Product Description

THE GHOST GOES WEST (1935) When an American family purchase an old Scottish castle from its struggling owner they get more than they bargained for when, shipping it stone-by-stone to Florida, they discover an unexpected resident... An eighteenth century ghost intent on avenging a family insult from a rival clan in Rene Clair's charming whimsical comedy(100 Mins). THE THIRTY NINE STEPS (1935) Richard Hannay (ROBERT DONAT) meets a mysterious woman who confesses herself as a British spy escaping foreign agents. When she turns up dead at his apartment, he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and the most wanted man in the country. On the run, he must not only prove his innocence but break the spy ring in a race against time in Alfred Hitchcock's fast paced romantic thriller(87 Mins). THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1934) Restored to it's original length, for the first time on DVD, comes the legendary 1934 version of Alexandre Dumas' immortal novel... Snatched from his betrothed, convicted without trial and condemned to a living death... the soul of the simple sea captain died. In its place emerged a flaming figure of vengeance... The COUNT of MONTE CRISTO!(113 Mins).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13509 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-11
• Formats: Dolby, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 300 minutes

Customer Reviews

Three good films get a mostly bare bones release
Two hard to find Robert Donat films joins an already released Hitchcock classic on DVD for the first time. The films themselves are of course quite good and are definitely worth seeing. What I'd like to do is fill in some of the details concerning this DVD release.

Essentially a no frills version the films the films come on a single double sided DVD with The Ghost Goes West and 39 Steps on one side and The Count of Monte Cristo plus DVD ROM extras on the other. (I should say I have not checked out the the extras which are suppose to be the original novels for the 39 Steps and Count of Monte Cristo as well as radio show versions of the three films as MP3s).

The films themselves look good. They are not perfect and certainly were not really restored to any degree, which is fine because the films as presented here look quite good. The problem with the films is that they don't have any chapter stops. The films simply run from start to finish with no way to break them. Well,actually Count has one stop which jumps you past the opening credits. This to me, is the major draw back of the release since it makes going away from the films, once you start them, a difficult thing to do.

I have bit of a question concerning the source of the prints used. The running times seem slightly short. Count runs about 114 minutes which puts it right where it should be according to the back of the box and IMDB however the Leonard Maltin Film guide lists the run time of 119 minutes which may have been a typo if someone hit a 9 instead of 4. (rest assured its not the 90 minute TV version). The 39 Steps runs 82 minutes (not the 86 minutes on the box) and The Ghost Goes West runs 78 minutes (7 minutes shorter than the 85 minutes on the box). I'm not sure why the films run short, though if the films are sourced from an English source (the packaging seems more in keeping with a UK release rather than a US one and the films opening credits seem devoid all US studio origin) the films may have come from a PAL master which would run slightly faster than the US NTSC.

Is the disc worth picking up? If you are a fan of the three films it certainly is. My quibbles are ultimately minor since the films look quite good, certainly 39 Steps looks better than many bargain DVD releases, besides its great to have Count of Monte Cristo finally on DVD.

Best Original Version
Best Version Of This Movie Ever Made
Robert Donat Is Wonderful
WHY WHY IS THIS MOVIE NOT ON DVD

Quality Of This Collection
I will not delve into the movies themselves but rather into the quality of the three films included in this collection. "The Ghost Goes West" is perhaps the best print of the three leaving "The 39 Steps" and "The Count Of Monte Cristo" as rather poor renditions. They are both dark and not well presented. To say they were in anyway restored, would be to misinform. I have seen a better print of "The Count Of Monte Cristo" on VHS tape.
Criterion did a fantastic restoration of "The 39 Steps" leaving this version far beneath it.
This collection is only worth the asking price if you really want "The Count Of Monte Cristo" on DVD no matter what the quality of the print.