You Must Remember This: Bogey Legacy

Here’s looking at you, Bogey.

Though Humphrey Bogart died in 1957, his star shines as brightly now as it did during his 26-year film career. Last year, in fact, the movie tough guy and Academy Award winner for 1951’s “The African Queen” was chosen the No. 1 star of the century by the American Film Institute.

Now Warner Home Video is releasing 18 of his 85 films on video ($15 each)--including three for the first time--and unveiling four of his best films on DVD: “The Big Sleep,” “Key Largo,” “The Maltese Falcon” and “Casablanca.”

Bogey and his fourth wife, Lauren Bacall, made four films together, among them the delicious 1946 Howard Hawks classic “The Big Sleep” ($20). The DVD includes a restored transfer of both versions of the black-and-white film noir in which Bogart plays shamus Philip Marlowe: the 114-minute theatrical release, which beefed up the Bogart-Bacall romantic plot, and the 116-minute 1944 pre-release version, containing 18 minutes that were either re-shot or deleted from the film that finally made it into theaters. Also included is the trailer and the compelling documentary on the history of the film, “The Big Sleep Comparisons.”

Their final film together was John Huston’s tough, gritty 1948 romantic thriller, “Key Largo” ($25), which also stars Edward G. Robinson at his gangster best and Claire Trevor in her Oscar-winning role as Robinson’s drunken moll. The beautifully restored transfer includes the theatrical trailer.

Huston made his directorial debut with the 1941 classic film noir, “The Maltese Falcon” ($25), which turned Bogey into a cultural icon as the super-cool, super-tough, super-romantic private detective Sam Spade. The disc includes a crisp transfer of the black-and-white film, production notes, the theatrical trailer, a “History of Mystery” essay and the enjoyable Turner Classic Movies documentary, “Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart.”

Bogey’s best-loved film undoubtedly is the 1942 romance “Casablanca” ($25), which also stars Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid. The disc features a gorgeous transfer of the black-and-white film, trailers from numerous Bogart films and the entertaining 1992 documentary “You Must Remember This,” hosted by Bacall, which includes interviews and never-before-seen footage from “Casablanca.”

The three new-to-video titles are a mixed bag. The best is 1938’s unusual “The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse,” which was co-written by John Huston. Edward G. Robinson is splendid in this drama as a doctor who is interested in researching the physical and mental stages of criminals, and so becomes involved in a gang of thieves led by bad guy Bogart and Claire Trevor.

“The Black Legion,” from 1936, was Bogart’s first leading role in a movie. Directed by Archie Mayo, who also directed Bogart that year in the classic “The Petrified Forest,” this drama finds the actor playing an angry, embittered factory worker who is passed up for a promotion and becomes a member of a white supremacist group. The film isn’t very good, but it’s scary and sad that so much of “Black Legion” still rings true today.

The 1941 drama “The Wagons Roll at Night” casts Bogey as the boss of a traveling carnival who decides to kill the lion tamer (Eddie Albert) because the man has fallen in love with the Bogart character’s sister (Joan Leslie). The movie at times is unintentionally funny.

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Also new from Warner Home Video is the DVD of Stanley Kubrick’s last film, “Eyes Wide Shut” ($25), starring Tom Cruise as a doctor who gets more than he bargained for when he enters into a world of eroticism and mystery one night after his wife (Nicole Kidman) tells him of her sexual longings.

The disc features the theatrical trailer and TV spots. Surprisingly, the transfer is not in wide screen, but there is an explanation included that says the transfer is in the full-screen format according to the aspect ratio of Kubrick’s original negative.

The DVD includes separate interviews with Cruise, Kidman and Kubrick’s friend, Steven Spielberg. The interviews, which last 30 minutes, are quite good, with Cruise and Kidman letting down their guard and even breaking into tears recalling their feelings when they learned Kubrick had died. Spielberg discusses his near-20-year friendship with the director, which began when he met Kubrick on the set of “The Shining.”

What the DVD doesn’t include is any new footage. This is the same version that was released in theaters, with some digital alterations to reduce the nudity in an orgy scene so that the film could get an R rating rather than the more restrictive NC-17.

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Short Cuts: Ed Wood’s classic turkey, “Plan 9 From Outer Space” has never looked as good as it does on a new DVD release (Image, $25). The transfer of the black-and-white sci-fi cult fave is crisp and clean. The digital version also includes the trailer plus “Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion,” a two-hour 1992 documentary that looks like it was shot on a shoestring but which features a lot of rare clips and interviews with such Wood actors as Gregory Walcott, Paul Marco and Vampira.

MGM’s DVD collector’s edition of the satanic thriller “Stigmata” ($25), starring Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne, includes a “never before seen” surprise ending, deleted scenes, a music video and audio commentary from director Rupert Wainwright.