Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief (2002)
*** (out of 4)
Nice, nine-minute featurette that can be found on Paramount's TO CATCH A THIEF release. Pat Hitchcock, Mary Stone (Hitchcock's granddaughter) and author Steven DeRosa are on hand to tell some stories about the screenplay and casting of the film. We learn that Hithcock had originally planned to make this years earlier but he ended up taking it to Paramount with him. We learn that originally Cary Grant had turned down the part but Hitchcock was able to sell him on the locations and co-star. There's some talk about this being Grace Kelly's final film with the famed director and we get a brief story about her having to turn down MARNIE even though she loved the screenplay. Another fun topic deals with the screenplay having to be turned over to the production code and of course they had many objections. They wanted to make sure that no bikinis were shown on the beach and that the sexuality between Grant and Kelly was kept down. With such a short running time there's really nothing in great detail but the stories told are still charming and entertaining. Fans of the movie will enjoy hearing these stories and especially all the issues that the production code had with the story.
