8/5: Casablanca 2-Disc SE w/New Footage! (1 Viewer)

[Bill Burns]

It's been a while since I've watched it (isn't that always the case? Time, time ...), but I seem to recall compression trouble in at least one overtly dark scene on the old release, with visible MPEG artifacts. I'm sure that will be nicely remedied on the new edition, and the transfer further restored and optimized throughout. If ever there was a film that deserves a meticulous attention to optimization, it has to be this crowd pleaser. I'm very eager to see the new release.

I love the new cover art, as well. Very appealing. This looks like a winner, WB. I think it's safe to offer full congratulations on this and their other classic double-disc releases still due in 2003 (among them the highly anticipated Flynn Robin Hood and Bogart Treasure of the Sierra Madre; don't forget that Giant, Once Upon a Time in America, and the Kevin Reynolds update Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves all receive special editions on June 10th).

EdHoch wrote:

I have heard rumors of a similar two disc SE of another classic film "It's a Wonderful Life." I already have this on DVD, but would probably bite on the double dip if they dug up additional footage etc. Anyone seen anything official?

I ran across those same rumors on-line (one of the major sites, either The Bits or DVDFile, I imagine, though this may date back to the DVD Resource days) quite a while ago -- it must be more than a year now, possibly longer. Rumors included rediscovered footage, a dual-layered release to replace Republic Home Video's flipper -- now Artisan's flipper, I reckon -- in which supplements were on side B, and other goodies. I've heard absolutely nothing since, and I check up on disc news just about every day. I'd love to know what happened to this project, if it was ever more than a rumor to begin with.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see Warner Bros.' restoration and presentation efforts lavished by Artisan on both It's a Wonderful Life and High Noon, but that's another thread (and a source of much anger around these parts ).

 

[Peter Kline]

Bill Burns.
The sequence you mention was the one in Ricks offices. WB, at least at the time, did not have a very good workable element for that part of the film. Perhaps they found somethihg better for the new edition. I do hope that they don't overdo the digital restoration. One of the "charms" of the film is the grittiness of the image... a WB trademark. Keep the 'brush strokes" in I say.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

DVDfile posted this news on their site today, with an interesting header:




I'm ashamed to say I've never sat down and watched Casablanca all the way through, but I'm 99% sure the line "Frankly, my dear..." (As in "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn") they used as their headline for this announcement comes from Gone With the Wind, not Casablanca.

http://www.dvdfile.com/software/dvd-...003/05_24.html

?

 

[Ray H]

I'm ashamed to say I've never sat down and watched Casablanca all the way through, but I'm 99% sure the line "Frankly, my dear..." (As in "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn") they used as their headline for this announcement comes from Gone With the Wind, not Casablanca.

 

[Nathan*W]

Yes, it is odd that they'd use the Gone With the Wind line when the Casablanca one: "Play it [again], Sam." is just as famous (or more so), and even more appropriate for a DVD release announcement. And yes, I do know that the "again" is not in the original quote, hence the brackets. It's just that the misquote is more well known. (go figure)

 

[Lee Bombard]

Well now that GWTW has been mentioned...anyone have any insight as to when we might see a new DVD version from WB?

 

[Peter Kline]

Somebody goofed.

 

[Malcolm R]

Sounds like DVDFile.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I hope that we see a new version of GWTW in the near future, I never got the original disc, and if anything GWTW deserves the first rate Warner treatment

 

[Paul_Scott]

there was a post on the CHUD message board that Olivia De havilland has recorded commentaries for both Robin Hood and GWTW.
last i heard TAORH was due out in Nov.
i'm assuming we won't see GWTW for at least a year- probably longer.

i love the art they are using on the Casablanca SE, i used to have that poster on my wall as a kid (while all the other kids had Pink Floyd and Rush posters, i had old movies...no wonder i got beat up so much ).
only thingis that oscar graphic kind of throws the design off a bit...oh well.
i always held off buying the original disc so this one will be an easy purchase.

August is going to be one heavy month.

 

[Peter Kline]

Kevin "Reynolds"? How quickly we forget!

 

[Malcolm R]

Hunh? The director of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, WAS Kevin Reynolds.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I'll buy it if it had the colorised version in it.

They showed Casablanca on TV a few weeks ago, and when I sat down to watch, it was the colourised version. I couldn' believe how awful the colorisation was - the colours were unbelieveably unnatural, Louis's police uniform was almost fluorescent(sp?), it just looked so wrong. So I turned all the colour off on my TV and watched it in black and white.

That night I went round to a friend's house and mentioned how awful the colourisation was. He had watched the film also, but having never seen it, he had no idea that it was black and white. He had been wondering why the colours were so unbelieveably awful.

Why on earth did they ever even bother to colourise when the result is so bad? Are there really people out there who hate the concept of black and white films so much that they would rather watch something that looks really bad in colour than something that looks wonderful in colour? And shouldn't we assume said people are morons and don't deserve to watch a beautiful film like Casablanca.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

"Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid. "

"But this our hill, and these are our beans..."



Looks like double-dip time for me...

 

[Ray H]

Why on earth did they ever even bother to colourise when the result is so bad? Are there really people out there who hate the concept of black and white films so much that they would rather watch something that looks really bad in colour than something that looks wonderful in colour? And shouldn't we assume said people are morons and don't deserve to watch a beautiful film like Casablanca.

I think I read in a decade old Q&A with the writers and historians that the movie is only in such good shape because they wanted to colorize it and you need a good print to do so. So it was restored and only looks so great because they made it look so bad. A win-lose situation.

 

[David Lawson]

What, no alternate ending? I know Bart and Lisa unearthed it.

"Mind if I drop in?"

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I think I read in a decade old Q&A with the writers and historians that the movie is only in such good shape because they wanted to colorize it and you need a good print to do so. So it was restored and only looks so great because they made it look so bad. A win-lose situation.

Interesting point. I did not know that.

Still, it's a shame the only reason the film was restored was to colourise it. A film with the stature of Casablanca demands to be kept in excellent condition because it is a great film that deserves to be watched for years to come - full stop. Not because someone doesn't like B&W.

And it's also a shame that TV stations (or at least, the stations in New Zealand) choose to show the abhomination that is the colourised version when we have good quality B&W that looks a million times better than the colourised ever could.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

What, no alternate ending? I know Bart and Lisa unearthed it.

"Mind if I drop in?"

That is one of my favourite scenes from the Simpsons. The rest of that story was pretty unimpressive, but I couldn't stop laughing at the alternate ending.

That, and the idea of a "Machine Gun Massacre" ending to It's A Wonderful Life.

 

[Richard Kim]

Anyone see that Coca-Cola commercial featuring a guy and girl watching Casablanca at a movie theater? Unfortunately, they're watching it in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, destroying the composition of the film.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Still, it's a shame the only reason the film was restored was to colourise it. A film with the stature of Casablanca demands to be kept in excellent condition because it is a great film that deserves to be watched for years to come - full stop. Not because someone doesn't like B&W.

Nevertheless, it was restored. Some films aren't that lucky to be restored for any reason.