Blu Monday: "Casablanca"

(Blu Monday is our roundup of what's new in Blu-ray...)

Here's looking at Blu, kid. I took a spin through my all-time favorite movie, Casablanca, on Blu-ray, and it's a good example of how good an older film can look in high definition.  Already remastered and looking great through Warner's Ultra-Resolution process back in 2003, the film on Blu-ray is even more sharp and vivid, from the creases on Humphrey Bogart's world-weary face to the delicate wisps of hair around Ingrid Bergman's. The excellent bonus features are retained from the two-disc DVD (and the HD DVD): commentary tracks by Roger Ebert and Rudy Behlmer, documentaries on Bogart and the film's anniversary, brief outtakes, production notes, memories from the stars' children, and the premiere episode from the short-lived 1955 television show. New to this edition on a standard DVD, not a Blu-ray disc (presumably so it can be in the Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD as well) is Jack L. Warner: The Last Movie Mogul, an hourlong documentary from 1993 about the youngest and most powerful Warner brother, partly about the rise of the studio and partly how Jack took control of it. The history of Warner Brothers mirrors the history of film, from its silent days to WB's introduction of The Jazz Singer as the first talkie. The studio then developed its own style over the years, with gritty pictures and gritty stars--Cagney, Robinson, Bogart--that seemed to reflect Jack himself, then faced the crises of World War II and Communist blacklisting. Interviews with family members, industry insiders, and actors provide insight into a man who played a tremendous role in shaping the industry and also into an era of that industry that will never be duplicated. The rest of the Ultimate Collector's Edition is less important than the film and features, but beautifully presented: 10 postcards of original poster art, reproductions of studio letters (including pitching Bogart as the ideal romantic hero for the project), a photo book with stills and more art, a passport holder, and a luggage tag.

Yes, it's kind of a pain that you can't buy the Blu-ray disc of Casablanca just by itself rather than in the Ultimate Collector's Edition format. Warner is doing the same thing with The Notebook (in this case, preserving the features from the original DVD and adding a lot of scrapbooking-type of paraphernalia).  The film does look great on Blu-ray, though, so you'll have to decide whether the UCE is appealing enough to you to add it to your Blu-ray collection.  --David

New Blu-ray pre-orders that have recently hit the catalog:

• The Quantum of Solace
• Goldfinger (Amazon.com Exclusive Steelbook)
• Moonraker (Amazon.com Exclusive Steelbook)
• The World Is Not Enough (Amazon.com Exclusive Steelbook)
• Australia
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa