Product Description

Sit down for a two-part chat with The Master of Suspense. Alfred Hitchcock told stories using a mixture of intelligent plots, witty dialogue and a spoonful of mystery and murder. In doing so, he inspired a new generation of filmmakers and revolutionized the thriller genre, making him a legend around the world. This archival interview from 1964 is a rare treat for fans of the legendary director and a fascinating glimpse of the creator of some of film's best loved classics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110300 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.com
Come back to the year 1964 for an interview with Hitch himself. This conversation initially appeared on the '60s CBC program Telescope, with director Fletcher Markle pinning down the genial horror maestro for some very interesting insights. Hitchcock discusses his early career path, beginning as an editor for silent-movie title cards and nearly stumbling into assistant director and director positions. Other topics include the difficulties of wrangling 28,000 birds for The Birds, the infamous shower scene from Psycho (78 separate camera shots in 45 seconds), and the closing scenes of Shadow of a Doubt (the director's personal favorite). More revealing, however, are Hitchcock's takes on the building blocks of film language and theory (Arbogast's death in Psycho is dissected by the director). He also discusses the impact of horror films on society and their influence on behavior; his remarks are still fresh and relevant today. Composer Bernard Herrmann is also interviewed and delves into his relationship with Hitch and the particular way that they cooperated in scoring his films. This should be of interest not only to Hitchcock fans and students, but to anyone who's a fan of horror and suspense genres in general. The auteur is captured in his '60s prime, in an unusually candid setting. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews

Great for Hitchcock buffs
Got this dvd recently, did not experience any playback problems mentioned by another reviewer. There is some jerkiness, but I don't think it's a problem with the transfer, but rather because this is an interview on film that is decades old. The real point of this title is not sound/picture quality (which are fine, to me) but the content, and Hitch's anecdotes and discussions of his techniques are real gems for die-hard fans, especially those who haven't seen the master himself talking about his work.

Informative
It was rare for Hitch to do interviews and this is quite a good one. Definitely a must see if you are in any way a fan. I found his comments about film in the year 3000 with hypnotism being used quite fascinating. The only weakness is the "interviewer" who seems to be very pleased with himself and speaks in a effected and cockamamie television interviewer voice that grates on you after awhile. It also could have been longer. But Hitch is the reason to see this and as always he delivers. On a sidenote there is some very cool footage of Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery on the set of Marnie in this and one segment where Hitch discusses the tricks of editing(they cut from Hitch smiling and looking at a mother and her child to Hitch smiling again the same way but this time a cut to a young woman in a bikini)left me laughing hysterically.

DVD Trouble
I am very sorry to report troubles with this DVD. The encoding is not up to par, causing serious jerkiness, and the interview stops dead in its tracks about 15 minutes into the film.

I have never had any problems with other DVDs, and am very dissapointed that this one was so bad. From what little I heard of the interview, it seemed to have been very good.