Posted by One-Shot Scot on 12/24/23 11:28

On the surface, this seems like a great deal: 14 classic Hitchcock titles at
a street price of around $80 -- under $6 per title -- plus a Hitchcock bonus
disk, which is not available separately. And for the first time, anamorphic
versions of _Psycho_ and _Vertigo_! Many of these masterpiece titles started
out with $35 list prices, so Universal's Hitchcock masterpiece grab bag is a
great deal for those who haven't already purchased too many of these titles
at their ridiculously-high original prices. (The only disks that I actually
wanted were the anamorphic versions _Psycho_ and _Vertigo_, even though I
already have the non-anamorphic versions of these titles.) However, at $6
per disk, I am glad to also get _Shadow of a Doubt_, _Saboteur_, _The Man
Who Knew Too Much_, _Marnie_, and _Frenzy_. I already have _Rear Window_.

I opened my Hitchcock masterpiece collection with some apprehension. There
was a beautiful felt-covered box, with 4 separate disk containers, each
holding 4 disks. The unfortunate problem with this particular package is
that the disks are stacked -- the 2 disks in back are covered by the 2 disks
in front. In order to remove the back disks, you must first remove the front
disks. Because the packaging is so bad, I have transferred all of the disks
to slimline CD cases.

Previously, Universal's hand-loaded multi-disk DVD boxes suffered from
fingerprint contamination and scratches. However, all of these Hitchcock
disks are free of defects -- with one exception: _Shadow of a Doubt_ has a
couple of deep scratches on its outer edge. At first, the scratches seemed
to be out of the data area, but alas, the picture began to freeze and skip
26 minutes into the movie. Then, after the layer change, the same thing
happened again.

On the bright side, 93% the disks in the Hitchcock collection are in good
condition. However, because one of the disks is scratched, I will need to
return the entire collection. What I am hoping to do is retrieve a playable
_Shadow of a Doubt_ from another Hitchcock collection without having to
return the entire set. There is a good chance that a new set will also have
at least one scratched disk. The best solution to this pig-in-a-poke problem
would be for the retailer to cannibalize good disks from returned sets and
exchange them for damaged disks.

Having to return 14 good DVDs because one disk in the set is defective seems
like such a waste. Buying multi-disk collections is always risky and this
risk increases as the number of disks increases. What makes the Hitchcock
collection problem so acute is that it is not simply a bundled group of
Amaray-boxed titles which are available separately. If this were the case, I
would be able to exchange only _Shadow of a Doubt_, without having to return
14 good disks along with it. (Yes, I know that _Shadow of a Doubt_ is
available separately, but the silkscreen art on the disk wouldn't match the
rest of the Masterpiece collection and supposedly, this title has also been
"re-mastered.")

Actually, if these titles were available separately, I would probably have
bought only the anamorphic versions of _Psycho_ and _Vertigo_ and called it
quits. If the other titles had been priced separately at around $10 each, I
would most likely have bought a couple of them as well.

Has anyone else had a bad experience with the Hitchcock Masterpiece
Collection?

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