Monday, April 24, 2017

A to Z Challenge-Letter T


The beginning of the last week! Check out the A to Z Challenge to see what the other people have talked about.

TO CATCH A THIEF-1955


DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
STARS: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis
OSCAR NOMS: Best Art Direction (Color), Best Costume Design (Color)
OSCAR WINS: Best Cinematography (Color)
PLOT: A former jewelry thief is being framed, so he goes to Monaco to prove his innocence. There he meets a beautiful, icy blonde in great gowns.
LOVE: The picnic scene between Kelly and Grant
TRIVIA: Cary Grant became great friends with Grace Kelly and, for once, she did not sleep with her male co-star (the other being Jimmy Stewart). She was seeing Oleg Cassini (dress designer) at the time but this is when she met Prince Ranier so that affair soon ended. Landis, who plays Kelly's mother in the film is only 8 years older than Grant. In North by Northwest, she played his mom!

GEORGE TOMASINI- April 20, 1909-November 22, 1964


OCCUPATION: Film Editor
OSCAR NOMS: North By Northwest
OSCAR WINS: Nil
ANECDOTES: His film editing is considered so great he is studied at film schools across the land. Even though Hitchcock edited while he filmed, Tomasini was so intuitive to Hitchcock's wishes that they worked on 9 films together ( Rear Window and Psycho being 2) that it only stopped when Tomasini suffered a fatal heart attack.

OK, I know, I know...but I just love these gowns as well....These are Edith Head creations





28 comments:

  1. Great movie. I love your description of the plot!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Judy, Judy, Judy." (One of the most misquoted lines in moviedom.)

    Hi, Birgit!

    To Catch a Thief is another Hitchcock movie that I saw during my binge watching marathon and one that I like. I know that Cary Grant had a reputation as a skinflint, but I loved his dashing, debonair leading man roles and his glib dialogue with beautiful female co-stars like Grace Kelly who, along with Audrey Hepburn, was another great international icon and fashion inspiration of the 50s.

    Jessie Royce Landis was superb in her mother roles. I wanted to strangle her when she kept doubting son Cary Grant in NxNW. It was a film I studied at college along with the editing technique of the masterful cutter George Tomasini.

    Thanks for the memories, dear friend BB!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this film Birgit...a real classic,why don't we look so glamorous in films these day...I need escapism.....not all this scandnoir too depressing.....hope you have a great week xxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Birgit - Grace Kelly was just lovely ... and for Tomasini to spend so much time working with Hitchcock, he must have got on with him ... the film is one of those classics ... great - cheers Hilary

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/t-is-for-turkey.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Birgit, "To Catch a Thief" is a good movie. It's available on Netflix for anyone interested in seeing it. We watched this film in the past year but it's one of those flicks we want to see again. Thanks for sharing!

    ~Curious as a Cathy
    Art Sketching Through the Alphabet “T” (Treehouse)

    ReplyDelete
  6. With Hitchcock being known as a difficult guy to edit, Tomasini MUST have been really good in order for Hitchcock to want to work with him, and for Tomasini to be able to figure out what he wanted.

    T - Toronto's Ill-Fated First Hanging

    ReplyDelete
  7. Robert Wagner did a TV show called "It Takes a Thief" from 1968 to 1970. Thanks to this film, I've constantly seen his TV show incorrectly called "To Catch a Thief" over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A good one indeed. Wow, only 8 years older? One better not think about the math on that too much haha

    ReplyDelete
  9. Grace Kelly certainly played the beautiful, icy blonde to the hilt, didn't she? And yes, the gowns were also gorgeous. ☺ This is one of my favourite classic movies and part of our personal collection. Thanks for the great write-up!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What an elegant team of stars! I'm still drooling over her gown in that still.

    I gave you a small shout out on my blog today. I always enjoy my visits so shared that with my readers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love Cary Grant! He was born not far from where I live in Bristol, UK. His last wife Barbara came from Tiverton, a town where I used to work. I recently watched Arsenic and Old Lace, which is wonderful.
    That's Purrfect

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm also originally not far from where Cary Grant used to live. It's a small internet, hehe. ;-)

    I love it when you find creative partnerships like Hitchcock and Tomasini. It seems like such a lovely way to work.

    Cait @ Click's Clan

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good pick.

    Grace Kelly is from Philadelphia. My father claims he met her sister at a dance and they shared a flask in her car.

    Their father was a world-class rower, as well as a multimillionaire. I jogged past his statue many times while training for a half-marathon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just saw a "Columbo" rerun where Edith Head made a cameo appearance. You have to admire someone who's done as much work as she had (IMDb says she designed costumes for 444 movies and TV shows... very impressive).

    ReplyDelete
  15. I don't think I ever saw this but would like to. Only film I remember with Grace Kelly was High Society.

    ReplyDelete
  16. An engaging and exceptionally stylish movie.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yes, one I've seen. And liked.

    The story about Landis reminded me of Tom Hanks and Sally Field. The two played romantic interests (in Punchline), and then just a few years later, she played his mom (in Forrest Gump) even though she's not that much older than him.

    Pfft. Hollywood.

    ReplyDelete
  18. THE GOWNS DO LOOK NICE, TIMELESS FASHION

    ReplyDelete
  19. That white gown is stunning. Oh to have (or, indeed, ever to have had) the waistline to wear something like that!

    ReplyDelete
  20. oH YES....LOVED TO Catch a Thief. and Grace Kelly has always been a favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you all for your comments. It's a fab movie and I, too wish I had her figure...actually I was close to it but...nah, who am I kidding:) I just wanted those 2 gowns. It's pretty cool that a couple of you live so close to where Grant grew up.

    ReplyDelete
  22. One of my favorites! Grace was beautiful in white.

    "Female Scientists Before Our Time"
    Shells–Tales–Sails

    ReplyDelete
  23. The Husband and I met the woman who modeled that gown at some outing which I can't remember. She has a portrait of herself in the gown hanging in her sandwich shop in San Jose, California. It's a funky little place that I think you'd like. Much of her decor is movie stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Great post. You always give such good information. Love those Edith Head gowns.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I guess my comment was eaten by blogger, but that seems to be the story of blogger and me lately. Not a good time to have to repeat a comment, since I'm so far behind anyway.

    I was shocked that Kelly slept around so much. She seemed so pure and innocent whenever I saw her on screen.

    ReplyDelete