ROMAN HOLIDAY and SABRINA and SUNSET BLVD. on DVD

Roman Holiday (1953), Sabrina (1954) and Sunset Blvd. (1950) have all appeared on DVD before, but their new incarnations in Paramount’s “Centennial Collection” line provide a great chance to take a fresh look at these top-notch pictures, all three of which are true Hollywood classics.  In fact, they are the inaugural “Centennial Collection” DVDs, and it’s clear from the wide-ranging supplementary materials and overall presentation that Paramount is keen on competing with Criterion’s releases and Sony’s new “Collector’s Choice” series, which began this month with The Films of Budd Boetticher and will continue in January with a Michael Powell double bill.

For that matter, we might as well add Warner’s typically stunning box sets (such as the recent Gangster Collection Vol. 4) and Fox’s eager and frequent showcasing of its own library of noirs and musicals—not to mention its upcoming Murnau/Borzage box set, which should prove to be the stunner of the year. Paramount has long lagged behind the other majors in putting its crown jewels on DVD, and one only hopes that Roman Holiday, Sabrina and Sunset Blvd. will sell well, and that more, and rarer, titles will follow.

For now, however, we have these three amazing movies. I’m sure that most readers of this site already know these pictures quite well, so I will dwell more on the extras and supplements in this review.

ROMAN HOLIDAY

Roman Holiday, of course, is one of the most beloved romantic comedies of all time, a perfect fusion of great movie star chemistry in luminous Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, sublime Roman locations, a delectable screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, and masterful direction by William Wyler. Originally released on DVD in 2002, the transfer has been improved a bit this time around. Picture quality is excellent, with great contrast. Some of the original extras have been retained, and a few new ones have been added.  The extras include:

“Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years” (30 min.) Various film historians and actors relate the actress’ ascension through the Hollywood system. It’s lovingly produced, with many high-quality clips and stills.

“Remembering Audrey” (12 min.) Hepburn’s son Sean Hepburn Ferrer and her late-in-life companion Robert Wolders share their reminiscences of the actress and humanitarian.

“Rome With a Princess” (9 min.) This travelogue featurette explores Rome via the locations used in the movie.

“Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist” (12 min.) A very worthwhile featurette on the brilliant, blacklisted screenwriter. Marsha Hunt and Betty Garrett are among the talking heads that pop up to discuss Trumbo and the blacklist.

“Restoring Roman Holiday“ (7 min.) A holdover from first release, this is about the process used to restore the film to its original splendor.

“Behind the Gates: Costumes” (5 min.) A fun look at the Paramount costume department.

“Paramount in the ‘50s” (9 min.) A rather bland and superficial overview of the studio’s output in the 1950s, with lousy picture quality of the clips used.

There are also trailers and lots of stills, which are interesting to see but which seem to have been scanned at too-low resolution. Oddly, there is no audio commentary track on the movie itself, though there is a glossy little printed booklet with trivia about the film and a few wonderful behind-the-scenes photos.

SABRINA

Sabrina has also been transferred at a slightly improved resolution from its perfectly fine previous incarnation. Billy Wilder’s romantic comedy is full of his trademark wit, though Humphrey Bogart has always been considered miscast - even by Bogie himself. That may be true, but the movie is still wonderful entertainment. Extras here include:

“Audrey Hepburn: Fashion Icon” (18 min.) A self-explanatory look at Hepburn and what she represented in the world of fashion.

“Sabrina’s World” (11 min.) An intriguing look at the opulent Long Island mansion life of the 1950s.

“Supporting Sabrina“ (16 min.) A very interesting exploration of the film’s supporting cast and their careers.

“William Holden: The Paramount Years” (30 min.) A well-produced and informative take on Holden’s Paramount career, with good stills and clips.

“Audrey Hepburn: In Her Own Words” (12 min.) Misleadingly titled, this is really more about the making of the movie overall.

“Behind the Gates: Camera” (5 min.) Covers different cameras and processes used in the 1950s. Short but really interesting.

“Paramount in the ‘50s” (9 min.) This is the same mediocre short as the one on Roman Holiday. Bizarrely, it’s repeated here (and on the Sunset Blvd. disc).

As in Roman Holiday, there is a fun little printed booklet and no audio commentary.

SUNSET BLVD.

Perhaps the best movie about Hollywood ever made, Sunset Blvd. is quite simply a magnificent piece of entertainment, as riveting, profound and witty today as it must have been in 1950. Ironically, silent star Gloria Swanson was born to play this talkie role of a silent star and will forever be remembered for this film above her silent work (which sadly is not as well-known as it should be). Sunset Blvd. brims with references to silent movies and is a delight for serious movie fans as well as more casual viewers.

Paramount’s new DVD features a fine transfer of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece and TONS of extras. There are actually too many featurettes to list here one by one; suffice it to say that some are carried over from the earlier DVD release and many more are new, and that they range in length from 6 to 23 minutes and cover everything from the physical making of the film to its noir sensibility, its score, its locations, its stars, its composer Franz Waxman, its costume designer Edith Head and more. There are even script pages from the famous deleted opening sequence and some outtakes from that sequence.  In the various featurettes, Gloria Swanson herself pops up in an archival interview, and actress Nancy Olson is also prominently featured.  Writer-director Billy Wilder is sadly absent; one wishes some of his archival interviews could have been included. I can only imagine legal reasons prevented this. Rounding things off are another little booklet and an audio commentary from Ed Sikov (retained from the earlier release).

In all, however, this is a terrific DVD presentation of one of the greatest movies ever made, and all three discs are well worth picking up.

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