Spellbound; To Catch a Thief

With most of Hitchcock's masterworks already available on DVD (Psycho, North By Northwest, The Birds, Rear Window, Rebecca, Notorious), some of the middle-works are now making their way onto disc, including the 1955 thriller To Catch a Thief and 1945's Spellbound, in its second, but far superior, release. Originally put out by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1999, Spellbound is now available with a crisp, luminescent new digital transfer from the wizards at Criterion. Hitchcock's cinematic ode to Freud stars Ingrid Berman as Dr. Constance Petersen, a rather emotionally cold psychoanalyst at the Green Manors institution whose swept off her logical feet by the new chief of staff, Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). Love being blind, Petersen doesn't discover, initially, that Dr. Edwardes is, in fact, dead, and the "John Brown" (Peck) who's taken his identity is an amnesiac who may have also killed the real doctor. Thus begins a cat-and-mouser in which Petersen and Brown must stay one step ahead of the authorities while trying to uncover Brown's true identity and clear him of the murder charge, a journey fraught with peril, since Peck's character occasionally becomes "spellbound" and unpredictable. In addition to Hitchcock's masterful direction, the film boasts a sharp script by Ben Hecht, an Oscar-winning score by Miklos Rózsa, and a famous surreal dream sequence created by Salvador Dali. DVD extras include an informative commentary track by Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane, a 1973 audio interview with Rósza, the 1948 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation starring Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli, various text essays, correspondence (especially entertaining are the missives from Joe Breen's Production Code office that offer characteristically idiotic objections to numerous lines of clever dialogue), and photos. Recommended. Not quite as spiffy-looking, To Catch a Thief stars Cary Grant as an erstwhile cat burglar who may or may not be guilty of several jewel thefts in the posh hotels along the French Riviera. Protesting his innocence, John Robie (Grant) offers to help catch the real culprit, assuming the identity of a Portland, Oregon timber baron (yeah right!), a ruse that doesn't fool Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly), daughter of wealthy Jessie Stevens (the delightful Jessie Royce Landis), one bit--especially when the family jewels turn up missing. Full of sly humor (Grace Kelly's query whether Grant would like "a leg or a breast" of chicken during a picnic wouldn't have passed muster ten years earlier in Bergman and Peck's picnic scene in Spellbound), classic Hitchcock chase scenes (including an uncomfortably comic one with Kelly at the wheel--the later Princess of Monaco would die in a fatal car crash in the same area in 1982), and wonderful performances from the dapper Grant and lovely Kelly, To Catch a Thief looks rather soft (though the colors are rich) on disc. Still, the DVD features a number of solid extras, including three new featurettes--the nine-minute "Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief," the 17-minute "The Making of To Catch a Thief," and the lesser eight-minute "Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief: An Appreciation"--as well as the wonderful featurette "Edith Head: The Paramount Years," on the acclaimed costume designer. Recommended. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review—May 1, 2007—Paramount, 106 min., not rated, $14.99—Making its second appearance on DVD, 1955's To Catch a Thief (Special Collector's Edition) sports a fine transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround sound. DVD extras include all of the previous release's featurettes plus a new audio commentary by filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich and Laurent Bouzereau. Bottom line: a better-looking version with an added commentary, this is well worth picking up, even if you already own the initial release.][DVD Review—Mar. 17, 2009—Paramount, 2 discs, 106 min., not rated, $24.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1955's To Catch a Thief (Centennial Collection) looks great and features Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. New DVD extras include an audio commentary by Hitchcock film historian Dr. Drew Casper (replacing the earlier audio commentary by filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich and Laurent Bouzereau), a 2008 Q&A “Night with the Hitchcocks” from USC featuring Casper and Hitchcock's daughter Pat and family (24 min.), the featurettes “Unacceptable Under the Code: Film Censorship in America” (12 min.) and “Behind the Gates: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly” (6 min.), an interactive travelogue, and galleries. Ported over from the 2007 DVD release are a 17-minute “making-of” featurette, “Edith Head: The Paramount Years” on the costume designer (14 min.), “Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief” (9 min.), and “Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief: An Appreciation” (8 min.). Bottom line: a fine edition, although unnecessary if you own the 2007 version.][Blu-ray Review—Feb. 14, 2012—MGM, 118 min., not rated, $24.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1945's Spellbound features a decent transfer and a DTS-HD mono soundtrack. Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by author and film professor Thomas Schatz and film professor Charles Ramierz Berg, a “Dreaming with Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali” featurette (22 min.), “Guilt By Association: Psychoanalyzing Spellbound” (20 min.), “A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming” on the costar (10 min.), a 1948 radio play, a Hitchcock audio interview, and trailers. Bottom line: a welcome debut on Blu-ray for a classic Hitchcock thriller.]