Sabrina (DVD)

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I've heard that Bogart hated the script and maybe felt self-conscious about the thirty-year age difference between himself and his leading lady. In any case, the two actors actually draw attention to their age disparity in the film and play off it well enough that it isn't really the distraction it could have been. Linus implies that he is in his late thirties ("If I were only ten years younger," he tells her), and, well, as I said, this is a fairy tale.

Still and all, "Sabrina" is a classy fairy tale, with plenty of sparkle amid the occasional fizz. It's Ms. Hepburn's film, but it's the offbeat casting of tough-guy Bogey as the supposedly lackluster romantic interest that carries the picture along. Now, if only we didn't have to watch him smoking himself to death.

Video:
Nowhere on the packaging for the film's 2000 DVD release or this newer 2008 Centennial Collection release does it mention that Paramount restored the film in any way. However, the earlier transfer was quite good, and this newer one looks even better. I am going to assume that Paramount had a really good print to remaster, touched it up considerably, and worked on it further in 2008. The film is in black-and-white and in an Academy-standard ratio of 1.37:1, here rendered at 1.33:1. In a side-by-side comparison of the 2000 and 2008 transfers, it's apparent that the video engineers made the black-and-white contrasts in the newer edition even more intense, the blacks deeper and the whites almost glowing. As before, the image is sometimes startlingly beautiful, conveying an image that appears at times to be almost three dimensional. Maybe the engineers overcompensated and now made the picture too strongly contrasted, but the result is as good as any B&W image I've seen on standard-definition DVD.

Audio:
The monaural sound, delivered in Dolby Digital, is clear and smooth and refined, free of any background noise. If you don't mind the fact that there is no surround information involved and that the dynamic range and frequency response are limited, the audio will please you. As the film is virtually all dialogue, with a light musical score, one never misses much. In other words, the sound is fine.

Extras:
Disc one of this two-disc Centennial Collection edition contains the feature film and a usual complement of extras including fourteen scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; and a preview of "It's a Wonderful Life" on DVD.

Disc two is where you'll find the real extras, a series of featurettes, most of them newly made. First, there's "Audrey Hepburn: Fashion Icon," seventeen minutes on Ms. Hepburn's unique style and appearance. Next, there's "Sabrina's World," eleven minutes on the real-life Long Island mansions that make up the settings for the movie. Third, there's "Supporting Sabrina," sixteen minutes on the character actors in the film. After that is "William Holden: The Paramount Years," thirty minutes profiling the actor's career in Hollywood. Fifth, there's "Audrey Hepburn: In Her Own Words," eleven minutes on the film's origins and production. After that there's "Behind the Gates: Camera," five minutes on the various pieces of camera equipment Paramount use in their filmmaking. Seventh, there's "Paramount in the '50s," nine minutes on movies the studio produced during the 1950s. And, finally, there are still galleries covering the film's production, the movie itself, the publicity for the film, and its première.

Parting Thoughts:
The Academy nominated "Sabrina" for six Oscars in 1954: Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn), Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Writing (Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor, and Ernest Lehman), Best Art Direction and Set Decoration (Hal Pereira, Walter Tyler, Sam Comer, and Ray Moyer), Best Cinematography (Charles B. Lang, Jr.), and Best Costume Design (Edith Head). Ms. Head was the only one to win an Oscar, but the others were surely deserving. Director Sydney Pollack would remake the film in 1995 with Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear, but it didn't have nearly the sparkle, especially as the focus of the story shifted from Sabrina to Linus. Stick with the original. If you approach it with an open mind, it will continue to delight.

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