If you don't know the story—how could you not know the story?!—at its most basic, it involves a love triangle during wartime, ultimately focusing on whether love means following your heart or doing the right thing. Everybody loves Casablanca. Part of the film's universal appeal is that it's not just a romance, though that's the main gist; it's not really a war film, though it has those elements; it's certainly not a comedy, despite having some wonderfully hilarious moments; and it's not entirely a drama. Casablanca is a true hybrid.

Even if you've never seen it, you already know many of the lines. Dozens of cliches that have endured to this day were first uttered in this film: "Here's looking at you, kid." "Round up the usual suspects." And of course, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

It's mind-boggling to think that Casablanca almost didn't get made. In the heyday of the studio system, Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart (as well as Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains) were actors within the Warner Brothers stable, not much more highly valued than chattel. A-list chattel, but chattel nonetheless. Casablanca was Bogart's 47th film; he was a minimally known actor who had made his living playing thugs (if you look up his credits, you'll see a remarkable list of seamy character nicknames like "Turkey," "Baby Face," and "Rocks." Prior to this classic, only his performance as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon promised to lift him from anonymity.

A true "sleeper" film, Casablanca was seen as an ordinary film, one of about 50 released by Warner Brothers in 1942. The cast didn't think it worked; they'd been handed script revisions even as they were shooting. Nobody much liked the director, Hungarian-born Michael Curtiz, who drew the assignment mostly by being available (Curtiz, too, was part of the Warner Brothers team). During production, even Jack Warner himself would never have predicted a triple-crown Oscar-win (for Director, Screenplay, and Picture).

With classic films, DVD transfers, at best, look "theatre quality." With Casablanca, the DVD is far superior to anything projected onto a movie screen in 1942 or even older DVD versions—crisper, nearly popping off the screen at times. One gets the impression this is the one Curtiz had in his mind's eye when creating the original.

Where to start with the extras? Warner Brothers makes the most of their massive library, wringing every last bit of history for this Special Edition, as they have with several other films—The Chaplin Collection includes Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, and Limelight; Singin' in the Rain; Citizen Kane, Superman; and the seminal TV miniseries Roots, to name a few. They didn't do so well with the much-hyped Director's Cut of Amadeus or Jack Nicholson's classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

Of course, it helps to have access to the massive Warner Bros. archives, in order to round out the disc(s) with humorous extras like Looney Tunes' 1995 Carrotblanca, not to mention gems like deleted scenes and outtakes—when was the last time you saw outtakes from a classic film?

Imagine if all A&E; Biographies were narrated by someone close to the subject. "Bacall on Bogart" is a 90-minute documentary in which the leading lady sheds light on the man she loved, who happened to be one of the most celebrated actors in history.

Some might think Roger Ebert is a cliché choice to provide commentary, but few people are more qualified and as accessible to non-film-student audiences. After all, Ebert knows pretty much everything there is to know about the film and its history, in addition to which, first and foremost, he's the consummate film buff. In case you want a more scholarly approach, you can always go with the second commentary, by film historian Rudy Behlmer, who delves more into the production end of things.

Aside from "Bacall on Bogart," the most interesting piece here features archival production research, including inter-office memos, telegrams, casting notes, shooting schedules, continuity photos, and more. Combined with the two commentaries and the other extras, a viewer can get a nearly comprehensive idea of every challenge (and there were many) facing the production.

A Special Edition, indeed.