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Blu-ray Review Casablanca: 70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Citizen87645
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Oops, I was wrong! I just checked my "Casablanca" Blu-rays and I did opened and watched my "70th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray beforehand. I guess I'm getting old as it was the 11-17-09, "Gone With the Wind 70th Anniversary" Blu-ray box set that I never opened and watched. I have two other Blu-ray releases of "Gone With the Wind" that contained that same 70th Anniversary Blu-ray that I've watched in the past. One from the UK that was released on 11-16-09, and 06-09-15, "The Golden Year" Blu-ray box set with some other 1939 movies.
Tonight, I watched my 70th Anniversary Blu-ray again and it looked beautiful on my 55" OLED.
AlexNH
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Does anyone remember a release for this film that included luggage tags? I think it was a DVD.
Scott Merryfield
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Damn, you guys got me in the mood to watch this great film again. It's been over three years since we last watched our 2012 BD release version.
DBF
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I hope moths don’t fly out when you do open it.
Actually, I already opened it and forgot I did so.I hope moths don’t fly out when you do open it.
Anyhow, I watched that Blu-ray again last night. Excellent video and audio presentations!
benbess
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Over the last few weeks I've been listening the audio book on Casablanca pictured below, which is good and seems quite thorough. Anyway, the account from author Aljean Harmetz (who worked for many years at the New York Times) appears to dispel two seeming myths that are repeated in the documentary on my Casablanca blu-ray disc. First, there's the claim in the documentary by one of the commentators that Casablanca was "just another picture"—or words to that effect.
The books says that although obviously they didn't know the magic that was going to be captured, this was clearly a special film in 1942 at Warner Bros, with a lot of their top talent obviously involved. It wasn't just another picture, it was a prestige production that was the key movie that was going to launch Bogart into becoming a romantic leading man. Much of the studio had been masterminding this for quite a while, as internal documents and memos reveal.
Curtiz was the best director that WB had at that point, and Hal Wallis was their best producer. Wallis took extraordinary care with the casting of this movie, working for many months and going way over budget to get Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson, SK Sakall, etc. It's just amazing the lengths he went to get these specific people for their specific roles from other studios when WB had a whole stable of contract players.
They also brought in their top writers to write and re-write.
But that gets to the second myth spun in the documentary, which is that they didn't know the ending. Well, they were working out the details to the very, very end, with some things improvised on set, but seemingly in every draft as it evolved Ilsa was always going to go away with
Anyway, watched the movie again after listening to the book and loved it just as much if not more.
A few additional things.... The cinematographer for Casablanca, Arther Edeson, wasn't very tall, but quite definite in his work methods, and a perfectionist, and was known as "the little Napoleon." He previously had been the cinematographer for Robin Hood (1922), Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Lost World (1925), Frankenstein, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc, etc. He would spend hours and hours getting the right lighting set up, which along with other things put the production behind schedule. Wallis tried to micromanage Edeson to speed things up, which at one point made the DP weep with frustration. All this made me look again at how important the lighting is throughout the movie.
en.wikipedia.org
Curtiz seemingly worked well with Edeson on the camera set ups and movements. They were both perfectionists. Although Curtiz could be hard on some people with this hand-picked cast he seemed pleased. His personal addition was to make almost all the extras at Rick's former Europeans who themselves had escaped the Nazis, and urged that they be paid even when they weren't on camera, since many of them were struggling to get by.
The books says that although obviously they didn't know the magic that was going to be captured, this was clearly a special film in 1942 at Warner Bros, with a lot of their top talent obviously involved. It wasn't just another picture, it was a prestige production that was the key movie that was going to launch Bogart into becoming a romantic leading man. Much of the studio had been masterminding this for quite a while, as internal documents and memos reveal.
Curtiz was the best director that WB had at that point, and Hal Wallis was their best producer. Wallis took extraordinary care with the casting of this movie, working for many months and going way over budget to get Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson, SK Sakall, etc. It's just amazing the lengths he went to get these specific people for their specific roles from other studios when WB had a whole stable of contract players.
They also brought in their top writers to write and re-write.
But that gets to the second myth spun in the documentary, which is that they didn't know the ending. Well, they were working out the details to the very, very end, with some things improvised on set, but seemingly in every draft as it evolved Ilsa was always going to go away with
her husband.
Anyway, watched the movie again after listening to the book and loved it just as much if not more.
A few additional things.... The cinematographer for Casablanca, Arther Edeson, wasn't very tall, but quite definite in his work methods, and a perfectionist, and was known as "the little Napoleon." He previously had been the cinematographer for Robin Hood (1922), Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Lost World (1925), Frankenstein, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc, etc. He would spend hours and hours getting the right lighting set up, which along with other things put the production behind schedule. Wallis tried to micromanage Edeson to speed things up, which at one point made the DP weep with frustration. All this made me look again at how important the lighting is throughout the movie.
Arthur Edeson - Wikipedia
Curtiz seemingly worked well with Edeson on the camera set ups and movements. They were both perfectionists. Although Curtiz could be hard on some people with this hand-picked cast he seemed pleased. His personal addition was to make almost all the extras at Rick's former Europeans who themselves had escaped the Nazis, and urged that they be paid even when they weren't on camera, since many of them were struggling to get by.
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benbess
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A couple of more small items from that book on Casablanca.....
First, Bogart was a good amateur chess player, and in fact at this time participated in something that was popular—correspondence chess. Apparently the set-up shown in the movie is a game that he was actually doing by correspondence with a guy in New York at the time.
In the image below you can see the care taken with the lighting.
Second, Sascha at the bar was originally played by another actor, who was deemed not funny at all by Hal Wallis and others. Wallis just wanted to cut the scene filmed early on of Sascha kissing Rick after Bogart's character helps the couple trying to leave Casablanca. But Curtiz wanted to keep the brief scene, and Bogart personally recommended his Russian drinking buddy and fellow actor Leonid Kinskey. Kinskey was a bit player, and knew vaguely that Bogart's star was rising, but didn't realize how much until he got on the set. When Kinskey saw how on set everyone treated Bogart with such respect, and kind of made a big deal of him, he finally realized that his drinking buddy was a major star. Bogart had problems in his personal life, and well-known demons, but he was very professional on set, and knew his lines and marks precisely. Anyway, the scene came out great and is really funny. The affection between them shown on screen is not just acting but genuine.
According to imdb, the line Sascha says in Russian: "Nu, kakoi chelovek, eto zamechatyelno!," translates loosely to "Wow, what a man. That's remarkable!"
First, Bogart was a good amateur chess player, and in fact at this time participated in something that was popular—correspondence chess. Apparently the set-up shown in the movie is a game that he was actually doing by correspondence with a guy in New York at the time.
In the image below you can see the care taken with the lighting.
Second, Sascha at the bar was originally played by another actor, who was deemed not funny at all by Hal Wallis and others. Wallis just wanted to cut the scene filmed early on of Sascha kissing Rick after Bogart's character helps the couple trying to leave Casablanca. But Curtiz wanted to keep the brief scene, and Bogart personally recommended his Russian drinking buddy and fellow actor Leonid Kinskey. Kinskey was a bit player, and knew vaguely that Bogart's star was rising, but didn't realize how much until he got on the set. When Kinskey saw how on set everyone treated Bogart with such respect, and kind of made a big deal of him, he finally realized that his drinking buddy was a major star. Bogart had problems in his personal life, and well-known demons, but he was very professional on set, and knew his lines and marks precisely. Anyway, the scene came out great and is really funny. The affection between them shown on screen is not just acting but genuine.
According to imdb, the line Sascha says in Russian: "Nu, kakoi chelovek, eto zamechatyelno!," translates loosely to "Wow, what a man. That's remarkable!"
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Hoping we see an 80th anniversary 4K disc announced soon for 2022. We need a good, comprehensive set for this movie, which ranks among nearly everyone’s favorite films.
benbess
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Maybe, but unless the OCN for Casablanca exists and is in good shape, I'm not sure 4k would make this movie look any better. From my pov it didn't make much sense to do a 4k disc for Citizen Kane since the OCN for that movie is gone iirc.
Yeah, but it looks damn good in 4K/Dolby Vision.
Keith Cobby
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The blu ray of Casablanca in much better than CK, looking forward to the inevitable 4k disc next year.
Robin9
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I've always been very pleased with the Blu-ray disc and I see no reason to buy a 4K version.
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