Mr. & Mrs. Smith (DVD)

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"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" seems more than a tad old-fashioned compared to today's comedies, with something like the Coen brothers' modern screwball comedy "Intolerable Cruelty" being more pointed, more twisted, and more madcap. Then, too, the story line of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" tends to sag in the middle and again toward the end, as though either the scriptwriter or Hitchcock were getting tired or bored.

But things pick up at the finish. "I've been thrown out of my own home, threatened by cops, chased around in taxicabs, and neglected my job, only because I loved you and wanted you back again," says Mr. Smith in the film's climax. Love triumphs in the end. I only wish the film had been as complete a triumph as love.

Video:
The print Warner Bros. used for the DVD transfer seems to have been beautifully preserved because in terms of ticks, spots, scratches, lines, or other age marks, there aren't any. I suspect some minor touch-up work was done by WB as well. The 1.33:1 screen size approximates the standard screen dimensions of the day, and the reproduction on disc is free of grain, jittery lines, or other digital artifacts. Still, the picture is not so perfect in its black-and-white contrasts as it could be, and overall object delineation is only average for an older B&W movie. Quibbles aside, the picture quality is pretty good, with a slight fading in some scenes and not in others. When it's good, it's very good, indeed.

Audio:
The film's original monaural sound is reproduced via Dolby Digital 1.0 mono, and while it is a long way from today's 5.1 audio, it sounds fine. There is a small tendency toward hardness and nasality in voices, a common enough trait among older soundtracks, but it's really nothing. A light background score by Edward Ward unobtrusively underlines each scene, and the music is rendered quite smooth, if not very dynamic.

Extras:
The bonus materials include only one important item, a newly made, sixteen-minute documentary, "Mr. Hitchcock Meets the Smiths." In it we hear from directors Peter Bogdanovich and Richard Franklin; film historians Robert Osborne and Richard Schickel; Hitchcock's daughter, Pat; and Hitchcock's granddaughter, Mary. They all comment on Hitchcock's penchant for wry humor and on the comedy in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in particular. Then, there are twenty-seven scene selections; a theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Parting Thoughts:
Expect from "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" the least-expected things from Hitchcock. Expect light, bubbly repartee without the menace of spies, murderers, or dead bodies in the background. Expect witty, fast-paced dialogue without the shadow of mystery or mayhem hanging over the characters. Expect Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, George Cukor, or Preston Sturges, but don't expect Hitchcock. About the only thing Hitchcockian about this movie is Hitch's cameo, which if you don't find it can be seen in the documentary. But do expect a bit of pleasant if subdued screwball fun.

Warner Bros. have made "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" available individually or in a big boxed set, "The Hitchcock Signature Collection," which also contains "Strangers on a Train," "The Wrong Man," "Suspicion," "Stage Fright," "Dial M for Murder," "I Confess," "Foreign Correspondent," and "North By Northwest."