Blu-ray, DVD Release: Alfred Hitchcock’s Murder & Blackmail

By
Laurence
– August 13, 2019Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 13, 2019
Price: DVD $13.29 each, Blu-ray $19.89 each
Studio: Kino Lorber

From the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary director of Notorious, Psycho, Rebecca, To Catch a Thief and The Birds, comes a pair of his earlier, formative films.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)

First off is 1929’s Blackmail, Hitchock’s first full-length sound film and was only his second foray into the suspense genre. In the film, grocer’s daughter Alice White (Anny Ondra) kills a man in self-defense when he tries to sexually assault her. Her policeman boyfriend, Detective Frank Webber (John Longden), covers up for her, but she has been spotted leaving the scene by a petty criminal who starts to blackmail her. Based on a play by Charles Bennett (Foreign Correspondent, The 39 Steps) Kino Lorber’s special edition also includes the 76-minute silent version of the film, with a new score by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Next up is Hitchcock’s third sound film, the subtly titled Murder, adapted by Hitchcock and Walter Mycroft (Champagne) from the play Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane (A Bill of Divorcement) and Helen Simpson (Sabotage). In this one, actress Diana Baring (Norah Baring) is convicted of the murder of another actress in the same touring company. But the distinguished actor Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall), who served on the jury at her trial, becomes convinced of her innocence and decides to solve the case. Shot by Jack E. Cox (The Lady Vanishes), Kino Lorber’s  special edition also includes Mary, the 1931 German version of the film, directed by Hitchcock and starring Alfred Abel as Sir John Menier and Olga Tschechowa as Mary Baring.

There are a slew of bonus features on the Blu-ray and DVD editions of the films, including audio commentaries, Hitchcock/Truffaut interview icon clips, introductions by French writer/actor Noël Simsolo, Blackmail actress Anny Ondra’s screen test, an alternate ending for Murder, and more.

 

Buy or Rent Alfred Hitchcock’s Murder
Buy or Rent Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail

Related titles:

  1. Blu-ray, DVD Release: The 39 Steps
  2. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Shoot First, Die Later
  3. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Miracle Mile
  4. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Heart of Midnight
  5. Blu-ray, DVD Release: Impulse (1984)

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.