Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This is a great collection for the avid or passing Bogart fan. Price, picture and extras are all first rate...

BUT...I just purchased this set in Canada and noticed two of my discs were missing content and one movie wasn't even included. Here's what I found:

Disc 2: Dark Victory / Virginia City - This set uses double-sided DVDs. The Dark Victory side is missing the commentary track by James Ursini & Paul Clinton, as well as the Featurette 1939: Tough Competition for Dark Victory listed on the box. There might be more content missing because the menu doesn't match. It also starts right into the movie without the menu coming up first like it should. (You have to stop the movie for the menu.)

Disc 6: Casablanca / The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - The Casablanca side is missing the two commentaries and the intro by Lauren Bacall listed on the box. Again, it starts right into the movie without the menu coming up. On The Treasure of the Sierra Madre side, the movie is missing altogether - as well as the commentary, etc. referred to on the box. Instead, the menu reads "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Special Features Disc 2" and has some features not listed on the box. It also says "Additional Special Features on Disc 1." (It appears Warner Brothers accidentally transferred the wrong disc over from their 'Sierra Madre' Special Edition DVD set to press this disc.)

I'm not sure how widespread these mistakes are - but hopefully, WB Customer Service can arrange for replacement discs for me or anyone else out there with the same problem and get this mess straightened out.

...and every one of these films are already available - at least in DVD collections - previously put out by Warner Brothers. There is not one new release in the set. What it does do is put back into circulation several individual titles that have gone out of print. At least Warner Brothers has not entirely shut off their supply of classic films new to DVD, but it is down to a trickle if you don't count the Warner Archive.

Do note that several of Bogart's films are being released on Blu-Ray, so if high definition classics are your thing you might want to rethink the following:
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Maltese Falcon
These two are due out on Blu the same time that this collection is being released. What differentiates Humphrey Bogart's career from other Warner legends such as Errol Flynn and James Cagney is that Bogart was in films for over ten years and largely as a supporting player before he finally broke through into leads in consistently good films, thus he has twenty films that are not on pressed DVD to which Warner Brothers holds the rights. The following Bogart films are under the control of Warner Brothers and have never been on DVD:
Love Affair (1932)
Big City Blues (1932)
Two Against the World (1936)
China Clipper (1936)
Isle of Fury (1936)
The Great O'Malley (1937)
Swing Your Lady (1938)
Men Are Such Fools (1938)
Racket Busters (1938)
King of the Underworld (1939)
Oklahoma Kid (1939)
You Can't Get Away With Murder (1939)
It All Came True (1940)
The Wagons Roll at Night (1941)
The Big Shot (1942)
Conflict (1945)
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
Chain Lightning (1951)
The Enforcer (1951)
Crime School is available via the Warner Archives.
Granted, quite a few of these are B or even B- pictures and/or have Bogart in a supporting role but they're still Bogart films. It would be nice to see at least a few of them be released properly.

If you're a hard-core fan of Bogie's finest film work, I would still recommend the multi-disc collections of some of the titles of "The Essential Collection", over this new release (there are excellent special editions of "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", and other classics). If, however, you want an overview of Humphrey Bogart's remarkable career at Warner Brothers, I can't think of a better collection to buy. Warner Home Video creates wonderful 'packages' for features, including commentaries, newsreels, trailers, and vintage cartoons, radio broadcasts, and short film features, and the inclusion of the terrific TCM documentary, "The Brothers Warner", on the tempestuous careers of Jack & Co., Bogie film bloopers (on occasion, Bogie's reactions on flubbing a line were unprintable, but funny!), the minature one-sheet advertising recreations and correspondence, and the book, of course...well, there are a LOT of incentives to shell out the money for this compilation!

The films offered are certainly the best of the Warner years, with all four of his teamings with wife Lauren Bacall, his John Huston classics, his 'Murderers' Row' years with Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft, his most successful films with Bette Davis ("The Petrified Forest", "Dark Victory" and "Marked Woman"), and his laughably bad attempt at a Mexican accent ("Virginia City"...Westerns were simply not his forte!). Naturally, "Casablanca" is here (as well as a few of the film variations it inspired), yet surprisingly, Bogie's richly-layered post-war Noir portrayals are largely ignored (I was surprised "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" and "Dead Reckoning" were left out). Still, the choices are outstanding.

If you are just beginning to 'discover' the actor many consider Hollywood's greatest star, I strongly recommend you check out his post-Warner's performances, as well. Films like "In a Lonely Place", "The African Queen" (his Oscar winner), "Sabrina", "Beat the Devil", "The Caine Mutiny", and "The Harder They Fall" are every bit as impressive as the output from his days sparring with Jack Warner...

Enjoy a magnificent film star!