DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com Awards & Recommendations at Amazon.com.
.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main
PARAMOUNT

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Cast:
Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis
Writing Credits:
John Michael Hayes

MPAA:
NR.

Synopsis:
A retired jewel thief sets out to prove his innocence after being suspected of returning to his former occupation.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English Dolby TrueHD 1.0
French Dolby TrueHD 1.0
Spanish Dolby TrueHD 1.0
Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 1.0
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Portuguese
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese

Runtime: 106 min.
Price: $19.98
Release Date: 3/6/2012

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Film Historian Dr. Drew Casper
• “A Night with the Hitchcocks” Featurette
• “Unacceptable Under the Code” Featurette
• “Behind the Gates” Featurette
• “Writing and Casting of To Catch A Thief” Featurette
• “The Making Of To Catch A Thief
• “An Appreciation” Featurette
• “Edith Head - The Paramount Years” Featurette
• “If You Love To Catch a Thief, You’ll Love This” Interactive Travelogue
• Galleries
• Theatrical Trailer


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
Panasonic TC-P60VT60 60-Inch 1080p 600Hz 3D Smart Plasma HDTV; Sony STR-DG1200 7.1 Channel Receiver; Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player using HDMI outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Kenwood 1050SW 150-watt Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS


To Catch a Thief [Blu-Ray] (1955)

Reviewed by David Williams and Colin Jacobson (March 10, 2012)

In 1955, Alfred Hitchcock released To Catch A Thief and it couldn’t have been much more different than his previous outing, 1954’s Rear Window. Where Window provided a claustrophobic film that took place in a solitary apartment and its immediate courtyard, To Catch A Thief became one of the more open and visually striking Hitchcock films to that date.

Actually, about the only similarities between the two aforementioned films is that they both featured an innocent man falsely accused, a stunning Grace Kelly, lots of glamour, a bit of romance, and a sprinkling of humor.

Thief used the lush backdrop of southern France and Paramount’s VistaVision camera to show precarious shots taken from fast-moving vehicles and helicopters. Robert Burks won the Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography. While that became the only Oscar victory for the film, the sets and costumes also earned nominations.

Although Cary Grant announced his retirement from film two years prior to making To Catch A Thief, he simply couldn’t turn down another chance to work with Hitch – or a chance to co-star with the glamorous Grace Kelly. Grant already partnered with Hitchcock on Suspicion in 1941 and Notorious in 1946 and would also combine with him again in 1959 in North By Northwest.

Kelly found herself working with Hitchcock for the third time in two years, as she had just completed Rear Window and 1954’s Dial M for Murder before that. Thief became quite a collaborative effort between the three and while other films from each fared better, Thief still stands out as a nice group effort.

Famed cat burglar John Robie (Grant) gave up his life of crime after he served as part of the French resistance in World War II, but a renewed wave of robberies make authorities think he may've resumed his old "job". This leads Robie to seek a way to clear his name.

Robie tries to figure out where the new thief will strike next, and this leads him to rich American widow Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis), her daughter Frances (Kelly) and their collection of valuable jewels. This leads to adventure and romance.

Ultimately, To Catch A Thief offers great fun. However, it can hardly be considered suspenseful.

We never witness any real danger or peril in the film. While it shows Hitchcockian elements, it hardly stands as one of his finest achievements.

Of course, Grant and Kelly form a terrific couple. They look great together and show nice chemistry.

That helps compensate for the absence of tension. We know pretty clearly where events will go and how the story will end.

Nonetheless, the movie offers a lively romp. The film presents light-hearted fun and is best enjoyed as such.


The Disc Grades: Picture B/ Audio C/ Bonus B+

To Catch a Thief appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Across the board, this was a pleasing image.

Sharpness was strong. Virtually no softness materialized here, as even wide shots showed nice clarity and accuracy.

I saw no jagged edges, but some light shimmering came from striped shirts. Those instances didn’t become severe, though.

Source flaws stayed very minor, as outside of a couple of specks, this was a clean transfer. I did see some minor edge haloes, but with a nice layer of grain, the transfer showed no signs of intrusive noise reduction.

Colors usually appeared excellent. The movie exhibited a bright, varied palette with a lot of dynamic tones. Truly, the hues popped off the screen on many occasions.

Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows showed good clarity and delineation. I did think the green tint given to “day for night” shots seemed odd, however. Nonetheless, this was a largely good presentation.

In addition to the movie’s original monaural audio, the disc threw in a remixed Dolby TrueHD Stereo 2.0 soundtrack. And a pretty lackluster one at that, as it only occasionally managed to provide sense of environment with much detail.

This was basically one of those “broad mono” affairs. Although it gave us audio from the side and rear speakers, those elements often failed to bring anything distinctive to the movie.

A few moderately positive instances occurred, such as when Robie and Danielle rode on a boat; those scenes opened up to present a fair feeling for the sea. Street sequences used the different speakers for passable environment as well. For the most part, though, the ambience appeared less than convincing.

Audio quality was dated but decent. Low-end heft essentially failed to appear, as the track usually exhibited a tinny, trebly sound. This mostly affected music and effects, which were clear but without much range. I thought they needed greater vivacity and punch.

Speech was a bit thin but remained intelligible and concise. The lines lacked edginess or notable flaws, though some poor looping created distractions. Clearly they revoiced some actors, and they did a terrible job of it.

This became especially distracting when Bertani (Charles Vanel) jumped between French and English; Vanel did the French himself, so those lines sounded natural, but the dubbed English came across as awkward and failed to match the mouth movements. All of this added up to a pretty mediocre soundtrack.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the Centennial Collection DVD from 2009? Audio was a wash; the lossless mix might’ve had a little more oomph, but I still wasn’t wild about it. I’d prefer to go mono in the future.

On the other hand, the visuals showed a nice upgrade. The Blu-ray was cleaner, crisper and more dynamic. This turned into a solid step up in visual quality.

The Blu-ray replicates the extras from the 2009 release, and we start with an audio commentary from film historian Dr. Drew Casper. He offers a running, screen-specific piece that looks at the source novel and its adaptation, filmmaking techniques and interpretation, cast and crew, elements of the era, movie trends and technical elements, how the flick fits into the Hitchcock oeuvre, shooting on location, and a mix of topics.

A veteran of many tracks of this sort, Casper knows his way around the format, and he also knows his Hitchcock. His comfort with commentaries becomes clear as he seems well-prepared and eager to impart his knowledge. Casper digs into Thief with gusto and provides an abundance of useful information in this consistently enjoyable chat.

A Night with the Hitchcocks goes for 23 minutes, 22 seconds and presents a November 2008 Q&A. Hosted by Casper, it features Alfred Hitchcock’s granddaughter Mary Stone and daughter Pat Hitchcock as they go through audience questions. (USC School of Cinematic Arts Dean Elizabeth Daley also offers a few introductory remarks.) They chat about aspects of Hitchcock’s career and his personal life. The latter side of things proves the most interesting, as we find some nice insights into the private Hitchcock. There’s nothing revelatory on display, but the show offers good notes.

For a look at pressures put on filmmakers, we go to the 11-minute and 49-second Unacceptable Under the Code: Film Censorship in America. It features Casper, USC Professor of American Film Dr. Richard Jewell, and former Writers Guild of America president Del Reisman. They offer a quick history of movie censorship as well as notes about Hitchcock’s attempts to skirt the Production Code for Thief. Despite its brevity, the program packs a lot of good information. I wish it ran longer, as this is a rich subject, but “Code” does very well for itself.

Next comes Behind the Gates: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. It lasts six minutes, 12 seconds as it provides notes from film historian Richard Schickel and producer AC Lyles. They provide some basic notes about Grant and Kelly. This is too short a show to come to much, but it’s still enjoyable.

Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief lasts nine minutes, three seconds as it involves comments from daughter Pat Hitchcock, granddaughter Mary Stone, and author Steven DeRosa. “Writing and Casting” covers… um, writing and casting. We learn about the adaptation of the original novel as well as how the various actors came onto the project.

DeRosa offers most of the information, and he gives us some fine notes about censorship issues and cut sequences. The cast-related aspects are less interesting but throw out a couple of decent tidbits. This is a short but reasonably effective program.

Next we get the 16-minute and 53-second The Making Of To Catch a Thief. It features remarks from Stone, DeRosa, Pat Hitchcock, production manager Doc Erickson, and French continuity person Sylvette Baudrot. We find info about shooting on location in France, problems related to language and actors, the use of VistaVision and cinematography, costumes and period continuity, some notes about Hitchcock and his style, censorship concerns, score, the movie’s release and a few general memories of the production.

The title of “Making” seems a little misleading, as the featurette doesn’t provide a full examination of the movie’s creation. Nonetheless, it spices up the disc with a nice collection of anecdotes and facts. Though it doesn’t follow a particularly coherent path, the content seems interesting and useful enough to keep us involved.

For the seven-minute and 32-second Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief - An Appreciation, we hear from Pat Hitchcock, Stone, and Baudrot. “Appreciation” acts more as a love letter to the director than to the film. That’s fine, as we get some sweet anecdotes about Hitchcock and see a few home movies from his life. The end result seems fairly inconsequential but enjoyable. I do like Stone’s comments about taking a class on Hitchcock films in college and how her discussions with him affected that course.

Finally, we get Edith Head – The Paramount Years. It runs 13 minutes, 43 seconds as it offers notes from biographer David Chierichetti, Custom-Made Costume department head Tzetzi Ganey, fashion designer Bob Mackie, and actor Rosemary Clooney. “Years” looks at the famous costume designer and her work over the years. It seems awfully short for a take on someone with such a long and successful career, and it only tells us a little about Thief. Nonetheless, a quick overview is better than nothing, and we find enough useful notes to make the show worthwhile.

We also find the movie’s trailer and a collection of Galleries. Those break down into “Movie” (33 images), “Publicity” (11), “Visitors to the Set” (14), “Production” (72). All are interesting, though I like “Visitors” the best.

An unusual component arrives with If You Love To Catch a Thief, You’ll Love This, an “interactive travelogue”. After a 55-second introduction, we can learn a little more about the locations featured in the film. We see shots from the film and then get basic details about the French areas. It’s a neat little take on the locations.

The duo of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly are as gorgeous as the backdrop of the French Riviera and while To Catch A Thief doesn’t rate as one of Hitchcock’s best efforts, it was an enjoyable romp nonetheless. The Blu-ray delivers fairly good visuals and a nice collection of bonus materials but audio seems average. Expect a fun tale here.

.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main