DVD Review: Paramount Centennial Collection - To Catch A Thief and The Odd Couple

Paramount continues its stellar Centennial Collection with the release of the sixth and seventh films: Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief and the Neil Simon scribed The Odd Couple.

These are two classic and timeless films that are honored here with 2 Disc special editions jammed with features. Featuring such Hollywood Gold as Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Grace Kelly, and Walter Matthau, these films are must own for anyone who loves that magic of the movies.

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To Catch A Thief
Written by: John Michael Hayes
Based on the Novel by: David Dodge
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, and John Williams

Cary Grant stars as a notorious jewelry thief John "The Cat" Robie who is forced out of his plush retirement in order to clear his name when a series of brash thefts strike the Riviera, all baring his signature style. With the help of an American heiress, he must catch the real thief in order to prove his own innocence.

One of the biggest hits of the 1950's, To Catch A Thief is a prime example of classic Hollywood Cinema at its best. It's exciting and charming, and made me wish for a James Bond film that starred Cary Grant.

The chemistry between Grace Kelly and Cary Grant is electric, despite his being some 25 years her senior. The two play well off each other and really take the film to another level.

Paramount has really treated this film well. It looks and sounds incredible, almost as if it was just produced. The 2-disc set is loaded with features including a commentary by Alfred Hitchcock historian, Dr. Drew Casper (How great is that name btw?), and numerous featurettes that touch on everything from Film Censorship to the writing and casting of the film. The set also includes the original trailer, photo galleries, film recommendations, behind the scenes, a featurette on Edith Head's years at Paramount, and more.

This is another great example of Hitchcock's brilliance. I hope we get more Centennial releases from him.

The Odd Couple
Written by: Neil Simon
Directed by: Gene Saks
Starring: Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau

I never really understood the hype when Grumpy Old Men was released. I didn't really get the big deal of having Lemmon and Matthau back together on the big screen. I guess it was because I hadn't seen The Odd Couple.

The story surrounds to unlikely roommates, neat and neurotic Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) who was planning to kill himself after his divorce until he is saved by his friend and slob Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) who invites Felix to stay at his home. Hilarity ensues.

Even some forty odd years after its release, The Odd Couple still ranks among the best of a genre that is pretty much started, despite all the imitators.

Paramount has also given this film the special treatment with a 2-disc set full of featurettes, photos, a trailer, and a commentary by the sons of the film's stars.

The film looks and sounds as good as the day it was first released in 1968 and the performances are as hilarious as they ever were. This is pretty much the origin of buddy movies so if you like that kind of movie that certainly grab this one.

I continue to be impressed by the care and respect Paramount puts into these Centennial releases. They're truly giving us some great films fully loaded with some great and informative features. Every release so far is a must own.

To Catch A Thief and The Odd Couple are available now along with the rest of the Paramount Centennial Collection.

The next releases in this stellar collection are going to be the John Wayne classics The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and El Dorado which are due out next month.

RAWR(for more)

VERTIGO, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

There are precious few films that I have a hard time getting an analytical handle on, but still love all the same.  The fact is, there are just some movies out there that defy you to interpret them.  Once you think you've got them all figured out, you see something different that completely obliterates your previous thought.  As strange as it may sound, talking about these films is like trying to grab the wind.  The harder you try to harness it, the more frustrated you'll become.  It's bigger than you; you'll never be able to hold onto it.  Instead, it's better to simply let yourself feel it and experience it, making peace with the fact that it will never belong to you.

All that is very abstract, I know, but such is the nature of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.  This brilliant film ranks right up there with such movies as Apocalypse Now, Citizen Kane, Magnolia, and Videodrome, in the sense that we viewers will never be able to completely understand it.  And how can we?  It's a good bet that the directors of these works didn't quite know what they were doing themselves.  But they had to do it all the same.  There was a story inside them that had to be told; the "why" is a mystery to everyone involved.

There is something especially strange about the idea of Alfred Hitchcock making a movie so psychologically complicated as Vertigo.  Hitchcock may have been a director who liked to explore the darker complexities of the human mind, but his films could often feel very cold and clinical.  He was a director whose work I love and respect, but you always knew what you were going to get.  He could thrill you and shock you, but he very rarely challenged you.  Psycho may have killed the main character in the first forty minutes, but it also gave you a clean and simple explanation of Norman Bates' psychosis at the end of the film.  Vertigo doesn't give us that.  Hitchcock was a filmmaker who was drawn toward the theme of human obsession.  This was the first- and possibly only- time that Hitchcock truly embraced the confusion, moral ambiguity, and messiness associated with obsession.

In the film, James Stewart (an actor whose squeaky clean image Hitchcok did his best to destroy in his movies) plays a former police detective whose fear of heights causes the death of another officer.  At least, that's what he thinks.  As such, Stewart is predisposed to feelings of immense gilt from the beginning of this film.  And this guilt is compacted when he falls in love with the wife of an old friend.  She soon dies, as well, and Stewart falls into despair.

He soon finds an opportunity to alleviate his guilt in the form of a young woman who eerily resembles the dead wife.  Grief and guilt are strong motivators.  They can make a person desperate to return to the past; to imagine a world where certain bad things never happened, then try their damnedest to make that world a reality.  Stewart befriends this young woman, systematically turning her into his dead love.  His obsession border on abuse, and we the audience are deeply disturbed and confused.

Why is he doing this?  Where is this leading?  The answer presents itself soon enough, and it is an answer we don't like.  Obsession seldom ends well, and Hitchcock's Vertigo is no exception.  There are no easy answers as to why a person can latch on to a certain notion or feeling and never let go.  One can only look at that person with scorn and pity as their insane story plays itself out.  Hitchcock, a man who didn't like his movies to be too messy, was nonetheless smart enough to realize that to make a neat-and-tidy film about guilt and obsession would be to do a disservice to the subject.  There are aspects of life that are scary and confusing and mournful; to adequately make a film about them means being open to psychological chaos.

Vertigo is a film that is hard to summarize.  Just when you think you've got it, its masterful storyteller comes along and throws you a curve ball.  However, at no point does it feel like Hitchcock is screwing with you just to screw with you.  This is an elusive subject, and should be regarded as such.

When I was young, I shied away from movies that I didn't fully understand.  Now, as I've gotten older, I embrace them.  I may not completely comprehend them, but who says I have to?  There are no easy answers in life, so why should there be in film?

RAWR(for more)