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Sabotage/Secret Agent
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
"Sabotage" is about a cinema owner who happens to be a member of a gang of saboteurs unbeknownst to his family, and his young brother-in-law is brought into a plot to bomb the London Underground. In "Secret Agent", perhaps the closest thing to a comedy Hitchcock directed, a soldier forced into a new identity as a secret agent poses as the husband of another spy to assassinate a German agent. I really enjoyed "Sabotage", which is quite engaging, but "Secret Agent" really seems to fall flat in a lot of ways.
Video: Both films are presented in their original full-frame form, and though hardly Criterion quality, "Sabotage" and "Secret Agent" look nice enough. "Sabotage" is almost entirely free of dust, although there is a somewhat annoying horizontal line that ripples through the screen in a cycle. Is this because the source material was a VHS tape? I find it hard to believe that something so cyclical could appear on film... "Secret Agent" is softer than "Sabotage" and features more dust and specks. "Secret Agent" looks like it was mastered from an EP VHS recording of the movie from some UHF station. Watchable.
Audio: Both films sound decent for mono films of their age. "Sabotage" had a much fuller sound than "Secret Agent", which had an overall tinny feel to it.
Supplements: No supplements related to either film are included, although an extremely soft-looking Betty Boop cartoon (so soft that some of the on-screen text is completely illegible) and a newsreel from the time are included as part of the double feature. The newsreel kind of made me jump; I was so used to mono tracks that hearing sound from the rear speakers jolted me. Actually, nearly nothing came from my front speakers or my center speaker. Interesting mix on this one... A nice booklet is included with the disc as well.
Conclusion: Both "Sabotage" and "Secret Agent" are great films (though not my favorite Hitchcock films from this period), and the versions presented here are quite watchable. There are currently not any other vastly superior versions on DVD, so Hitchcock completists just entering the DVD market might be interested. The $20 retail price seems a bit higher than it should be, but I do recommend this double-feature disc.
Video: Both films are presented in their original full-frame form, and though hardly Criterion quality, "Sabotage" and "Secret Agent" look nice enough. "Sabotage" is almost entirely free of dust, although there is a somewhat annoying horizontal line that ripples through the screen in a cycle. Is this because the source material was a VHS tape? I find it hard to believe that something so cyclical could appear on film... "Secret Agent" is softer than "Sabotage" and features more dust and specks. "Secret Agent" looks like it was mastered from an EP VHS recording of the movie from some UHF station. Watchable.
Audio: Both films sound decent for mono films of their age. "Sabotage" had a much fuller sound than "Secret Agent", which had an overall tinny feel to it.
Supplements: No supplements related to either film are included, although an extremely soft-looking Betty Boop cartoon (so soft that some of the on-screen text is completely illegible) and a newsreel from the time are included as part of the double feature. The newsreel kind of made me jump; I was so used to mono tracks that hearing sound from the rear speakers jolted me. Actually, nearly nothing came from my front speakers or my center speaker. Interesting mix on this one... A nice booklet is included with the disc as well.
Conclusion: Both "Sabotage" and "Secret Agent" are great films (though not my favorite Hitchcock films from this period), and the versions presented here are quite watchable. There are currently not any other vastly superior versions on DVD, so Hitchcock completists just entering the DVD market might be interested. The $20 retail price seems a bit higher than it should be, but I do recommend this double-feature disc.
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