Fresh off her success in William Wyler’s Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn joined Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and director Billy Wilder for 1954’s Sabrina. The film was adapted from the Samuel A. Taylor play Sabrina Fair. Taylor adapted his play for the screen, along with Ernest Lehman.
Paramount originally released Sabrina back in April of 2001, noticeably devoid of any real extras. The studio has corrected that oversight with its two disc Centennial Collection. Packed with featurettes, documentaries and a look at Paramount during the 1950’s, this edition belongs in every movie lover’s collection.
The film itself is something right out of a fairytale (it begins with the words “once upon a time”) that betrays its Cinderella roots. Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn) is the chauffeur’s daughter (John Williams), a shy teen who hides in the bushes spying on David Larrabee (William Holden), the youngest and the least disciplined son of the rich Larrabee clan. In contrast, older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) is all business. He runs the family empire and is more concerned with making money than making time with the ladies. Ironically, it’s only Linus that notices Sabrina, finding her in the throes of a dramatic suicide over David’s cluelessness. Sure, Linus doesn’t realize that this silly kid is being serious, but at least he knows her name.
All of this takes place the night before Sabrina is to leave for Paris, to spend two years at a cooking school. Fast forward two years–Sabrina returns from France a new woman; a sophisticated lady ready to capture the heart of David Larrabee. There’s only one problem: Linus has promised David to the daughter of a sugar cane magnate so the Larrabees can get their hands on all the sugar they need for a new plastic compound they are pioneering. Fearing that the thrice married David won’t go through with his end of the deal, Linus decides to take Sabrina out a few times to keep his little brother’s mind off her. Predictably, a genuine romance begins to develop between Sabrina and the significantly older man.
While Audrey Hepburn is as delightful as ever in Sabrina, the film itself isn’t one of my favorites. Film romances often ask viewers to suspend belief but this scenario asks too much of its audience. Linus is old enough to be her father with the personality of a wet noodle. Even when he’s trying to be charming, he still comes off looking like he’d rather be balancing his checkbook. How are we supposed to believe that Sabrina would suddenly give up her lifelong dream of being with a fun-loving fellow like David, for a bore like that?
Billy Wilder had originally wanted Cary Grant for the part of Linus Larabee but he passed because of scheduling conflicts. Grant would have brought a sense of innate charm to the role that Bogart is missing. That charm, combined with the fact that Grant looked much younger than Bogart at the time, would have made the idea of Sabrina falling in love with Linus seem more plausible. Bogart was a great actor, comedy just wasn’t his forte.
Though Audrey Hepburn isn’t required to do much more than be luminous and heartbroken, she is the reason Sabrina is worth watching. As she often does, Hepburn gives the story a great sense of style, enjoyable wit, unforgettable charm, strength and intelligence. Plus, her costumes are breathtaking; though the famed Edith Head won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, many of Hepburn’s outfits were created by Hubert de Givenchy and chosen by the star herself.
Sabrina is a good film; I guess I just don’t think the pairing of Bogart and Hepburn allowed the film to be the true fairytale it could have been.
The film is in black-and-white and in a 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. The result is as good as any black and white image I’ve seen on standard-definition DVD.
The monaural sound, delivered in Dolby Digital, is clear and smooth, free of any background noise. As the film is virtually all dialogue, with a light musical score, one never misses much. In other words, the sound is fine.
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 the real batch of special features are located. Audrey Hepburn: Fashion Icon (17:30) a rundown of the actress’ most famous looks with fashion designers like Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, and Eduardo Lucero and fashion historian Eddie Bledsoe sharing their opinions about what made Hepburn special. This covers more of Hepburn’s Paramount movies than just Sabrina, and there is some focus on designers Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy. Sabrina’s World (11:25) looks at the setting of Sabrina, including real places on the Gold Coast of Long Island. Supporting Sabrina (16:32) pays tribute to the Paramount character actors who rounded out the cast of the movie, including Sabrina’s father played by John Williams; Ellen Corby, who played Linus’ secretary; the maid Jenny, Nancy Kulp; Marcel Dalio as the Parisian count who schools Sabrina; Walter Hampden, a.k.a. Mr. Larrabee; Francis X. Bushman, David’s future father-in-law; and Martha Hyer, David’s fiancée. William Holden: The Paramount Years (24:40) is an examination of Holden’s career, beginning as a Paramount contract player (shared at the time with Columbia), through the war years, and eventually becoming a big star after success working with Billy Wilder for the first time in Sunset Boulevard. Actresses Pat Crowley and Stefanie Powers, actors Gil Stratton and Gene Reynolds, author Bob Thomas, and others talk about the man amidst photos and clips from his many films. Behind the Gates: Camera (5:07) takes us away from Sabrina to show us the development of motion picture camera technology at Paramount. The celebratory Paramount in the ’50s Documentary (9:35) that is featured on the other Centennial Collection discs is also included here. This new line of re-releases adds more supplements and is denoted by sequential spine numbers. Sabrina is #3, while #1 is Sunset Boulevard and #2 is Audrey Hepburn’s first film, Roman Holiday. The Stills Gallery features four sections: Production, The Movie, Publicity, and The Premiere.
