Hepburn and Wilder give “Sabrina” its Rom-Com flair in a new 4K remaster

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

(1) Audrey Hepburn in her second leading role as Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of the Larrabee family chauffeur. For years, she’s been lovesick over David Larrabee, the younger brother played by William Holden. (2) After two years in Paris, Sabrina got the attention of the older Larrabee brother, Linus, played by Humphrey Bogart.

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4K screenshots in the Filmmakers Mode courtesy of KL Studio Classics/Paramount Pictures - Click for an Amazon purchase

“SABRINA”

4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1954; unrated

Best extra: A new commentary with film historian and Billy Wilder biographer Joseph McBride

THE RADIANT and charming Audrey Hepburn had just won the Academy Award for Best Actress for William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday” (1953). It was her first leading role, and to capitalize on her skyrocketing stardom, Paramount Pictures had cast and filmed her in the romantic comedy “Sabrina,” her next movie. 

Director Billy Wilder (“Sunset Boulevard,” “Some Like it Hot,” “The Apartment”) had just finished the World War II Broadway-to-screen adaptation of “Stalag 17,” and was recruited by Paramount to do the same with Samuel Taylor’s stage production “Sabrina Fair.” It starred a much older Margaret Sullivan (“The Shop Around the Corner”) as Sabrina Fairchild and Joseph Cotten (“Citizen Kane,” “Shadow of a Doubt”) as older brother Linus of the wealthy Larrabee family of the North Shore, Long Island. The dashing Cary Grant was hired to play Linus for the Wilder production, but backed out seven days before the cameras started rolling. Legendary actor Humphrey Bogart, age 54, was the last-minute replacement as the stuffy Larrabee businessman.

 (1) The Golden Coast of Long Island, N.Y., where from the 1890s through the 1930s, more than 1,200 mansions were built by some of America’s wealthiest. (2) The Larrabee family portrait was made during an annual dinner party. (3-5) Sabrina sits in a tree, spying on David Larrabee and his giggling debutante date dancing and flirting in the family indoor tennis court.

“Billy Wilder had that great ability to include drama and humor in every scene,” says the late and former Paramount Producer A.C. Lyles during the carryover “Making of’ featurette. “I never saw Audrey more excited than when she read the [Sabrina] script. She knew this was so important to her career.” Wilder and Taylor worked on the early drafts, but screenwriter Ernest Lehman (“North by Northwest”) stepped in and Taylor left the project. With the final script being rewritten as the cameras rolled, Wilder asked his young star to fake an illness, so he and Lehman could work out the next day’s lines.

Hepburn plays the chauffeur’s daughter, Sabrina, who’s hopelessly in love with the irresponsible playboy brother David Larrabee, played by William Holden. He had also just won the Best Actor Oscar for “Stalag 17.” She and her father, Thomas (John Williams), are living overtop the Larrabee garage stocked with a dozen cars, as the waifish Sabrina is shipped off to the world-famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, where Thomas hopes his daughter will forget her fascination with the younger Larrabee brother. Sabrina returns two years later in a Cinderella-like transformation in style and sophistication. The Larrabee family doesn’t even recognize the formerly gawky girl.

The film opens with the classic line, “Once upon a time,” as Hepburn narrates the introduction, describing the large estate which Sabrina and her father serve, 30 miles from Manhattan. Production began in the fall of 1953, and “Sabrina” eventually received six Oscar nods, including one for Hepburn and two for Wilder as writer/director, but only garnered a golden statue for Paramount’s famous costume designer Edith Head. Hepburn’s clothes, after her return from Paris, were actually from Hubert de Givenchy, including her famous white silk strapless ballgown, with a black ruffle hemline and floral embroidery. Sabrina’s costumes became a bed of controversy that even enveloped the Oscar platform. Hepburn believed costumes for the younger Sabrina be designed by one fashioner, and, for her return as a Parisian sophisticate, they should be created by another. Wilder agreed.

The Frenchman became Hepburn’s designer, making her into a fashion icon with costumes for Paramount’s “Funny Face” (1957), “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), Universal’s “Charade” (1964), and 20th Century Fox’s “How to Steal a Million” (1966).

(1) Sabrina is upset and talks with her widowed English father, Thomas. He gently scolds her and reminds her that, the next day, she is going to cooking school in Paris, far away from David. (2) Sabrina ponders suicide and starts the engines on the fleet of cars in the garage. (3) Linus hears the engine noise and opens the door, and saves Sabrina. (4) Sabrina’s first days in the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, with the instructor (Marcel Hillaire).

EXTRAS

The 4K disc and Blu-ray include two new commentaries, the best with longtime film historian and favorite commentary expert Joseph McBride. He has a number of insider stories, including the real-life love affair between Hepburn and Holden. The couple was talking about marriage, even though he was still married at the time. But when she found out that Holden had a vasectomy, the romance ended. Hepburn desperately wanted children with her future husband.

A true gender-difference shocker arrives when McBride reveals Hepburn only got $15,000 as Sabrina, while Holden got $125,000 and Bogart $300K, for a role he hated and felt he was too old for. The disparity between the young 24-year-old female star and the male veterans is unethical in today’s standards, even without the Oscar win for “Roman Holiday,” which happened months later. Honestly, McBride covers so much, it makes the second commentary with film historian Julie Kirgo and writer/filmmaker Peter Hankoff is unnecessary.

The enclosed Blu-ray includes seven featurettes: “Audrey Hepburn – Fashion Icon” with interviews from fashion designers Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, Eduardo Lucero, and Professor Eddie Bledsoe, Otis College of Art and Design. They describe how Hepburn ushered in a new era of body shapes into Hollywood as she became known for her trademark eyebrows, tiny waistline, and for wearing flat shoes. “Sabrina’s World” – highlights the lush Gold Coast of Long Island, where the Larrabee family lived.

Sabrina returns home

(1) Sabrina returns to Long Island after two years in Paris with style and sophistication. (2) The Larabee servants greet Sabrina. (3) She wears the famous white silk strapless ballgown, with a black ruffle hemline and floral embroidery. (4) David tries out the new plastic hammock, a new product from the Larabee family business.

“Supporting Sabrina” showcases the exceptional supporting cast, first with the dapper English actor John Williams as Sabrina’s father, Nelia Walker (mother, Maude Larabee), Walter Hampden (father, Oliver Larrabee), Ellen Corby (Miss McCardle), French actors Marcel Hillaire (culinary, professor) and Marcel Dalio (Baron St. Fontanel), and Francis X. Bushman (Mr. Tyson) and uncredited Nancy Kulp (Jenny, the maid) Marjorie Bennett (cook) and Emory Parnell (Charles, the butler).

The longest of the featurettes, “William Holden: The Paramount Years,” once considered Hollywood’s ‘Golden Boy,’ was a Paramount contract actor for over a decade. It includes interviews with friend/actress Stefanie Powers, author Bob Thomas, and actress Pat Crowley.

Also find two featurettes on Paramount Pictures: “Behind the Gates: Camera” detailing the camera department, and “Paramount in the ‘50s Retrospective” highlights the studios biggest films from Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), and George Stevens’ “A Place in the Sun” (1951) to the Hepburn and Fred Astaire musical “Funny Face” (1957). Paramount received nearly 200 Oscar nominations during the decade and won over 30 major Academy Awards. Last, there’s  the 12-minute “Making of’ Sabrina.”

(1&2) Linus takes Sabrina sailing along the Golden Coast of Long Island. Bogart often sailed his racing yacht, called SANTANA, off the California coast. (3) Sabrina enjoyed her time on the water with Linus, as she tells her father while he washes one of the Larabee vehicles. (4) Sabrina’s father drives Linus into the city.

VIDEO

The original black and white 35mm camera negative (1.75:1 matted aspect ratio), captured by 18-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Charles Lang (“Some Like it Hot,” “One-Eyed Jacks”) in the open matte 1.33:1, was scanned and mastered in 4K from the restoration team at Paramount. The HDR10 and Dolby Vision grayscale handled by Kino Lorber, provides superb dark shadows to detailed highlights, especially within Sabrina’s white dress. Resolution varies from excellent 4K to HD quality during composite fades and lower during brief moments where the original negative was damaged. Film grain is consistent and well-formed throughout the presentation. The enclosed Blu-ray is also sourced by the new 4K master for its video.

Everything was encoded onto the larger 100 GB disc, which gives the video bitrate a variable rate from the upper 30 Megabits per second to the lower 90 Mbps, although mostly in the higher 60 Mbps range. HDR10 peak brightness hits 871 nits, while the average is 107 nits.  

AUDIO

The original Mono soundtrack has been restored, removing pops and noise, and the orchestral score from Frederick Hollander (“Talk of the Town,” “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T”) has good fidelity. And the dialogue-driven storyline is front and center.  

“Sabrina” may be Wilder’s most romantic film. The 1954 New York Times review called it “The most delightful comedy-romance in years.” So, if you’re a fan of Audrey Hepburn or Billy Wilder or even a romantic sentimentalist, “Sabrina” will be right up your alley.

— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer

Sabrina’s Manhattan date

(1&2) Sabrina’s black cocktail dress with a deep V back before flaring out below her fitted waist into a full ballerina-length skirt. Givenchy said, he adapted the design to Audrey’s desires, with a sharp boat neckline with small straps fastened with a bow. She wanted a bare-shoulder evening dress modified to hide her collarbone. The design became so popular that it was named Décolleté Sabrina. (3) Sabrina and Linus share a dance at a Manhattan nightclub. (4&5) Linus and Sabrina return to the Larabee estate in a three-seat Nash-Healey sports car. (6) David greets Sabrina and Linus after their date.

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(1) Hepburn wears her fashionable Capri pants and flats. (2) The Oscar-nominated black and white imagery from cinematographer Charles Lang.