Cinema: The New Pictures, Aug. 15, 1955

To Catch a Thief (Paramount). Grace Kelly and Cary Grant are sitting in a a runabout at a secluded spot high above the Technicolored Riviera. Radiant Grace turns to Gary, says: "Do you want a breast or a leg?" Gary locks eyeballs with Grace and after a moment replies:

I'll leave the choice to you." So Grace gives Gary a piece of fried chicken. This is the sort of meal Director Alfred (Rear Window) Hitchcock cooked up for his troupe in the south of France last year. Its a little overdone, but it's still fried chicken— or maybe even just a lark. Those ingenious instants of terror for which Hitchcock is so well known are missing. But there remains the familiar Hitchcock pace and wit, the easy salability of such stars as Kelly and Grant, solid supporting performances by Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams, and lingering views of the Riviera.

As the good guy, Actor Grant never had it so good. He is an American, a reformed jewel thief, known in his day as "The Cat." Now retired, he lives cool and easy on the rocks, puttering about a villa. Then comes trouble. The police suspect that he is responsible for a batch of jewel robberies. To prove his innocence, he must uncover the real villain.

Grace Kelly, naturally, is a wealthy young American woman who finally decides she wants to be The Cat's meow.

She performs ably, pouting around and dressing like a billion francs. When it comes to making love, Grace knows how to play kitten on the tease. But the claws come out, elegantly manicured, of course, when Gary pays some attention to a pretty French girl ("You seemed to be conjugating some very irregular verbs with her"). At the moment when Grace grants Gary that consummation he so devoutly wishes, the camera deferentially turns to the window to watch the Vista-Vision heavens blaze with fireworks, courtesy of the Johnston Office.

The Virgin Queen (20th Century-Fox) straight from Hollywood's well-worn looms, is a plush, wall-to-wall tapestry depicting the rugged court life of late 16th century England. Chewing around the edges is Cinemactress Bette Davis who, according to the pressagents, was so taken with the script that she scurried out of retirement to play again the role of Queen Elizabeth (her first: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, with Errol Flynn, 1939).