To Catch a Thief (1955) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this months episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron are as agile as a cat as they discuss “To Catch a Thief.”

Trailer:

The Picture:

Picture Title: To Catch a Thief

Written by: John Michael Hayes (screenplay), based on the book by David Dodge

Starring: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel, Brigitte Auber

Directed by:Alfred Hitchcock

Year Released: 1955

Our Favourite Trivia:

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Sitting next to John Robie (Cary Grant) on the bus.

Cary Grant had announced his retirement from acting in February 1953, stating that since the rise of Method actors like Marlon Brando, most people were no longer interested in seeing him. He was also angry at the way Charles Chaplin had been treated by the HUAC. He was lured out of his retirement to make this movie, and thereafter, continued acting for a further eleven years.

On September 14, 1982, Grace Kelly was killed in an automobile accident in Monaco, supposedly on the same road as her famous chase scene in this movie, and not far from where she had a picnic scene with Cary Grant. She was fifty-two-years-old, with the official story being that she lost control of her car after suffering a stroke while at the wheel, but it is widely believed that her 17 year old daughter Stephanie was in fact driving recklessly and lost control of the car, result in a crash and Grace dying for her injuries.

John Robie mentions that as a youth he was in a trapeze group that travelled around Europe. In real-life, Cary Grant was in an acrobatic troupe that toured around Europe (and eventually brought him to America) when he was young.

In the scene on the float platform, Danielle makes a point of how much younger she is than Frances. In fact, Brigitte Auber was a year and a half older than Grace Kelly.

In this movie Jessie Royce Landis played Cary Grant’s potential mother-in-law. In North by Northwest (1959), she played his mother.

Cary Grant’s character is named John Robie, this is supposed to sound like “robber.”

Alfred Hitchcock hates runny egg yolks. He shows it in this movie by having a raw egg thrown at a window, and by having a cigarette put out in a sunny-side-up fried egg.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing “To Catch a Thief.”

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