Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide: Rich and Strange (1931)

• Every port tells a different story but fairy tales can turn to nightmares
• At first glance, just a marvellously inventive, lighthearted little comedy
• But in Hitch’s hands it’s complex, multi-layered and surprisingly dark
• The moral is, be careful what you wish for; money does not buy happiness
• Little-seen but essential addition to the Master’s peerless run of 1930s talkies
• Cheap bootlegs abound, but every official, good quality release is finally listed
• Sailor beware: all still have inauthentic aspect ratios and egregiously altered audio

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

Mixed doubles: L-R: Percy Marmont, Joan Barry, Elsie Randolph, Betty Amann and Henry Kendall. Elsie likes playing cards; there’s a clue to her favourite game in her character’s name.

Contents

• Production
• Home video
• Related articles

Production

Moving in for the kill: Henry Kendall, Betty Amann and Joan Barry are at the table but can anyone ID the two ladies on the left? (alt)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Rich and Strange is a biting social satire originally released in the United States under the title East of Shanghai. It stars Henry Kendall and Joan Barry as Fred and Emily Hill, a young couple bored by their workaday existence who are left a fortune by a wealthy uncle. But money doesn’t improve their lives—it merely complicates them. On a trip around the world Fred falls in love with a beautiful princess (Betty Amann), while Emily is attracted to the dashing Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont). These affairs of the heart put their marriage in troubled waters, especially when they are shipwrecked in the Far East. Rich and Strange was a stunning departure from the Master of Suspense, a visual “tour de force” that remained one of the director’s personal favorites throughout his career. – US Image LD (1990)

Fred and Emily Hill, a happy young married couple, inherit money and decide to take a world cruise. Once onboard ship, their new-found fortune goes to their heads and they tend to go their separate ways. Fred loses most of their money to a fake princess, while Emily also gets involved with someone but luckily escapes the commitments of her escapade. Their shipboard romances drive them apart but a shipwreck brings them back together. Rescued by a Chinese junk they return to the security of England and home, having had their fill of romance and adventure. – US Republic Pictures VHS (1994, ad) and Australian Polygram VHS (1995)

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.

– “Ariel’s Song”, Scene II, Act I, Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Rich and Strange is a satisfying and quirky romantic comedy about a young couple who get the chance to spend their future inheritance early (£3,000 according to the source novel; worth £155,000 in 2023), and embark on around the world shenanigans. But rather like the Shakespeare play that inspired its source, all is not plain sailing: shipwrecks, new love and betrayal loom large on the horizon. Renamed rather less obliquely East of Shanghai in the US, it co-stars Joan Barry, who a couple of years earlier had lent her cut-glass English inflections to strongly-accented Czech actress Anny Ondra in Blackmail. Barry shone brightly but briefly with a decade-long, 15-film career before giving up acting in 1933 for wedded blitz; her first marriage lasted only two years. Today, her other best known role is her penultimate screen ride in Hitchcockian hit, Rome Express.

Indiscretion: the eyes have it. The awkward trio are joined by Henry Kendall at the rear.

This is a very funny little film in more ways than one – all intentional, of course. It has such a lot of sound and visual business squeezed into its economical 83 minutes that there’s never a dull moment. Cinematography frequently veers over into the Expressionistic, while some quickfire editing often calls to mind montages by Eisenstein. All this is allied to so much interesting location and stock footage that it’s often reminiscent of the best of the then fashionable city symphonies. Additionally, there are regular insert shots, sometimes lasting only a second or two, but always informing and driving the narrative along. In another nod to the silent era, it even makes occasional use of dryly humorous intertitles.

Rich and Strange – Sean Axmaker

In the past, various authors have mistakenly ascribed sole authorship of the script to Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville and co-writer Val Valentine, citing it as an original screenplay. In fact, it was based on an eponymous novel by Australian author and journalist Dale Collins, who had previously penned several ship-bound romances. The book was published only a year prior to the film, which adapts it extremely closely, aside from Hitch’s brief additional prologue which he found almost customary when adapting existing works. However, Charles Barr, in his excellent English Hitchcock (1999), makes a strong case for the possibility of Hitch and Alma having suggested the initial idea to Collins, based on their own honeymoon. For starters, they were good friends with the author and his wife, and the names of the novel’s main protagonists, Fred and Emily, are tantalisingly close to Alfred and Alma.

CUNY TV: Rich and Strange

Betty Amann: femme fatale at your disservice

The film features a scarlet temptress in the shapely form of German-Jewish actress Betty Amann, star of the wonderful Asphalt (1929), in which she essayed a similar role. An accomplished player in her homeland then later in the UK and US, she was also reputedly one of the many conquests of Charlie Chaplin. Asphalt is one of my fave late-period German silents and though there are many poor bootlegs around, these are the only official releases to date:

• US: Kino DVD (2006) – new English intertitles
  • Kino Prime Video – as above
• UK: Eureka/Masters of Cinema DVD (2005)
• Germany: UFA Video VHS (2003)
  • Studio Hamburg Enterprises 5-DVD and 5-BD Jubiläumsedition: 50 Jahre Murnau-Stiftung (2016) – no subs
• Spain: Divisa DVD/alt (2009)

It’s a pity the only HD release thus far is in the completely non-subtitled German BD set – though the film has very few intertitles anyway – but perhaps Eureka at least will upgrade their DVD one day.

Svatopluk Matyáš and Jana Nováková in Nebeští jezdci aka Riders in the Sky (1968)

Special mention must also go to Elsie Randolph, who was soon to team up with top star of the day Jack Buchanan for a string of popular  stage and screen musicals. Rich and Strange is her film début, playing “The Old Maid” at the real-life ripe old age of 26! Here, she supplies most of the film’s overt comic relief, playing a sexually frustrated and socially awkward but blissfully oblivious spinster. Her repeated amorous overtures are not aided by the fact she looks somewhat akin to Charles Hawtrey in drag. Both the first and last of her 11-film tally were directed by Hitch, as four decades later she had a minor but memorable part in Frenzy.

Aside from her appearances for the Master, only three of her films are currently available: Brother Alfred (1932), Smash and Grab (1937) with Buchanan, and Nebeští jezdci aka Riders in the Sky (1968). The first two are excellent British comedies of the time, expectedly lighthearted and come highly recommended. The last, however, is a complete departure: based on Filip Jánský’s autobiographical 1964 novel, it’s about the fate of military pilots in Britain during WWII. Grittily realistic, it has an international cast speaking five different languages and is simply one of the best Czech films I’ve ever seen. It’s only available on BFI Player and DVD but fortunately all of the latter, bar the latest from Magic Box, has optional Czech and English subtitles. Seek. It. Out.

Home video

Lionsgate’s US DVD set is the best pre-restoration release available of Rich and Strange, and several other Hitchcocks

I’ll go into more detail below but in brief Rich and Strange’s official releases are complicated by four different permutations of its transfer. There are two for the visuals: one of an excellent preserved print in standard definition, and a beautiful 4k restoration from 2021. The original theatrical aspect ratio was 1.19:1 but until recently it was always transferred at a compromised 1.33:1. Lastly, circa 2006, Hitch’s original mono audio was egregiously remixed and new sound effects – and mistakes – added. Here’s a breakdown of official releases:

1.33:1 AR and original audio

• US: Image LD (1990)
  • Lionsgate 5-film AH: 3-Disc Collectors’ Edition (2007)

1.19:1 AR and remixed audio

• UK: Studiocanal 11-BD Hitchcock: The Beginning (2024) trailer, podcast
• Germany: Studiocanal 11-BD Hitchcock – Die frühen Filme (2025) trailer
• Italy: Eagle Pictures 6-BD/11-film Hitchcock – The Beginning (2025)
• France: Carlotta 7-BD/11-film Hitchcock en 10 Films (2025) trailer
  • Prime Video HD
• Australia: Via Vision 5-BD Hitchcock: Early Years, Vol 1/alt (2025) – 1,000 ltd ed

1.19:1 AR and faulty remixed audio

• US: Kino BD and DVD (2021)
• Denmark: Soul Media DVD (2022), also in 13-DVD AH Movie Collection

1.33:1 AR and faulty remixed audio

• UK: Optimum 9-DVD Early H Collection (2007, reissued 2016)
• Italy: Eagle 2on1 DVD (2005) w/The Manxman, also in 5-DVD/10-film AH Collection and 8-DVD/15-film AH Portrait
• Germany: Arthaus 2on1 DVD (2006) w/Champagne, also in 6-DVD/9-film AH: Master of Suspense; w/optional 1979 dub
• France: Studiocanal DVD (2006)
  • Studiocanal 2on1 DVD w/Number Seventeen (2008, reissued 2012), also in 2-DVD/3-film and 6-DVD/10-film AH: Premières oeuvres – all w/forced French subs

• Spain: Universal 2on1 DVD (2009) w/The Skin Game, also in 4-DVD/7-film H Collection: La primera etapa del Maestro del Suspense
• Benelux: Universal 2on1 DVD (2007), also in 5-DVD/9-film H Collection 3 and 20-DVD/24-film AH set/alt
• Scandinavia: Universal 5-DVD/9-film H Collection: Early Years of the Master of Suspense (2007) info, also in 19-DVD/23-film Hitchcock/info

• Poland: Vision Film 2on1 DVD/alt (2006) w/Champagne
  • Kino Świat 3-DVD AH: Sekrety sukcesu/alt (2013)
• Greece: Studiocanal 2on1 DVD w/Albino Alligator (1996) – newspaper giveaway
• Brazil: Universal 3on1 DVD (2010) w/Number Seventeen and The Skin Game, also in 18-DVD/23-film AH Collection/info

This UK box set and its “restored” brethren blow it for Rich and Strange – yet again

Rich and Strange’s original transfer is from an excellent copy preserved by the British Film Institute, which conveys the visuals and audio very competently. Note the invaluable Hitchcock Zone’s numerous comparative screenshots demonstrate that it’s strongest on the first US DVD from Lionsgate.

2021 saw a new 4k restoration alongside Number Seventeen; after Kino Lorber originally announced both films for US release in 2018, they were delayed for three years when Kino learned there were only preserved SD transfers unsuitable for BD. Exactly the same problem is blocking a HD release of Secret Agent, which had a similar, unwittingly premature BD announcement made by a French label. The restoration of Rich and Strange’s visuals brings expected improvements in all areas with its grainy, sfumato textures really brought to the fore – but sadly all its releases revisit past audio sins.

A major problem on nearly every release to date is that circa 2005 the soundtracks for this film and Murder! were remixed by owners Studiocanal, and had new music and sound effects added throughout. Latter-day audio revisionism is a real bugbear of mine but especially so in Hitch’s case as he was famously meticulous about the sound design of all his films, and it’s especially important in what is perhaps his most experimental endeavour to date.

Throughout the film, the Master’s use of sound effects is judicious and discreet but the remix is the complete opposite. Almost everything onscreen that can possibly make a noise – and many things that don’t, eg soft shoes on carpet! – is overlaid with ridiculously OTT effects. Subtle it ain’t, and it truly comes across as parody. If only they were joking; in fact, it puts me in mind of nothing so much as this guy. I can’t help but wonder how many other films Studiocanal’s incompetent, disrespectful hacks have ballsed-up in their pointless pursuit of  ‘modernising’ the classics, but where we don’t have an original source to compare and expose their crimes. If they must insist on foisting such travesties upon us, why at not least include them alongside the (preferably default) original, so we have a choice?

As if all that wasn’t enough, at the 19-minute mark, audio from earlier in the film is repeated and overlaid at a louder volume on top of the ‘correct’ audio for exactly one minute. The error was doubtless introduced at the remixing stage and understandably also appears on the commentary track. Perhaps worst of all, later on, throughout the entire 11-minute hotel room scene up to the “Return.” intertitle, an unnecessary and annoying bassy drone has been added for the ceiling fan. In all, Studiocanal’s audio abomination is utterly distracting and truly wreckstoration at its finest.

Joan Barry tends to Henry Kendall’s bumped bonce in the vain hope it’s knocked some sense into him. (alt)

The only official releases to escape all of this are the preserved-transfer US Image LaserDisc; and Lionsgate DVD set which, thanks to their hands-off approach, contains original, untampered audio on all of its three talkies. Other Hitchcocks to have received this unwanted and unasked-for attention include Suspicion, Lifeboat, Rope, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho; with most also being reconfigured in gimmicky 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround sound.

Thanks to Studiocanal consulting this article, in 2024 they removed the repeating-audio fault on their master, though obviously not the commentary, but we’re still stuck with the terrible remix itself. This film’s had nearly four decades of official home video releases on every format and the owners still can’t get it right. Absolutely appalling. It’s especially unfortunate Kino Lorber’s restored discs have the faulty soundtrack and, as with their faulty Blackmail discs, they won’t be issuing corrected replacements. Though they’ve otherwise made an effort with this film, it’s still a bit cheeky of Kino to give it a standalone disc. Remember it’s only 83 minutes long, and their package for both it and the hour-long Number Seventeen would have easily fitted on a dual-layered twofer.

If you can get past the unoriginal, ballsed-up audio, Kino add several extras, most substantial of which is an audio commentary by genre historian Troy Howarth; all of them and more are included on the Euro restored box sets. The restoration may be finally in the 1.19:1 aspect ratio common to very early talkies, rather than its previous nearly-but-not-quite 1.33:1, but I’m not convinced the framing is entirely correct as compositions often seem slightly off-centre to the right. Certainly, there is frequently more information on the left, as compared to older releases, when there ought to be less as that side would have originally been composed to allow for cropping, to accommodate an optical soundtrack.

All at sea: Joan Barry and Henry Kendall anchors a-weigh up their options

There is some ambiguity over the film’s original running time as the copy initially submitted to the BBFC was 92:14 before mandated cuts to secure an A rating. The BFI National Archive’s longest extant copy is a 1931 nitrate dupe negative of 7,478 feet, which equates to 83:05. There are numerous copies of similar length in the archive, matching all extant circulating versions, so this then must be the final theatrical release length. However, as described in English Hitchcock, the film has several missing scenes which are all documented in the novel including what, according to Hitch, was his most significant cameo appearance of all. Sadly, barring a miraculous discovery, it looks like what we currently have is all we’re ever likely to get. But this fine film still has plenty of delights to offer, for which we can be very grateful.

This artwork has appeared on various bootlegs, including UK and Scandinavian DVDs (Waterfall Home Entertainment/WHE); and Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes and YouTube streams (The Orchard). Among the countless other boots, be sure to avoid the Spanish BD-R from Blackfire/Llamentol, ripped from the faulty US BD.

Related articles

This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.