Paramount Home Entertainment have announced the US DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of The African Queen on 23rd March 2010. Legendary director John Huston’s treasured romantic adventure stars the incomparable Humphrey Bogart as hard-drinking boat captain Charlie Allnut—a role that won him his only Academy Award (Best Actor, 1951)—and renowned actress Katharine Hepburn as missionary Rose Sayer in a tale of two disparate people thrown together by fate and drawn together by love.
Available for the first time on US DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the film has been meticulously restored using state-of-the-art 4K digital technology. More on the restoration from the press release…
A six-year journey filled with challenges nearly as difficult as those faced by Rose and Charlie, the restoration process began at the source: Romulus Films—one of the film’s original production companies—provided access to the original three-strip negative at a London facility where the film was carefully scanned and digitized. The separate elements were then transferred to Los Angeles and painstakingly recombined and inspected frame by frame to ensure that every detail aligned and that any dirt and scratches were removed.
To ensure that the restored picture matched the filmmakers’ original vision, Paramount arranged a screening of an MPAA archive print for the film’s original cinematographer, Academy Award® winner Jack Cardiff, whose comments were recorded live during the screening. That same archival print was later screened alongside the newly restored version so that the restoration team could ensure that all of Cardiff’s notes had been addressed. The result is a vibrant, warm picture that reverentially recreates the film as it was originally meant to be seen.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in both single-disc ($19.99/$26.99 SRP) and Commemorative Limited Edition Box-Sets ($34.99/$43.99 SRP), features are outlined below…
DVD: Full screen format with English, French and Spanish Mono and English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Blu-ray Disc: - 1080p High Definition with English, French and Spanish Mono and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
Special features are as follows:The Commemorative, Limited-Edition DVD and Blu-ray box sets include the above along with:
- Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen—This comprehensive documentary takes a look back at the production with commentary about the cast, the challenges of the filming locations and how the spectacular cinematography impacted the industry overall. Includes on-camera interviews with notable Hollywood icons, critics and crew members from the film including Martin Scorsese, Tony Huston, Richard Schickel and more, plus never-before-seen archival images and home movie footage provided by the estate of cinematographer Jack Cardiff.
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- An audio disc with a recording of the Lux Radio Theater presents The African Queen radio broadcast
- A Senitype® film frame collectible reproduction
- Collectible postcards featuring reproductions of images related to the film
- A reproduction of Katharine Hepburn’s out-of-print memoir The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind
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