From Universal Studios Home Entertainment: Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection Limited Edition

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

OVERVIEW:  Known for his chilling genius, Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most brilliant directors of all time.  From the dark allure of the voyeur (Rear Window) to the danger of falling for the wrong woman (Vertigo) to the thrilling mistaken identity chase (North by Northwest), to the horror of inescapable evil (The Birds), and the most terrifying and shocking film of its time (Psycho), Hitchcock's films send a shiver up any spine.  

Featuring such renowned stars as James Stewart (It's a Wonderful Life), Cary Grant (The Philadelphia Story), Grace Kelly (High Society), Anthony Perkins (The Trial), Janet Leigh (The Manchurian Candidate), Tippi Hedren (Marnie), Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront), and Kim Novak (Bell, Book and Candle), Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection is a glimpse into the career of one of cinema's most influential and groundbreaking directors.  This rare compilation also includes keepsake postcard-size replicas of the original film posters. Now, just in time for Halloween, this collectible box set of five of his most celebrated cinematic achievements including Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and The Birds is available to own on DVD on October 4, 2011 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  

SYNOPSES AND BONUS FEATURES:  

Rear Window:   None of Hitchcock's films have ever given a clearer view of his genius for suspense than Rear Window.   When professional photographer J.B. 'Jeff' Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with watching the private dramas of his neighbors play out across the courtyard.   When he suspects a salesman may have murdered his nagging wife, Jeffries enlists the help of his glamorous socialite girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to investigate the highly suspicious chain of events . . . events that ultimately lead to one of the most memorable and gripping endings in all of film history.

Bonus Features:

• Rear Window Ethics: An Original Documentary
• A Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael Hayes
• Production Photographs
• Production Notes
• Re-Release Trailer Narrated by James Stewart
• Theatrical Trailer

Vertigo:  Considered by many to be director Alfred Hitchcock's greatest achievement, Leonard Maltin gives Vertigo four stars, hailing it as 'A genuinely great motion picture.' Set among San Francisco's renown landmarks, James Stewart is brilliant as Scottie Ferguson, an acrophobic detective hired to shadow a friend's suicidal wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak).  After he saves her from drowning in the bay, Scottie's interest shifts from business to fascination with the icy, alluring blonde.  When he finds another woman remarkably like his lost love, the now obsessed detective must unravel the secrets of the past to find the key to his future.

Bonus Features:

• Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock's Masterpiece
• Feature Commentary with Associate Producer Herbert Coleman, Restoration Team Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz and Other Vertigo Participants
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Restoration Theatrical Trailer
• Production Notes
• Foreign Censorship Ending
• The Vertigo Archives

North by Northwest: Cary Grant is the screen's supreme man-on-the-run in his fourth and final teaming with Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock. He plays a Manhattan adman plunged into a realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased, and in a signature set-piece, crop-dusted. He also hangs for dear life from the facial features of Mount Rushmore's Presidents.  

Bonus Features:

• Commentary by Screenwriter Ernest Lehman
• Music-Only Audio Track

Psycho: Alfred Hitchcock's landmark masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as the troubled Norman Bates, whose old dark house and adjoining motel are not the place to spend a quiet evening.  No one knows that better than Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the ill-fated traveler whose journey ends in the notorious 'shower scene.'  First a private detective, then Marion's sister (Vera Miles) searches for her, the horror and the suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed.

Bonus Features:

• Production Notes
• Theatrical Trailer
• Re-Release Trailers
• Newsreel Footage: The Release of Psycho
• The Shower Scene
• The Psycho Archives
• Production Photographs
• Behind-the-Scenes Photographs
• The Shower Scene: Storyboards by Saul Bass
• Lobby Cards
• Posters and Psycho Ads

The Birds: Nothing equals The Birds for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces.  As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull. Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on schoolchildren and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

Bonus Features:

• Deleted Scene
• The Original Ending
• Storyboard Sequence
• Tippi Hedren's Screen Test
• The Birds Is Coming (Universal International Newsreel)
• Suspense Story: National Press Club Hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel)
• Production Photographs
• Production Notes
• Theatrical Trailer

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is a part of NBCUniversal , one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT CONTACTS:
Jennifer Black
Publicity Director
(818) 777-0546
[email protected]

SOURCE Universal Studios Home Entertainment