James Stewart, Grace Kelly, and Thelma Ritter debate “Rear Window” ethics

Rear Window (1954) is an American mystery thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, and Thelma Ritter. The script was by John Michael Hayes, the cinematography was by Robert Burks, and the music was by Franz Waxman.

A favorite with both the public and critics, Rear Window’s reputation only seems to grow with each passing year. 

L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair after breaking his leg while photographing a racetrack accident. While recuperating in his Greenwich Village apartment, Jeff suspects that his neighbor across the courtyard, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) murdered his invalid wife. At first, his girlfriend Lisa Freemont (Kelly) and home-care nurse Stella (Ritter) think he’s imagining things, but soon both begin suspecting there may be some truth to his suspicions.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is a master class in filmmaking; its technique and storytelling are timeless.

Grace Kelly

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. Hitchcock directed over 50 feature films, many of which are classics that have been honored and studied for years. Some of Hitchcock’s classic films include The 39 Steps (1939), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).

James Stewart (1908 - 1997) was an American actor whose career spanned almost five decades and 80 films. Stewart often portrayed the ideal of the average American who was decent and honest. Stewart signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he appeared in a variety of supporting roles in B and A pictures. It wasn’t until he was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to costar in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You (1938) that his home studio began to notice. Still, his best roles were on loan to other studios including Mr. Smith Goes to Washinton (1939) at Columbia again and Destry Rides Again (1939) at Universal. M-G-M eventually cast him in The Philadelphia Story (1940) where he won the Academy Award for Best Actor which cemented his reputation as a leading man and star. From there he went on to make The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Mortal Storm (1940). After serving in the United States Army from 1941 to 1945, Stewart returned to Hollywood where he continued as a popular leading man. During the 1950s, Steward made two films with director Alfred Hitchcock, considered two of the director’s best films: Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958). Vertigo was voted the greatest film ever made by Sight & Sound in 2012.

Grace Kelly (1929 – 1982) was an American film actress who after a fairly brief Hollywood career became the Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in 1956. Kelly appeared in theater productions in New York City and on live television during the early 1950s. For her role in Mogambo (1953), Kelly was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She lost the Oscar but became a major star with lead roles in five films released in 1954: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Green Fire, and The Bridges of Toko-Ri. She would make only three more movies—To Catch a Thief, The Swan (1955), and High Society (1956)—before retiring from films.

James Stewart (1908 - 1997) was an American actor whose career spanned almost five decades and 80 films. Stewart often portrayed the ideal of the average American who was decent and honest. Stewart signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he appeared in various supporting roles in B and A pictures. It wasn’t until he was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to costar in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You (1938) that his home studio began to notice. Still, his best roles were on loan to other studios including Mr. Smith Goes to Washinton (1939) at Columbia again and Destry Rides Again (1939) at Universal. M-G-M eventually cast him in The Philadelphia Story (1940) where he won the Academy Award for Best Actor which cemented his reputation as a leading man and star. From there he went on to make The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Mortal Storm (1940). After serving in the United States Army from 1941 to 1945, Stewart returned to Hollywood where he continued as a popular leading man. During the 1950s, Steward made two films with director Alfred Hitchcock, considered two of the director’s best films: Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958). Vertigo was voted the greatest film ever made by Sight & Sound in 2012.

Wendell Corey (1914 – 1968) was an American film and stage actor. After appearing in the hit Broadway play Dream Girl (1945), Corey was spotted by producer Wallis who put him under contract at Paramount. He started out in supporting roles, but he was elevated to leading man with The File on Thelma Jordon. As film roles diminished, Corey turned to television where he made guest appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, and The Wild Wild West.

Thelma Ritter (1902 - 1969) was an American actress best known for her portrayal of working-class characters. She was nominated six times in the Best Supporting Actress category, more than any other actress in the category. Ritter won the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award in 1958 for New Girl in Town. She made her unbilled screen debut in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and a character actress was born. Ritter quickly became a favorite of studio chief Daryl F. Zanuck who cast her in A Letter to Three Wives (1949), All About Eve (1950), The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952), and Titanic (1953). Perhaps her most famous role was as James Stewart's nurse in Rear Window (1954). Ritter was a good friend of director George Seaton, who cast her in her first film role in Miracle on 34th Street. It was only fitting that Ritter's last film What's So Bad About Feeling Good (1968), was also directed by Seaton.

Thelma Ritter and James Stewart

Rear Window trivia

• The entire movie was shot on one set. It was the largest set piece built on the Paramount lot up to that time.
• The actors in the apartments other than Jeff’s (Stewart’s) all wore earpieces so Hitchcock could direct them remotely.
• All of the apartments in Thorwald’s building had electricity and running water and could be lived in.
• Of the four films Steward made with Hitchcock, Rear Window was his personal favorite.

Click HERE to watch the movie on YouTube.

Rear Window trivia

• The entire movie was shot on one set. It was the largest set piece built on the Paramount lot up to that time.
• The actors in the apartments other than Jeff’s (Stewart’s) all wore earpieces so Hitchcock could direct them remotely.
• All of the apartments in Thorwald’s building had electricity and running water and could be lived in.
• Of the four films Stewart made with Hitchcock, Rear Window was his personal favorite.

 

Click HERE to join the discussion on December 11, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you’ll receive an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. Do you think that Lisa and Jeff’s relationship was believable?
2. Have you ever “observed” your neighbors the way Jeff’s character did?
3. Do you think Hitchcock was commenting on our voyeuristic society?
4. What do you think Hitchcock would have thought of today’s reality TV?
5. Hitchcock tells so much of the story with the camera; do you have a favorite scene or visual image?
6. What did you think of the performances?
7. Of all of Hitchcock’s films, Read Window’s reputation seems to get better with age. Why do you think that is?

 

 

 

 

 

Grace Kelly tries to expose Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief”

To Catch a Thief (1955) is a romantic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay and the cinematography was by long-time Hitchcock associate, Robert Burks.

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly

On the French Riviera, there is a rash of jewel robberies that have all the earmarks of former jewel thief John “The Cat” Robie (Grant). Robie has remained straight since his parole following his work in the French Resistance during World War II. Parole was contingent on Robie staying clean, but these new robberies have put his freedom in jeopardy.

Enter Jessie and Frances (Francie) Stevens, a nouveau riche widow (Jesse Royce Landis) traveling with her daughter (Kelly). Robie believes that he can clear himself if he can find the real thief, pretending to be a businessman. Francie sees through Robie’s cover. When her mother’s jewels are stolen, Francie is determined to expose Robie as “The Cat.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. Hitchcock directed over 50 feature films, many are classics that have been honored and studied for years. Some of Hitchcock’s classic films include The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage )1936), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).

John Michael Hayes (1919 – 2008) was an American screenwriter who wrote four screenplays for Hitchcock: Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Hayes was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. As a boy, he missed a lot of school because of ear infections. During his time at home, he acquired a love of reading and writing. As a young adult, he got jobs writing for local periodicals. He eventually got a job with the Associated Press and attended Massachusetts State College. After serving in the US Army during World War II, Hayes moved to California and began writing scripts for the radio. Hayes parlayed his radio scripting into a job writing screenplays in Hollywood. He worked on the scripts for big-budget films like Peyton Place (1957), BUtterfield 8 (1960), The Carpetbaggers (1964), and Nevada Smith (1966).

Robert Burks (1909 – 1968) was an American cinematographer. He was adept at both color and black and white photography. In 1928, Burks got his start in film at Warner Bros. He eventually worked his way up to Director of Photography in 1944. The first feature that he worked as a cinematographer was The Fountainhead (1949) starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. Burks is closely associated with Hitchock. He was the cinematographer on some of the directors most famous works from the 1950s and 1960s including Strangers on a Train (1951), I Confess (1952), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959).

Cary Grant (1904 – 1986) was an English-born American actor who became one of the most popular leading men in film history. Grant started his career in vaudeville before heading to Hollywood. He became a superstar in the late 1930s in a series of screwball comedies including The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne. He was a memorable C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940) opposite Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. He received two Best Actor nominations: Penny Serenade (1941) and None but the Lonely Hearts (1944). Other classic Grant films include Gunga Din (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). He made for popular films with Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). He was presented with an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970.

Grace Kelly (1929 – 1982) was an American film actress who after a fairly brief Hollywood career became the Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in 1956. Kelly appeared in theater productions in New York City and on live television during the early 1950s. For her role in Mogambo (1953), Kelly was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She lost the Oscar but became a major star with lead roles in five films released in 1954: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Country Girl, Green Fire, and The Bridges of Toko-Ri. She would make only three more movies—To Catch a Thief, The Swan (1955), and High Society (1956)—before retiring from films.

To Catch a Thief Trivia:

• Cary Grant announced his retirement in 1953 but was lured by Hitchcock to take the role of John Robie which resulted in Grant working in Hollywood for another 11 years.
• Grace Kelly was killed in an automobile accident on the same road as her famous chase scene. She was 52 years old.
• Jesse Royce Landis played Kelly’s mother in two films: To Catch a Thief and The Swan. She also is famous for playing Grant’s mother in North by Northwest, even though she was just barely eight years older than he.
• Actress Brigitte Auber is considered “the teenage” when compared to Kelly’s character in the film when in fact Auber was 4 ½ years older than Kelly.
• The film’s landmark cinematography won an Academy Award for Robert Burks.

To watch the film, click on the YouTube link below. Be sure to use this link because it is the best print on the channel.

After you’ve watched the movie, join us for a discussion on Zoom, September 21, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "To Catch a Thief"

Time: Sep 22, 2020, 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74456059761?pwd=Vlh3SzJlaGxpRzZla3oxcTRWVGEzZz09

Meeting ID: 744 5605 9761

Passcode: qVR5zh

Discussion Questions:

1. What did you make of the relationship between Grant and Kelly’s characters? Was it a believable relationship?
2. The movie is visually stunning. Would the film be as entertaining if it was set in another location?
3. The dialogue is filled with double-entendres. Do you have any favorites?
4. How is this like other Hitchcock films? How is it different?

Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" screens at Daystar Center July 14, 2015

When: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 6:30 p.m.
Where: The Venue 1550 at the Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street

A favorite with both the public and critics, Rear Window’s reputation only seems to grow with each passing year. 

L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair after breaking his leg while photographing a racetrack accident. While recuperating in his Greenwich Village apartment, Jeff suspects that his neighbor across the courtyard, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) murdered his invalid wife. At first his girlfriend Lisa Freemont (Grace Kelly) and home-care nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) think he’s imagining things, but soon both begin suspecting there may be some truth to his suspicions.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is a master class in filmmaking; its technique and storytelling are timeless.

Have some Joe and Enjoy the Show!
Before the movie, grab a cup of coffee from Overflow Coffee Bar, located within the Daystar Center. You can bring food and beverages into the auditorium; we even have small tables set up next to some of the seats. General Admission: $5 Students and Senior Citizens: $3.

This amazing courtyard was built on the Paramount studio sound stage for Rear Window.

Join the Chicago Film club; join the discussion
Once a month we screen a classic film and have a brief discussion afterward. For more information, including how to join (it’s free), click here. To purchase your ticket in advance, click here. The Venue 1550 is easily accessible by the CTA. Please visit Transit Chicago for more information on transportation options.


Daystar Center located at 1550 S. State St. works through a grassroots network of collaborations and partnerships with individuals and other nonprofit organizations. Through this web, they’re able to provide educational, cultural, and civic activities that enrich and empower their clients, guests, and community members. To learn more about classes and events offered at the Daystar Center, please visit their Web site.

7 x 7 – My Favorite Posts

Paula’s Cinema Club tagged me with a 7 x 7 Link award. I have a hard time getting myself organized for these posts, but I was able to find some time to get this done. Similar to the Liebster Award, it’s aim is to help folks “get to know” your blog.

The 7 x 7 Award highlights a blogger’s favorite pieces of work and is passed on to others so that they too can do the same as a way to promote posts and/or blogs.

Unlike the Liebster, the questions do not vary, but like the Liebster, some are more difficult than others. So here we go.

1.Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you.
I was a painfully shy kid. I avoided having contact or conversations at all costs. I would go so far as to walk a block out of my way so I wouldn’t have to say hello or speak to someone. That’s obviously changed. Now it’s hard to shut me up!

2. Link to one of the posts that I think best fits the following categories:
a. Most beautiful piece: Beautiful is a lofty word for a blog post, but one of my best posts was for the Ida Lupino blogathon, “Ida Lupino: A Lasting Legacy in Hollywood.” A big fan of Lupino’s, it gave me a reason to write the post. I was very happy with the results and the response from readers.

b. Most helpful piece: I think my most helpful piece is from a series of post I started called “Classic Films in Context.” I examine a classic film in the context of when it was released, how it was received, and what makes it significant today. The first film I featured was the 1931 version of Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. Dunne was nominated for Best Actress (first of a total of five nominations) and it’s the film that made her a superstar. Within a year, she totally eclipsed the top-billed Dix, going on to successes in musicals, dramas, and comedies.

c. Most popular piece: By far, my most popular piece is “Becoming Grace Kelly,” a post I wrote in April 2010. It’s had over 6,300 reads, which is mind-boggling to me. The irony is I’m not the biggest Kelly fan—although I am one—in the world. I just thought a lot of people would be interested in a post on the movie star who became a princess, but I never imagined it would be this successful. I timed it to release with the exhibit of her clothes and accessories at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that year. Almost every month, it’s in the top-five of my most read posts.

d. Most controversial piece: I don’t think I have many controversial posts, but my post on The Hunger Games for the Future Classic Movies blogathon got some interesting conversations going when it was picked up by Movie Fanfare, the blog hosted by Movies Unlimited. Folks were talking big theological issues, which was an area I never touched on, nor did I really consider when writing the post.

e. Surprisingly successful piece: Besides the Kelly post already mentioned, my post on the science fiction classic This Island Earth is another one that ends up in the top-five posts for the week, every once in a while since first posted June 2011.

f. Most underrated piece: “The Truth About “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a screwball comedy starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery hasn’t gotten a lot of love, so to speak. I’m a big fan of Lombard and this comedy, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, of all people. It can stand next to the screwball comedies directed by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, and Gregory LaCava any day, in my opinion.

g. Most pride-worthy piece: “Val Lewton: The genius nobody knows” is a post I’m very proud of. Lewton is someone who deserves more recognition. His movies influenced just about every filmmaker working today, including Martin Scorsese who produced a documentary on Lewton several years ago. Honorable mention: “Mitchell Leisen: The Best Director Nobody Knows.” This was my first post to be picked up by Movie Fanfare.

3. Pass this award on to seven other blogs/bloggers:


Another Old Movie Blog
They Don’t Make ’Em Like They Used To
Speakeasy
Once Upon a Screen
The Shades of Black and White
What Happened to Hollywood
Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings

More blogs/bloggers worthy of the award:

Bobby Rivers TV
Carl Rollyson

bettiwettiwoo 

Cinema_Fanatic
Immortal Ephemera

If you’ve already gotten a 7 x 7, please feel free to pass it along to the deserving blogger of your choice.

“The Birds” on the big screen September 19

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic, The Birds will hit the big screen for a one-night showing September 19, 2012, in theaters all across the country. Like the special screenings of Casablanca and Singing in the Rain, this one is sponsored by Turner Classic Movies. The screening will include an interview with star Tippi Hedren and special introduction featuring TCM host Robert Osborne. To find a screening near you, click here.

Tippi Hedren finds safety in a phone booth in one of the film’s
most famous scenes.

If there is a classic film that benefits from a big-screen showing, it’s The Birds. Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier with a screenplay by Evan Hunter, the movie is filled with iconic scenes and amazing—for the time—special effects.

The top-billed star is Rod Taylor who plays Mitch Brenner, a San Francisco lawyer who falls for socialite Melanie Daniels played by Hedren. Hedren, a model and single mother, was plucked from obscurity by Hitchcock to be his new leading lady. Groomed to be the next cool blond—Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and Eva Marie Saint preceded her—Hedren became an overnight sensation. She won the Golden Globe award for most promising newcomer, female, the year after the movie’s release. Also in the cast are Academy Award winner Jessica Tandy, then child star Veronica Cartwright, and Suzanne Pleshette. In smaller roles are character actor Richard Deacon (The Dick Van Dyke Show) and as one of the children at Cathy Brenner’s (Cartwright) birthday party is an unbilled Morgan Brittany who later went on to star in TV’s Dallas.

The Birds may not be one of Hitchcock’s greatest films, but it certainly is one of his most entertaining. A huge hit upon its initial release, the film offers up exquisite camera work by frequent Hitchcock cinematographer Robert Burks. The special effects were created Ub Iwerks, the genius behind the special effects at the Disney studio. One of the unusual aspects of the film is that is has no musical score. Instead, the sound of birds is heard throughout. Bernard Herrmann (Psycho), composer of many Hitchcock film scores acted as the films uncredited sound director.

Becoming Grace Kelly

Everyone knows the name Grace Kelly (1929-1982). But do they know the person behind that name? Is she the glamorous movie star who took the mid-1950s by storm and then gave it all up to marry a prince? Or is she the shy girl, who did not quite fit in with the athletic and outgoing Kelly clan?

Quiet Grace

Grace Patricia Kelly is all of the above. The third of four children, Grace was quiet and solitary in contrast to her older sister, Peggy, older brother John, and younger sister Lizanne. How she became a movie icon is a Hollywood story if ever there was one, but it’s also about timing. If there weren’t a Grace Kelly in the mid-1950s, we would have had to invent her.

New girl in town

Kelly was part of a new crop of female movie stars, a crop that also included Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, groomed during the waning days of the old studio system. She signed a seven-year contract with MGM, but they didn’t seem to know what to do with her. Her best movie roles came by way of other studios on loan outs.

Mogambo (1953), was her biggest role at this point in her career. She played opposite two undisputed superstars: Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. But she almost didn’t get that role. Gene Tierney (who starred with Gable in Never Let Me Go that same year) was director John Ford’s (and MGM’s) first choice. Due to her developing mental illness, Tierney had to drop out. It was then that Kelly was given the role of the unfaithful wife who falls for Gable’s character, but loses him in the end. For this role, Kelly received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. But even with the nomination, Kelly’s stardom wasn’t a sure thing.

The New York Times’s movie critic, Bosley Crowther gave a rather lukewarm review of Mogambo, waiting until the very last paragraph (first sentence of a two-sentence paragraph at that) to even mention Kelly. That was all about to change; the public and Crowther would soon take notice.

Kelly gets noticed

In 1953, Alfred Hitchcock was searching for a female lead for a film he was directing at Warner Bros., Dial M for Murder. While looking for an actress to cast, he reviewed an old screen test Kelly had done at Twentieth Century Fox and watched Mogambo. While Hitchcock thought Kelly was stiff, if not a bit wooden, he saw that she had potential. Almost immediately, the master of suspense started to mold Kelly into the prototypical cool Hitchcock blond. When Dial M for Murder was released, the reviews were good, some even thinking it better than the stage play upon which it was based. This time, Crowther mentioned Kelly in the sixth paragraph (out of seven) of his review saying, “Grace Kelly does a nice job of acting the wife's bewilderment, terror and grief.” From the likes of Crowther, that was absolutely glowing praise.

Edie Doyle or Lisa Fremont?

Almost on the back of filming Dial M for Murder, Hitchcock requested Kelly’s services again for Rear Window. At the time the role of Lisa Carol Fremont was offered to her, Kelly was considering the role of Edie Doyle for On the Waterfront,the role that eventually went to Eva Marie Saint. Kelly loved the Rear Window script and decided she'd rather portray a model from Manhattan than a middle-class girl from New Jersey. She could not have imagined how fortuitous a choice that would be.

Careful collaborations
Once again, Hitchcock took complete control of Kelly’s image and introduced her to screenwriter, John Michael Hayes. As Hayes would state in an interview before his death in 2008, Hitchcock asked him to get to know Kelly and study her speech patterns. Hayes was instructed to write dialogue that would seem natural coming out of Kelly’s mouth. Hitchcock thought (and rightly so) that if Kelly collaborated with Hayes on some of her dialogue, her characterization would avoid the stiffness of some of her earlier roles. The fact that Hayes’s wife was a former model made him the perfect person to write for Kelly.

Another person Hitchcock introduced to Kelly was renowned costume designer Edith Head. Under Hitchcock’s direction, Head went to work on creating a wardrobe that would be true to Kelly’s character as well as showcase her incredible beauty. With Kelly, Head had a clean canvas upon which she could create a look that was stylish, chic, and deceptively simple in design.

When Rear Window opened at the Rivoli in August of 1954, 2,000 people attended the premier, a benefit for the American-Korean Foundation. It was an immediate commercial and critical success and people took notice of Grace Kelly in what would become an iconic role for the then 25-year-old actress.

Five movies in one year!

In 1954, moviegoers couldn’t avoid Grace Kelly. That year, she had no fewer than five films in release: Dial M for Murder (May), Rear Window (August), The Country Girl, The Bridges at Toko-ri, and Green Fire (December). For her performance in The Country Girl, she was awarded the Best Actress Academy Award for 1955. The competition was unusually stiff that year, with Kelly besting Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen Jones), Jane Wyman (Magnificent Obsession), Audrey Hepburn (Sabrina), and Judy Garland (A Star is Born). Garland was the sentimental and the odds-on favorite, so Kelly’s win was a bit of a shock to many. Supposedly, six votes separated the two stars.

A star is born and then she's gone

As quickly as Kelly’s star rose, so did her departure from Hollywood. She would have one film released in 1955, To Catch a Thief, again working with Hitchcock and Edith Head. In 1956, she would have two films in release, The Swan and High Society, which would be her last. On April 19, 1956, Kelly wed Prince Rainier of Monaco. Rumors of a comeback never materialized. Grace Kelly remained Princess Grace of Monaco until her traffic death in a car accident on September 14, 1982. She was 52 years old.

The Amazing Grace Kelly

I was amazed to see Grace Kelly's face on the cover of the current issue (May 2010) of Vanity Fair in the supermarket today, and thought it ironic that the May "Meet Me at the Movies" event will be Rear Window (1954). It was after she made the Hitchcock classic that Kelly's career really caught fire. She would eventually go on to win an Academy Award for The Country Girl (1954).

Grace Kelly died almost 30 years ago, but we're still fascinated by her life. It's remarkable to note that she had lead roles in barely eight films; five of them were released in 1954! The three she made with Alfred Hitchcock not only immortalized her on film, but, with a little help from costume designer, Edith Head, made her an American fashion icon.

A year after she filmed To Catch a Thief (1955), Grace met and married Prince Rainier of Monaco, leaving Hollywood and her film career forever.

Alfred Hitchcock's “To Catch a Thief”

Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Grace Kelly too!
To Catch a Thief  filmed on location on the French Riviera, is a picture-postcard treat of a movie. The Alfred Hitchcock classic pairs Cary Grant as a reformed jewel thief, John “The Cat” Robie and Grace Kelly as Francie Stevens, a vacationing American heiress.

When a series of jewel robberies occur, all similar in style to the methods of the so-called reformed Mr. Robie, the Riviera is abuzz with detectives, insurance investigators, and the international press. All of this intrigue and excitement is fascinating to Francie who thinks Robie is up to his old tricks again. Rather than finding his behavior repulsive, Francie instead is attracted to the enigmatic and sophisticated Mr. Robie.

Academy Award Winner

Filled with all the things you've come to expect from Hitchcock--elegant surroundings, witty, sophisticated dialogue, and glamorous costumes--To Catch a Thief doesn't disappoint. Nominated for three Academy Awards (winning for Best Color Cinematography), this 1955 suspense classic is one fun ride.

A reluctant leading man
After completing the film Dream Wife, costarring Deborah Kerr, in 1953, Grant announced his retirement from films. The story goes that Grant thought that he was getting too old to play romantic leads. Additionally, he found himself competing with method actors like Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift; Grant thought his style of acting was on its way out. Fortunately, Hitchcock convinced Grant that To Catch a Thief was the perfect role for a "comeback," plus there was the added bonus of costarring with Grace Kelly, a young actress Grant liked and admired.

Woman chases man
Even though Grant continued starring in films until 1966, his screen persona changed slightly. Instead of being the aggressive leading man, pursuing beautiful women, beginning with To Catch a Thief, it was younger women who were constantly chasing the older Grant, a plot device he found much more believable.