of those two films up, certainly. As for
the other films, I'll wait to see whether MGM improves on the previous
transfers done by Criterion (_The Lady Vanishes_, _Notorious_, _Rebecca_,
_Spellbound_, _The 39 Steps_) and Anchor Bay (_The Paradine Case_).

Haven't heard anything about decent-quality editions of _Blackmail_ or
_Secret Agent_, sadly.

doug

 

I'm not worried that I'll wind up having the inferior version, Criterion
packed in plenty of extras for their Hitchcock movies, especially
Rebecca (having watched those screen tests, I wish they'd cast Anne
Baxter instead, and without the putty nose, she was gorgeous).

--

"If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in
Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned
out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?"

--C.S. Lewis

 

YOUNG AND INNOCENT and SABOTAGE are coming from MGM this fall, presumably in
nice clean prints through their partnership with Carlton in the UK (the UK DVD
of YOUNG AND INNOCENT blows away any US LD or DVD release).

I made NTSC R0 DVD editions of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, SECRET AGENT, and
YOUNG AND INNOCENT from the R2 PAL DVD releases if anyone is interested...

 

The Criterion laserdisc of "Blackmail" is indeed much better than the
DVD release (Laserlight). However in Germany a pristine print has
been found and restored, far better even than the quite good elements
used on the laserdisc, and there is some talk about Kino releasing R1
and R2 DVDs of the film.

. Steve .

 

Does it have the elusive silent version?

--

"If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in
Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned
out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?"

--C.S. Lewis

 

I don't know, but considering how Kino tends to put together a good
packge, (witness "The Blue Angel") it's certainly possible.

. Steve