Home video and remakes
- Distribution rights scattered worldwide, meaning copies range from adequate to superb
- But all the best releases feature American transfers; here’s every legitimate release to date
- Finally: The last American Hitchcock to appear on Blu-ray – but it was only a matter of time…
- Screwball comedy supremo’s original script has spawned numerous screen and radio remakes
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Part 1: Production
Italian 1945 post-war release poster by Averardo Ciriello; still
Contents
- Home video
- On the radio
- Related articles
Preserved transfers
The 2011 German DVD was re-released the following year in this attractive 8-sided Digipak, as part of the ongoing 600+ title Zweitausendeins series.
- UK: Universal DVD (2005), also in 17-DVD AH Collection and Ltd Ed
- Italy: Mondo HE DVD (2004)
- Germany: Studiocanal DVD (2011, Digipak 2012)
Unfortunately, none of this batch are particularly outstanding. The UK DVD is cropped on all sides, very soft, washed-out, lacking in detail and completely barebones. The Italian and German DVDs are a marked improvement but only have trailers for other films, and optional dubs belatedly recorded for their TV premières; the former in 1986 and the latter (alt) in 1970. The film has additionally been dubbed into French and Spanish, and they’re all options on their respective discs.
- France: Éditions Montparnasse DVD (2000)
- Éditions Montparnasse DVD (2003), also in 5-DVD RKO Comédie
- Spain: Manga DVD (2002, reissued 2008), also in 6-DVD AH box
- Vértice Cine DVD (2016)
- Prime Video
Both French DVDs from Éditions Montparnasse have a halfway decent preserved print but the first is vertically stretched and extras-free, while the second has corrected geometry and a two-minute intro. However, both have compromised NTSC-PAL transfers. Lastly, the Scandinavian issue includes an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and two galleries, while the Japanese apparently has so-so A/V and is also bereft of extras. Incidentally, the original French and Italian DVDs must surely have the the ugliest sleeves in all Hitchcockdom – don’t click on them unless you’ve a strong stomach!
- Sweden: Studio S DVD (2013)
- Japan: IVC DVD (1999, reissued 2004, 2013), also in 2-DVD w/Suspicion and 19-DVD AH: Meister of Suspense
Remastered transfer
Warner Bros. DVD is the best to date; this reissue is region 0, so will play anywhere
Thankfully, it’s a completely different story here; these are easily the best DVDs available, with Warner Bros.’ beautiful remastered transfer far superior to all others, while US and Canadian residents can also stream it in HD. The rights to this and a few other 40s Hitchcocks may be scattered outside of the US but that doesn’t give other labels access to the highest quality vault materials remaining domestically. The US disc has a “Mr. Hitchcock Meets the Smiths” featurette (16:06) and the strangely perfunctory original teaser (0:45, française) with nary a mention of the habitually publicity-hungry Hitch, for once conspicuous by his absence. The French extras, if any, are unconfirmed.
- US/Canada: Warner DVD (2004, reissued 2015), also in 2/4-DVD/4-film TCM Greatest Classic Films* and 10-DVD box set
- France: Warner DVD (2014), also in 8-DVD box set
*Initially two flipper discs, reissued as four singles
The bottom line is go for either American release if you can but note the 2014 reissue is a region 0 DVD-R, in case you’re region 2-locked. (If so, why? Go multi-region!) Otherwise, the French Warner or its attendant 8-DVD box set is your best bet.
Restored transfer
No argument: Warner’s restored Blu-ray, also playable anywhere, is the best release to date. Its sleeve is based on the US one sheet.
Long awaited alongside Stage Fright as one of the last two American Hitchcocks unavailable on Blu-ray, fan of this site George Feltenstein of Warner Bros. announced via the Warner Archive Podcast (alt) some time prior that a full restoration of both was on the way. This was the last to arrive and like all WA restorations it’s exclusive to BD, and not available to stream anywhere.
- US: Warner BD (2024)
To the previous featurette and teaser, it adds “Holiday Highlights” (1940, 7:35) and “Stage Fright” (1940, 7:23), Looney Tunes Merrie and Melodies cartoons; “Cinderella’s Feller” (1940, 19:34) short; and the first two of many contemporaneous radio adaptations.
Though far fewer than the literally countless bootlegs of Hitch’s British films, there are still many inevitable rip-offs like those from from Greece (Silver Star/Media), Italy (Dynit), Spain (Resen/It variant BD-R) and a whole host from East Asia, including Korea (Cine Korea, Cleo Entertainment).
Screenshots
Check out the many DVD screenshots at the invaluable Hitchcock Zone, and even more instructive are these two clips of the same scene. The first represents the best of the non-Warner PAL DVDs – certainly much better than the UK – and looks decent enough overall. But it’s slightly zoomed-in, vertically stretched, devoid of grain so somewhat lacking in detail, and has light speckling and scratches throughout.
Now compare it with one of the HD clips of Warner’s remastered transfer; apart from very light speckling all the aforementioned problems are gone, it looks near flawless and the audio is vastly improved. The BD’s restored transfer is even better. I rest my case.
On the radio
US title lobby card; set
The film is based on an original script by screwball comedy maestro Norman Krasna, whose résumé boasts many of the finest examples of the genre. These include Blonde Bombshell, Reckless and Wife vs. Secretary with Jean Harlow; and utterly sublime The Devil and Miss Jones starring Jean Arthur and Robert Cummings, he of Saboteur, Forever and a Day, and Dial M for Murder fame. As is sadly too often the case, The Devil and Miss Jones has least as many bootlegs as official releases:
- Prime Video HD
- US: Olive BD and DVD (2013)
- Bootlegs: Australia (unknown/alt), Spain (unknown, Resen? BD-R/DVD-R)
Aside from the shared title, Mr. & Mrs. Smith has very little in common with a string of eponymous but loose adaptations coming decades after the fact, in which the stakes are raised with the married couple recast as assassins. First was a short-lived 1996 US TV series which served as the inspiration for the hit 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-starrer, where they discover they’ve been hired by competing agencies to kill each other. That was directed by Doug Liman, who then helmed a 2007 TV movie pilot for an ultimately unrealised follow-up series. Latest in line is a 2024 Amazon Prime series starring Maya Erskine and Donald Glover.
- Lux Radio Theatre, June 9, 1941 (60min) – Carole Lombard, Bob Hope and Bill Goodwin; also on BD
But it did have a flurry of contemporary US radio adaptations although seemingly nothing since. Albeit to a lesser degree, like Hitch’s preceding film, Foreign Correspondent, you can put this down to it being an original screenplay, so lacking the usual regular multimedia adaptations from evergreen stage or literary works. On radio, Lombard and Montgomery reprised their roles but in separate productions, with “Hitch” himself (I’m not convinced it’s him) introducing and closing one of the latter’s two programmes.
This was Carole Lombard’s final scripted radio appearance; it was preceded by the February 10, 1941 Lux Radio Theatre presentation of The Moon’s Our Home (60min, alt, subtitled) with Henry Fonda. It was a retread of the eponymous 1936 movie starring Fonda and Margaret Sullavan, itself based on prolific romance author Faith Baldwin’s novel, first serialised from September 1935–January 1936 in Cosmopolitan and subsequently published as a film tie-in. There are two other radio remakes: one with Sullavan and Goodwin for the October 9, 1938 episode of The Silver Theatre, and one much more recent, from 2020.
- Screen Guild Theater, February 8, 1942 (30min) – Errol Flynn and Lana Turner; part 1/pt2/pt3; also on BD
- Screen Guild Theater, December 14, 1942 (30min) – Joan Bennett, Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy
- Philip Morris Playhouse, January 22, 1943 (30min) – Virginia Bruce and Chester Morris
- Matinee Theater, November 26, 1944 (30min) – Victor Jory and Betty Winkler
- Screen Guild Theater, January 1, 1945 (30min) – Preston Foster, Louise Allbritton and Stuart Erwin
- Hollywood Star Time, July 20, 1946 (30min) – Robert Montgomery and Mary Jane Croft
- Screen Director’s Playhouse, January 30, 1949 (30min) – Robert Montgomery, Mary Jane Croft, Carleton Young, and Hitch opens and closes; Radio Spirits 2-CD, cass, MP3
- Stars in the Air, December 27, 1951 (30min) – Jane Greer and Fred MacMurray
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Part 1: Production
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
