Rebecca (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

PHOTO 1 = MGM Blu-Ray issued in 2011: Rebecca [Blu-ray] PHOTO 2 = Hitchcock's cameo @ 2:06:57 (MGM) or 2:07:01 (Criterion) - Hitchcock walking in the background. PHOTO 3 = NOT Hitchcock's cameo - this is a still photo taken on the set. The new 2017 Criterion Collection blu-ray of ‘Rebecca’ comes into direct competition with the 2011 MGM blu-ray The Criterion blu-ray has the magical words “4K digital restoration”, giving it a theoretical advantage over MGM’s ten-year-old 2-K (?) digital restoration, but the actual improvement is not dramatic, at least on my 40 inch, five year-old JVC TV. Both blu-rays look quite good. Of course, if you own a state-of-the-art 70 inch 4-K television (or plan to), the choice is obvious. Making the choice easier, the price of the old MGM blu-ray is twice that of the new Criterion blu-ray (apparently the MGM is out-of-print). COMMON TO CRITERION AND MGM BLU-RAYs -- The Making of Rebecca: (28 minutes) -- Isolated music and effects track. -- Three radio adaptations of Rebecca: ----- 1938: Margaret Sullavan & Orson Welles ----- 1941: Ida Lupino & Ronald Colman ----- 1950: Vivien Leigh & Lawrence Olivier -- Theatrical re-release trailer from the late Forties (MGM misidentifies it as the “original release trailer”) -- English SDH subtitles. UNIQUE TO MGM BLU-RAY -- Audio commentary with film scholar Richard Schickel. -- The Gothic World of Daphne du Maurier (18 minutes) -- Hitchcock/Bogdanovich interview. -- Hitchcock/Truffaut interview. UNOQUE TO CRITERION BLU-RAY: -- 4K digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. -- Featurette on the visual effects in Rebecca (17 minutes). -- French TV production from 2016: Daphne du Maurier: In the Footsteps of Rebecca with English subtitles (55 minutes). -- Conversation between film critic Molly Haskell and scholar Patricia White about the role of women in Hitchcock films (25 minutes) -- Audio commentary with film scholar Leonard J. Leff. * -- Screen tests with Anne Baxter, Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan, Loretta Young and Joan Fontaine (only Vivien Leigh and Margaret Sullavan were on MGM).* -- Hair and makeup tests with Anne Baxter, Vivien Leigh and Margaret Sullavan. * -- Costume tests with Joan Fontaine. * -- 38 page booklet with selected production correspondence, including letters between Hitchcock and Selznick. * -- “The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder” - this followed the Tonight Show on NBC: ----- 1973: Alfred Hitchcock (45 minutes). * ----- 1980: Joan Fontaine (17 minutes). * -- Audio interviews from 1986 with Judith Anderson and Joan Fontaine. * * Carried over from the 2001 Criterion DVD ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILMOGRAPHY: Alfred Hitchcock directed 56 feature films (not counting short subjects). ---- 'The Mountain Eagle' (1927) is a lost film. ---- 'Blackmail' (1929) is counted twice - it was Hitchcock's final silent film, and was also filmed as his first talkie. ---- 'Aventure Malgache' and 'Bon Voyage' (1944) are not feature films. These were French-language propaganda shorts (combined running time: 57 minutes) produced during World War II. Available on DVD Alfred Hitchcock's Bon Voyage & Aventure Malgache or Amazon Prime Video. For a complete list, along with links to these films on Amazon, see Comment Three (click on “Sort by Oldest”).