To Catch a Thief and Houseboat on DVD

Cary Grant stars as John Robie, a one time cat burglar and French resistance fighter living quiety in the South of France. Well, quietly until someone starts robbing rich women of their jewelry in a manner virtually identical to his MO when he was “the Cat,” the burglar who was almost a kind of folk hero.

To clear his name, because he knows he isn’t responsible for the new robberies, he decides to track down the thief himself. This brings him into contact with rich American widow Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis, who’s terrific) and her daughter, Frances, played luminously by Grace Kelly. We won’t get into the ins and outs of the story lest we ruin this entertaining Hitchcock romp for you; suffice it to say that not everyone is what or who he and/or she claims to be but all works out well in the end.

This has been called by some a lightweight Hitchcock outing and perhaps it is. It isn’t dark, it isn’t scary, but it’s still a ripping yarn that keeps you guessing and never stops being highly entertaining. The cinematography and the locations are gorgeous and the performances are uniformly first rate - especially Grant and Kelly, with Landis offering some wonderful comedy relief and John Williams putting in a strong performance as an insurance company employee.

Kelly, of course, was beautiful in an extremely classy kind of way, intelligent and outgoing, and if you never understood why she’s so well thought of fifty years later, this movie will show you why.She was also a very good actress, even in little things (though perhaps Hitchcock had something to do with it!); for example when she’s driving her sports convertible it’s obviously shot in front of a blue screen, yet unlike many actors and actresses she keeps her eyes on the road and her hands on the wheel as if she were really steering.

It’s little things like that that make “To Catch a Thief” such a great film.

We wish the DVD were better, however. Paramount has given it a fairly deluxe treatment, considering that its releases are usually pretty Spartan, but fell down on the most important part: the picture quality. The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible), which is as it should be, and the colors are quite good, but the picture itself is far too grainy, which made us pine for a nice remastering job.

Audio is Dolby Digital mono and, as with most of its comtemporary films, is unremarkable.

But there are some wonderful, and most welcome extras! First up are three new featurettes that focus on different aspects of the film: "Writing and Casting," "The Making of To Catch a Thief," "Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief." Each gives its own particular, and generally fascinating, view of the film. You also get another featurette on famous costume designer Edith Head, a gallery of photos and posters, and the theatrical trailer.

A nice package, a great movie. If only it had a picture quality that did it justice.

To Catch a Thief, from Paramount Home Video
106 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams
Written by John Michael Hayes, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Houseboat on DVD

Cary Grant is teamed up with Sophia Loren in Houseboat, a pretty good romantic comedy but one that pales when compared with “To Catch a Thief.”

Grant is Tom Winters, a widower with three children and, at the movie’s opening, he retakes custody of them determined to be the good father that he apparently hasn’t been so far. But he’s a busy and globetrotting public servant and he needs help with his triple handful so he tries to find a housekeeper.

Loren plays Cinzia Zaccardi, the daughter of a famous Italian conductor who’s in America for a concert series. She’s the poor little rich girl tired of being told how to live her life and she runs away, coming coincidentally into contact with one of Tom’s kids. She befriends the unhappy and confused waif and ends up taking the job of nanny to him and his siblings.

Needing a bigger place in which to live than the apartment he had before assuming his familial responsibilities, but the house he had chosen meets with an unfortunate accident and he’s forced to look elsewhere - settling on (you guessed it) a houseboat. It’s a decrepit piece of work, so they set out to fix it up and this helps bring the family even closer together.

Well, maybe. There’s plenty of misunderstanding and mutual angst to go around as everyone involved appears to be falling in love with each other much to their mutual chagrin.

It’s light and it’s funny, and it’s well worth seeing. Grant and Loren are both terrific, and they’re backed up by a good supporting cast.

The DVD is pretty good, too. Featuring an anamorphic widescreen picture (16x9 TV compatible), it looks a tad soft but overall is very good with colors that are bright and clean. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and, typically for this age of film, is unremarkable.

Unlike “Thief,” Houseboat’s DVD doesn’t pack in a lot of extras. All you get is the theatrical trailer, a teaser trailer and a photo gallery.

Houseboat, from Paramount Home Video
109 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Harry Guardino, Eduardo Ciannelli
Produced by Jack Rose
Written by Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, Directed by Melville Shavelson

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