Joe brought a copy of To Catch A Thief. No one else had seen it before, so we watched it. Cary Grant is John Robie, an ex-jewel thief nick named The Cat. He gave up crime and helped the French Resistance during WWII. He's been straight for 15 years. Now he's been wrongly accused of a series of jewel robberies and has to prove his innocence. That's just like all 14 Boston Blackie films. He's also an ex-jewel thief who has gone straight and in every movie the cops think he did the crime. They aren't very imaginative cops. He escapes easily and by the end of the movie he's caught the killer and proven his innocence. There's more murder in Boston Blackie, and more comedy. Turner Classic Movies has been running a pair of Boston Blackie films each saturday morning. I've been enjoying them. To Catch A Thief is an Alfred Hitchcock crime story with a touch of romantic comedy. I don't have many Hitch films, never been a big fan. I have seen several over the years but most of them I'm not interested in seeing again. I have a copy of The Trouble with Harry, an idyllic romantic comedy, with a dead body that won't stay put, which is rarely this funny, and North By Northwest. I like both of them enough to want to see them a few more times. I'll keep an eye out for the remastered version of TCAT. The 2002 dvd we saw had some sound and picture problems. The movie has Cary running around Cannes, Nice and some especially curvaceous country roads that lead to some really nice big houses in the south of France. Big houses filled with jewels, that someone is stealing, and The Cat is getting the blame. Mixed in with the pretty scenery are some really horrible rear projection effects. It doesn't matter too much. There are some good characters like Jessie Royce Landis, who plays Grace Kelly's mother, and John Williams, who plays the helpful insurance man. Landis also played Cary Grant's mother in North By Northwest. She's a much more fun character in this movie. There are some stunts and some nice sets. Very sophisticated with nice costumes by Edith Head. A good addition to the dvd collection.
Cult of the Cobra is from that BestBuy exclusive collection The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Volume 2. None of us remembered having seen it before. Some US Air Force guys are on leave in Asia. They meet a snake charmer who will sneak them into a snake cult so they can see a woman transform into a snake. He wants 100 Dollars. That's a lot for the 1950's but the guys think they should go. If they are found out they could die. They drink some beers and off they go. One of the guys takes a flash picture and the cult erupts into chaos. Camera guy grabs the snake girl's basket and bolts leaving the other guys to battle it out. They do, leaving the place on fire as they leave. They find their friend lying in the street, bitten by a snake. Some woman was leaning over him and she bolts. That guy is the first to die of the 6 friends who were cursed by the leader of the cult. Luckily they were all leaving Asia and heading back to New York City. Their tour is over and they are returning to civilian life. There's some soap opera as the guys settle in and Marshall Thomson, TV's Daktari and star of the great 1958 film Fiend Without A Face, gets dumped only to rebound into Faith Domergue. Unfortunately, she's a snake woman and kills some of his friends. It's hard dating. The transformation effects are pretty poor but there's a pretty good cast, including David Jennsen, Richard Long, William Reynolds, and a guy I have always liked, Jack Kelly. I might not watch this every year but I'll watch it again.
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