"Bonus Points," which reviews the features on the latest DVD releases, is now a weekly column. If you have feedback about the column or want to suggest a DVD for review, e-mail Jen Chaney.
"Strangers on a Train" -- Part of the "Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection" ($99.92 box set; $26.99 for "Strangers on a Train" DVD; $19.98 for other individual DVDs)
Release Date: Sept. 7
Farley Granger and Robert Walker engage in a little "criss-cross" in "Strangers on a Train."
(Courtesy of Museum of Modern Art)
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Alfred Hitchcock's movies are like Dick Clark in one important way: They don't show their age. That certainly can be said of "Strangers on a Train," Hitch's 1951 suspense thriller about two men who meet on the rails and casually discuss committing murders for each other. It'll be simple, says the psychopath who proposes the idea. "Criss-cross." And he's not talking about the rappers who wore their pants backwards.
Released previously in a single-disc version with no extras, "Strangers" comes to DVD today in a two-disc special edition containing both the final, theatrical release and a preview version of the film with a different ending and modified edits. "Strangers" is part of the nine-DVD Warner Brothers box set, "The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection," which includes seven movies making their debuts on disc: "Dial M for Murder," "Foreign Correspondent," "Suspicion," "The Wrong Man," "Stage Fright," "I Confess" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." All can be purchased individually or as part of the collection. If you need to conserve cash, and can buy only one of these, "Train" is your best bet, as it contains the most robust amount of supplemental material.
In addition to the two versions of the movie, the special edition boasts a documentary about the making of the film; an appreciation of "Strangers on a Train" by "Sixth Sense" director M. Night Shyamalan; "The Hitchcocks on Hitch," a featurette that includes clips from the family's home movies; and a spliced-together commentary track with excerpts from interviews with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, "Psycho" screenwriter Joseph Stefano and several others. Add all of that to the relatively sharp-looking quality of the film's transfer, and you have a DVD that not only belongs in your library, but actually will be watched again and again.
Most Interesting Bonus Point: In a featurette entitled "'Strangers on a Train': The Victim's POV," Kasey Rogers, who played murder victim Miriam Haynes under the studio name Laura Elliott, discusses those memorable soda-bottle glasses sported by her character. It turns out Rogers didn't wear glasses at all; Hitchcock forced her to wear the thick spectacles, which meant the actress could barely see what she was doing in many of the scenes.
Funniest Bonus Point: Sick of seeing the same cookie-cutter trailers featuring the song "Walkin' on Sunshine" for the 80th time? Then check out the trailer for "Strangers," which splashes unintentionally hilarious catch phrases across the screen in huge letters: "You'll talk to your friends about it, but you'll never talk to 'Strangers on a Train'!"
Most Perplexing Bonus Point: While discussing the movie's climactic merry-go-round scene, Shyamalan repeatedly refers to the carnival ride as a ferris wheel. Perhaps his mind was occupied with other thoughts, like why the twist ending of "The Village" was so much like a "Twilight Zone" episode.
Coming in next week's "Bonus Points": Reviews of the 10th-anniversary edition of "Clerks" and the Criterion Collection's release of Richard Linklater's "Slacker."
