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  • French: Dolby Digital Mono
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Casablanca
Warner Bros./Warner Bros. . R4 . COLOR . 98 mins . PG . PAL

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Ranked by the American Film Institute as the “second greatest movie of all time” (the “greatest” was Orson Welles’ wonderful Citizen Kane, soon to make its long-overdue debut on DVD), Casablanca didn’t start out with any particular pretensions to greatness. In fact, at the time it was made it was just another wartime movie offering from Warner Brothers, who relied on the pulling power of stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman - as well as the timely escape-from-war theme - to bolster the picture’s chances of becoming a hit. And a hit it was - both at the time of its original release, and for nearly sixty years since as the movie’s romance, atmosphere, humour and dialogue became an intrinsic part of the consciousness of film fans across thee world and across generations.

But wait a moment - humour? Yes, you read correctly. While Casablanca is remembered fondly as one of the great romance movies of all time, there is a solid dose of subtle humour throughout thanks to the clever scripting of Julius and Philip Epstein, who adapted an unproduced play which had been turned into a screenplay by Howard Koch. That humour is helped greatly by some wonderfully laconic performances from Bogart, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre - in fact, the film is loaded with terrific performances, and Casablanca is probably Ingrid Bergman’s best.

There’s no need for us to waste time here on the plot; if you haven’t seen Casablanca before, all you need to know is that it revolves around a bar run by expatriate American Rick Blaine (Bogart) during World War 2 in French Morocco - a haven for those fleeing Nazi occupation, but soon to become a Nazi outpost itself. When his former lover Ilsa (Bergman) arrives with her husband Victor Laszlo (Henried) - a resistance fighter wanted by the Nazis - Rick is torn between his rekindled passion for Ilsa and his policy of not getting involved in anything remotely political.

Cheesy? Of course it is, but thanks to the spot-on script, Michael Curtiz’ wonderful direction and some absolutely lovely black and white cinematography, Casablanca never seems to stretch credibility and certainly never seems forced or stagey. It may be more famous to modern audiences for its catchphrases than it is for its artistry, but more than half a century on, it still works - a remarkable achievement in itself.

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  Audio
  Extras
Contract

This DVD of Casablanca has been around for some time, and has been criticised by some for its picture quality. To these eyes, though, the full-frame image presented here is absolutely lovely, particularly compared to previous transfers of the film (have a look at the excerpts in the original trailer in the provided documentary and be amazed). It’s by no means perfect - there’s a substantial amount of aliasing at times, too much edge enhancement and some brief but very noticeable film damage - but bear in mind that this film was shot sixty years ago. To see it looking so wonderfully clear, rich in contrast and free of blemishes is astonishing. If you ever saw Casablanca on television, you’ll be quite startled at the difference. On a film of this vintage there’s bound to be some amount of irreparable damage; that the damage here is confined to a single scene (and only a couple of frames of the scene, at that) is remarkable. Audio is the original mono, encoded as Dolby Digital 1.0, and is amazingly clean and clear for its age. Interestingly, the entire feature is encoded on one layer of this dual-layered disc, with the second layer used solely for the accompanying trailer and documentary. With plenty of space on the disc remaining, it would perhaps have been better for Warner to make use of the additional space to improve compression quality on the main feature; still, as long as you’re not using a large-scale projection screen, you should be happy with what you get here.

Extras are limited: there’s a 36 minute documentary made for the film’s 50th Anniversary in 1992, hosted by Bogey collaborator Lauren Bacall and featuring some fascinating interviews - including one with screenwriter Julius Epstein - and plenty of info about the film’s production. It’s all a bit self-congratulatory at times, but still well worth the effort. Aside from this, only a theatrical trailer is offered - and it’s the 1992 re-release trailer, instead of the 1942 offering that really should be here as well. Image quality on both is reasonable, though some of the interview footage during the documentary seems to be, mysteriously, at a reduced frame rate. Sound on the documentary is mono, but has obviously been converted from a stereo source - the clearly audible phase problems throughout give that fact away.

Overall, though, this is a very good - though not quite perfect - presentation of one of the most beloved Hollywood films of all time. Here's to you looking at it.


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  •   And I quote...
    "A very good - though not quite perfect - presentation of one of the most beloved Hollywood films of all time."
    - Anthony Horan
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