Rich & Strange/ The Sorcerer's Apprentice

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Movie Reviews of Rich & Strange/ The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Movie Review: Shockingly good transfer by Laserlite of mediocre Hitchcock
Summary: 4 Stars

This film, about a young married couple who suddenly inherit a fortune and decide to waste it all on a world cruise, certainly lives up to the second half of its title, as it is my vote for the strangest film Hitchcock has ever been ever associated with. It's not a bad film, it's just strange. There are numerous brilliant Hitchcock touches which other reviewers have dwelled on, so I won't bother to touch upon.

The thing that really catches your attention (especially if you a fan of old films on DVD) is the wonderful transfer! The contrast levels are consistant throughout for the most part, there are very few digital transfer artifacts, very few missing frames (a common occurrence on low budget transfers of classic Public Domain films,) very few instinces of dirt and other film blemishes; and, with the exception of only a very few scenes, a shockingly small amount of film pops, hiss and other examples of soundtrack deteriation. I have all 14 Hitchcock DVDs that Laserlite has released and none of them look this good! In some ways this is unfortunate, since this is certainly not Hitchcock's best film and the films that are more entertaining and more often viewed suffer from bad transfers, but on the other hand, it's also, undoubtedly, one of the last Hitchcock films that Criterion would get around to restoring, so it's good for the completist to have this excellent transfer. It appears that Laserlite may have transferred this from a 35mm print and not one of the mediocre 16mm prints that so many other classic films transfers suffer from. While it's not on Criterion's quality control level (or even that of the recent MCA Hitchcock releases,) this is probably the best looking transfer of any movie you'll ever be able to obtain ...and certainly the best transfer of "Rich and Strange" that I've come across.

Along with this release is a trailer for Psycho, the typically weird introduction by Tony Curtis (he hosts almost all of these Hitchcock Laserlite DVDs and often talks more about the additional trailer than the movie we're about to watch) and a never-aired episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in poor condition which was not directed by Hitchcock.

On this extremely rare occasion, Hitchcock gets 3 stars for his film, but Laserlite gets 4 for their packaged product.

Summary of Rich & Strange/ The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Menus: English . Spanish . Chinese . Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish . Chinese . Japanese

B&W/113 min.

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• Mystery & Suspense