Rating: 
Summary: A very early Hitchcock
Review:
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Format: Black & White
Studio: Timeless Video, Inc
Video Release Date: February 4, 1994
Cast: Herbert Marshall ... Sir John Menier
Norah Baring ... Diana Baring
Phyllis Konstam ... Doucie Markham (Doucebelle Dear)
Edward Chapman ... Ted Markham
Miles Mander ... Gordon Druce
Esme Percy ... Handel Fane
Donald Calthrop ... Ion Stewart
Esme V. Chaplin ... Prosecuting Counsel
Amy Brandon Thomas ... Defending Counsel
Joynson Powell ... Judge
S.J. Warmington ... Bennett
Marie Wright ... Miss Mitcham
Hannah Jones ... Mrs. Didsome
Una O'Connor ... Mrs. Grogram
R.E. Jeffrey ... Foreman of the Jury
Alan Stainer ... Jury Member
Kenneth Kove ... Jury Member
Guy Pelham Boulton ... Jury Member
Violet Farebrother ... Jury Member
Clare Greet ... Jury Member
Drusilla Wills ... Jury Member
Robert Easton ... Jury Member
William Fazan ... Jury Member
George Smythson ... Jury Member
Ross Jefferson ... Jury Member Picton Roxborough ... Jury Member
Alfred Hitchcock ... Man on street I had a hard time believing this was a Hitchcock film. It was only his second attempt at using sound (this was the 1930s). His first was "Blackmail." A young actress is accused of a murder. A titled actor, Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall), who has met the young lady earlier, is on the jury. The rest of the jurors are convinced that she is guilty, but he is reluctant to accept it; however, due to the overwhelming evidence and the pressure from the other jurors, he goes along and she is due to die. But, Menier is not willing to concede her guilt and does some investigating of his own. This is a good mystery thriller, made in England in the best tradition of the films to come in that genre. It is as captivating as all of the rest of the Hitchcock films, and even includes his trademark cameo appearance, although the term "cameo" had yet to be coined for a bit part, by Mike Todd when he made Around the World in 80 Days. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: A very early Hitchcock
Review:
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Format: Black & White
Studio: Timeless Video, Inc
Video Release Date: February 4, 1994
Cast: Herbert Marshall ... Sir John Menier
Norah Baring ... Diana Baring
Phyllis Konstam ... Doucie Markham (Doucebelle Dear)
Edward Chapman ... Ted Markham
Miles Mander ... Gordon Druce
Esme Percy ... Handel Fane
Donald Calthrop ... Ion Stewart
Esme V. Chaplin ... Prosecuting Counsel
Amy Brandon Thomas ... Defending Counsel
Joynson Powell ... Judge
S.J. Warmington ... Bennett
Marie Wright ... Miss Mitcham
Hannah Jones ... Mrs. Didsome
Una O'Connor ... Mrs. Grogram
R.E. Jeffrey ... Foreman of the Jury
Alan Stainer ... Jury Member
Kenneth Kove ... Jury Member
Guy Pelham Boulton ... Jury Member
Violet Farebrother ... Jury Member
Clare Greet ... Jury Member
Drusilla Wills ... Jury Member
Robert Easton ... Jury Member
William Fazan ... Jury Member
George Smythson ... Jury Member
Ross Jefferson ... Jury Member Picton Roxborough ... Jury Member
Alfred Hitchcock ... Man on street I had a hard time believing this was a Hitchcock film. It was only his second attempt at using sound (this was the 1930s). His first was "Blackmail." A young actress is accused of a murder. A titled actor, Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall), who has met the young lady earlier, is on the jury. The rest of the jurors are convinced that she is guilty, but he is reluctant to accept it; however, due to the overwhelming evidence and the pressure from the other jurors, he goes along and she is due to die. But, Menier is not willing to concede her guilt and does some investigating of his own. This is a good mystery thriller, made in England in the best tradition of the films to come in that genre. It is as captivating as all of the rest of the Hitchcock films, and even includes his trademark cameo appearance, although the term "cameo" had yet to be coined for a bit part, by Mike Todd when he made Around the World in 80 Days. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating: 
Summary: Mainly of historical interest, but still interesting
Review: As Hitchcock's first film to be conceived from the outset as a sound production (his previous film, "Blackmail", had most of its scenes reconceived for sound only after news of the success of "The Jazz Singer" over in America), "Murder!" is worth the time of serious Hitchcock aficianados for that reason alone. It also delivers some interesting elements just on the merits of its story and direction. I liked the jury trying to overcome the one hold-out who didn't want to vote guilty (in surrealist fashion, they used a sing-song, schoolyard-like ditty to break down the juror's objections); the whole theatre-based atmosphere (the accused is a stage actress and the lone juror who initially doesn't want to convict is a producer of plays); and the creepy denouement during the trapeze act. Be warned, however, the film is NOT a masterful edge-of-your-seat thriller with all kinds of interesting thematic undertones (though, there are a few!). I would still say it's mainly of historical interest, but-- Hitchcock being Hitchcock-- there's nevertheless some good stuff to appreciate here. The Laserlight DVD is fine, by the way. It offers a solid print and one or two interesting extras.
Rating:
Summary: Mainly of historical interest, but still interesting
Review: As Hitchcock's first film to be conceived from the outset as a sound production (his previous film, "Blackmail", had most of its scenes reconceived for sound only after news of the success of "The Jazz Singer" over in America), "Murder!" is worth the time of serious Hitchcock aficianados for that reason alone. It also delivers some interesting elements just on the merits of its story and direction. I liked the jury trying to overcome the one hold-out who didn't want to vote guilty (in surrealist fashion, they used a sing-song, schoolyard-like ditty to break down the juror's objections); the whole theatre-based atmosphere (the accused is a stage actress and the lone juror who initially doesn't want to convict is a producer of plays); and the creepy denouement during the trapeze act. Be warned, however, the film is NOT a masterful edge-of-your-seat thriller with all kinds of interesting thematic undertones (though, there are a few!). I would still say it's mainly of historical interest, but-- Hitchcock being Hitchcock-- there's nevertheless some good stuff to appreciate here. The Laserlight DVD is fine, by the way. It offers a solid print and one or two interesting extras.
Rating:
Summary: Murder Indeed
Review: Being one of Hitchcock's third sound film, it is amazing how quickly he could master using it. The use of the music, provided by an actual orchestra behind the wall, when Herbert Marshall is going through the case in his mind. The barrage of the the questions of the jury to Marshall. Also, this play is a rarity in his films: a rather straightforward whodunnit. The supporting cast is rather humorous and provides some light moments. Marshall provides a good performance and the mystery is a good one. Hitchcock is spreading out his wings with this one and shows signals that is destined for even better works. However, Murder! is a worthy effort and is very entertaining. Take a look at it.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful DVD, rough story
Review: Interesting to have for Hitchcock fans, you get to see the master in his earlier days in a movie that still has some professional production values.
One big problem, the quality of the dvd is so bad here, for much of the beginning of the dvd, one can barely hear what is being said, I mean it is BAD! Almost unwatchable, I do not recommend this dvd.
Rating: 
Summary: APPALLING DVD TRANSFER OF INTERESTING HITCHCOCK
Review: MURDER is quite a sleepy little Hitchcock film, with a startling and still shocking ending. Herbert Marshall - usually a fine actor - is embarrassingly over the top here. The audio is almost unintelligible and the print is absolutely horrendous - the worst I've seen in over two hundred DVD titles. Moreover, the DVD is wrongly encoded so chapters always read #1; you can't choose a chapter number to jump to. The most revealing of what a rushed and pathetic job was done releasing this title is that MURDER is misspelled MUREDER on the spine of the keep case. That should have been a dead - you'll forgive the expression - giveaway. Another big disappointment from the ALFRED HITCHCOCK COLLECTION.
Rating:
Summary: Weirdly captivating
Review: Parts of this film have more in common with the works of Resnais than with any of the overwhelming bulk of Hitchcock's other films. At times achieving a bizarrely effected comic realism: stylistically, Murder is his most severely surrealistic work. It is very weird, peculiarly paced, and at stages either 35 or 70 years ahead of its time. Here Hitchcock is wildly experimental. Amidst heated tete-a-tetes, the camera may rest on the listening face of a silent participant for some minutes on-end. The hosery scene in the first few minutes, the transvestitism, and the sick-in-bed sequence are all grotesquely hyper-realistic. The backstage scene is incredible, and again very strange. There is a refreshing honesty about Murder. For all its slowness, Hitchcock seems precise in what he includes and excludes here. Essential viewing for any fan of Hitchcock, Surrealism, film history, or art history more generally - and for that matter of Resnais, Welles, Truffaut, Jarman, Roeg, Hamlet, Friedkin, Bergman, von Trier, or Peter Jennings (e.g.). This movie will freak you out.
Rating:
Summary: Poor quality print
Review: Poor quality print.poor sound.This DVD has not been "mastered from the best available sources" as stated.Don't be fooled.It is cheap for a reason and Tony Curtis sounds as if he did all his intro's in one quick morning.
Rating:
Summary: Madacy DVD of MURDER! is uncut 104-minute version
Review: This 1930 British sound film is an early effort by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, to continue to experiment with the use of sound in film. One year before, Hitchcock made the first British sound film, BLACKMAIL, which is famous for the scene where we hear the subjective thoughts of a character via creative sound editing. While BLACKMAIL is still largely a silent film, MURDER! is a more complete attempt to make artistic use of sound to advance storytelling and character depiction. In the opening moments of the film, we see people react to the sound of a commotion nearby, but we never actually see what is causing the noise. In fact, no act of murder is shown in the entire film. Many scenes are conveyed via creative uses of sound. In one ingenious moment, Hitchcock shows the inner thoughts of a distraught stage actress, who imagines the sound of applauses that she would have heard on stage. In a humorous moment, a man speaks in a high-pitch voice off screen in order to prove to others (including the viewers) that he can convincingly imitate a woman. There is also the moment which Hitchcock once said was the best in the film: a man's thoughts are revealed to us while he is looking at the mirror and his gramophone is playing in the background. As his thoughts become more emotional, so does the music from the gramophone. All these usages of sound are commonplace today, of course. But during the early sound era, a film like MURDER! was a rather novel and rewarding experience for the audiences. The story in MURDER! now seems standard: a stage actress is seemingly wrongly accused of murder, and a veteran actor (Herbert Marshall in his first sound film) tries to prove her innocence. Often described as a whodunit, the film actually reveals the murder's identity about 10 minutes before the end. The film's last act borrows from Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Marshall trying to stage a play that re-creates the murder in order to catch the murderer off guard. MURDER! is available in several DVD versions, all of which have mere VHS video quality. The version made by Madacy has the least sharp picture. It also has severe cropping at the top of the screen, so that Herbert Marshall's name during the opening credits is completely cut off. The audio is relatively hiss-free, but probably due to an overuse of noise reduction, which renders the soundtrack muffled and hard to listen to. And there is no English subtitles nor closed captioning. The Madacy DVD version, however, is the only video version available in North America that I know of that has the uncut, original 104-minute British version of the film. The film was cut down to 92 minutes for release in the US, and so video versions of the film have existed only in the 92-minute form. Madacy has apparently somehow obtained the uncut British print. Even though the DVD case shows the running time of 92 minutes, it runs 104 minutes. The DVDs made by other companies, such as Delta (Laserlight) and Whirlwind, all run 92 minutes. Laserlight's version has marginally better picture than Madacy's, and has a hissier, but less muffled soundtrack. The Laserlight DVD also has Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese subtitles, but no English. So what does the extra footage in the 102-minute version consist of? Not much. I noticed only one extra scene, which happens to be the great character actress Una O'Connor's only appearance in the film. In the 92-min version, the scene where Marshall discovers a broken basin is followed immediately by his trip to the prison. But in he 102-min version, it is followed by an extra scene in the rooming house where Marshall has just spent the night. The scene is mainly about a light-hearted conversation between Marshall and the rooming house landlady (O'Connor), who indirectly offers clues to the murderer's identity. The scene also introduces the existence of the cigarette case that later helps pinpoint the murderer. Since these DVDs are selling at such lower prices, it probably wouldn't hurt if you buy all of the DVD versions. Buy the Madacy version for the extra footage, and buy the other versions for more presentable picture quality.
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