Casablanca [1942] [DVD]

Because I've been reading Michael Walsh's novel As Time Goes By, I recently decided to watch Casablanca again on DVD. I was amazed to see how this 1943 Oscar-winning film remains powerful and moving 60 years after its release.

Almost everybody knows its plot of of wartime intrigue and its doomed romantic triangle of bitter American saloonkeeper Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the beautiful Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and her idealistic husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). This trio is supported by a wonderful and varied cast of characters, including Police Prefect Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's faithful friend and piano player Sam Waters (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson), the conniving Ugarte (Peter Lorre), the Russian bartender Sacha (Leonid Kinsky), and the loveable maitre d' Carl (S. Z. Sakall).

The heart of the movie revolves around the conflict created in Rick's heart by World War II. When his former flame Ilsa arrives in Casablanca, does he help her and her husband Victor escape to Lisbon, or does he allow German Major Strasser (Conrad Veldt) to capture the fugitive Czech resistance leader so Rick can take Ilsa to America himself? Or do his natural good instincts surface and get Rick to do the honorable thing?

This movie has a little bit of everything: suspense, drama, comedy, an exotic setting, and lots of music, including renditions of "It Had To Be You," "The Very Thought Of You," and a thrilling duel between Germans singing the "Watch On The Rhine" and the Allies belting out "The Marsellaise." Other songs heard in the film include "Knock On Wood," and the unforgettable "As Time Goes By."

Another crucial element is the snappy and memorable dialog written by the Epstein twins and Hal B. Wallis for this movie:

Rick: I came here for the waters.
Louis: Waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: Obviously, I was misinformed.

Ilsa: (to Sam) Play it. Play "As Time Goes By."

Rick: (to Sam) Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

Louis: (pretending to be surprised) I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling in here!
Casino Dealer: (handing Louis some money) Your winnings, sir.
Louis: (takes the money) Thank you.

Rick: (to Ilsa) Now, now...here's looking at you, kid.

With all these ingredients, director Michael Curtiz and producer Jack Warner came up with a recipe for a movie that became a beloved classic, a status recognized when the Library of Congress named Casablanca as one of the most important American films.

Betty June Moore

This is a review of the Blu-Ray quality, not of the film itself which is one of the all-time cinematic classics.

"Casablanca" on Blu-Ray is very beautiful to behold. It seems that the print was in very good condition and the transfer is very clear and detailed. Some shots do highlight the differences in cinematography and camera technology over time; so that, for example, when three people's faces are shown in close-up with the focus on one of them, the two faces out of focus are much more blurry than in modern films. This is a little disturbing at first, but you soon get used to it. And the face in focus, so often Ingrid Bergman's, is crystal clear and radiant with detail; the sparkling of her diamond earings is captured quite sublimely. An advantage for HD here is that the camera often allows itself much longer, still lingering shots than you would see in our impatient modern age. This allows the fine acting skills (of a generation that knew no Botox!) to be observed minutely and shows off the resolution of the image very nicely.

"Casablanca" is comfortably the oldest Blu-Ray I have seen (although "Metropolis" is rumoured to be on the way at the end of this year!) and yet very high up the quality ladder. It does not really have reference quality depth and plasticity, but the black/white contrasts are pretty good, and in general there is nothing to criticise in this subline transfer of a film getting on for 70 years old. It is perhaps worth mentioning though that the correct original aspect ratio of 4:3 will produce vertical black bars at the side of the image on your TV. I watched this with a projector and the bars are not really noticeable, but on a TV it might disturb a little; it does take more getting used to than the horizontal black bars because it makes the image seem a little 'thin'.

Speaking of 'thin' brings us, of course, to the Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. Now, of course, the option of the original mono soundtrack should be offered to satify purists. But what would have been wrong with the additional option of a skilfully reworked surround track as seen on so many Disney BD releases e.g. "Snow White"? My receiver can synthesise a surround track, but the results produced by a team of dedicated engineers would have been much better - as a comparison with "Snow White" makes clear. And why on earth is the mono soundtrack compressed? A mono soundtrack is acceptable, but it should have been PCM, True HD or DTS HD Master Audio. The soundtrack maybe just about holds its own in a living room (depending on your expectations), but in a dedicated home cinema set-up it is a bit of a damp squib.

It goes against the grain not to give five stars, but the laziness behind this release on the audio front (imagine how 'La Marseillaise' might have sounded in lossless quality!) means that this five star film with five star visuals just has to relinquish one star because of the soundtrack. Should it ever get a re-release with a lossless soundtrack (preferably with a surround mix, but in mono would do) then I will delete this review and re-write a five star one!

I hope this is of some help to prospective BD purchasers. The disc is recommended, but be prepared for a soundtrack that leaves a lot to be desired.

Black-and-white? Academy ratio? Mono sound? World War II film stock? On HD DVD? Are they kidding?

Well, no. Amazingly, it works. The pictures are as sharp and clean as if they were shot yesterday. The lovely thing about 35mm film is that it was always HD-ready. Even 65 years ago.

With this release, it's possible to see what the director and cameraman were trying to do for the first time since the wartime fleapits. There's a real art to the composition and the way depth-of-field and focus are used to control the viewer's eye. That subtlety is lost in SD because nothing is quite in sharp focus. The difference brings the film back to life in a way that had me disappearing deep inside the story like never before.