A matter of mistaken identity and striped jerseys

Brigitte Auber and Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”, 1955. Paramount Pictures

To Catch a Thief was the first film Hitchcock shot on location, in the South of France. It was also the film that brought Cary Grant back from retirement and it was Grace Kelly’s last film, before becoming Princess of Monaco, which ended her acting career. It had humour, suspense, dry wit, glamour, two stars together on screen, and two of those characters – played by the wonderful Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams – that are often present in Hitchcok’s films, the kind that provide a comic relief. The film is also, at first sight, a somewhat lightweight story for Hitchcock. But… “in spite of appearances, once more Hitchcock remains absolutely faithful to his perennial themes: interchangeability, the reversed crime, moral and almost physical identification between two human beings,” as François Truffaut remarked.

Only this time, the almost physical identification is between a male character and a female character. Once again, I have to agree with Truffaut and admit that “I am sure that it is no accident that Brigitte Auber resembles Grant and wears an identical striped jersey: blue and white for Grant, red and white for Auber”. I have already covered Cary’s casual look from the film, a little less his trademark than the suit, but one which he excelled at again: striped jersey, white polka dot red foulard, pleated trousers and loafers. It is the sweater and silk scarf, however, that are the surprise element here. They were a unique pairing, for Grant himself and for the period of the film. Seven decades on now, and we still marvel at it.

“To Catch a Thief”, 1955. Paramount Pictures

Cary found the pullover and scarf in a local shop on the French Riviera where the film was shot. It’s a look that sets him and his character apart. There’s something mysterious about that scarf, something he doesn’t want to reveal – he’s a former American jewellery thief trying to escape the shadow of his past and when a new wave of jewelry robberies occur on the Côte d’Azur, which is now his backyard, he has to come out of retirement to try to prove his innocence. The pullover fits the shady nature of John Robie. Costume designers usually avoid orizontal stripes, because they vibrate on-screen. And they do here, too, “but they are mesmerizing on Grant, even a little dizzying if you stare at them too long, an effect that is right in step with the character he plays: they keep you slightly off balance,” remarked Richard Torregrossa in his book, Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style.

Robie (to Danielle, on the boat, while trying to escape the police): Hey, you’re getting us wet.
Danielle: It must be true what they say. Cats don’t like water.
Robie: I’ll thank you not to mention that word again.
Danielle: Oh, a man shouldn’t regret his past.
Robie: I only regret one thing, that I ever took the time to teach you English.
Danielle: You only taught me the nouns. I learned the adjectives myself.
Robie: The word “cat” is a noun.
Danielle: Not the way you use it. For you, it means excitement, danger, affluence.

Sylvette Baudrot, the French continuity supervisor on the production, recounts in the documentary The Making of To Catch a Thief about how he was very surprised to see Cary Grant, as he was getting into character, in a button down shirt, which was “very modern, very American”, and made a comment on set about how strange a choice he found it, because that kind of garment was highly uncommon in France during the time the film was supposed to take place in. Hitchcock heard him and didn’t want the character to wear that anymore, and that’s why we eventually got to see Cary Grant in striped sweaters. And it shows not just that stripes seem to have been part of the French style vocabulary for ever, but also that Cary Grant himself had a tremendous sense of character, time and place. Baudrot also tells a lovely story about how after the shooting ended, Cary Grant wrote him a letter to apologise for having had to leave without having been able to give him a gift of remembrance and appreciation, so Cary included some cash in the letter for Sylvette to buy something for his liking – he bought a blue and white striped sweater like the one Cary had in the film. And that is what I call the enduring appeal of film costume.

Cary sports in fact two striped jerseys, the first one, grey and white, in the opening of the film. But it is the blue and white piece, shown alongside Brigitte Auber in her own jersey, that reveals the interchangeability of characters. Truffaut continues: “Grant’s hair is parted on the right, Amber’s on the left. They are look-alikes and opposites at the same time, so that there is a perfect symmetry throughout the work, a symmetry that carries over to the smallest details in the intrigue.” Cary wears his jersey with pleated trousers. Brigitte wears hers, sleeves rolled up, tucked in a red knee-length, A-shape skirt, with a front pocket and pleats at the back – a feminine look that is a sign of timeless style, but also shows a sense of character, time and place.

Brigitte Auber and Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”, 1955. Paramount Pictures

Edith Head was the costume designer on the production, but she probably was mostly in charge of Grace Kelly’s wardrobe – and Grace was Cary’s ideal leading lady and his sartorial equal. And we know that Cary Grant took care of his own, having Hitchcock’s vote of confidence. As for the Danielle Foussard character, Head may or may have not had a say in her costumes. What is known for a fact is that Hitchcock had seen Brigitte in a Julien Duvivier film and her athleticism convinced him she would be good for the role – she was in fact an acrobat between films, just like Cary Grants had been before starting out in movies, but it was only after she was cast that Hitch became aware of it. One more proof that the filmmaker knew what he wanted and where to look for it. Whether Edith ahead came up with the idea for Danielle’s costume or not, we can be sure that Hitchcok’s supervising eye was ever present. The designer would come up with one legendary casual look a few years later when she would dress Audrey Hepburn in jeans and a sweatshirt in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the only costume as a matter of fact that Edith Head was allowed to provide for Hepburn, as the rest of Holly Golightly’s glamorous wardrobe was famously designed by Hubert de Givenchy. Audrey however beautifully captured the essence of her character and that particular casual look: “The real girl comes alive in the blue jeans. Every woman is an actress in a Paris gown”. Holly Golightly’s true self does come to light in that sequence.

Beyond the intentional character interchangeability, the look-alike between John Robie and Danielle reveals something much more complex: Danielle’s fascination and infatuation with Robie. It also symbolizes an issue of connection with her desires: it goes beyond Danielle’s wish to become romantically involved with John Robie; it’s an aspiration to move upward, to be entitled to the riches he has basked in and the social acceptance he has been privileged with despite his having once been a thief. “What do you think of that word, “affluence”?, she asks when they’re escaping the police by boat. “It means wealth. […] Imagining you in your expensive villa, enjoying life, while we work like idiots for a loaf of bread.” Stripes become the universal binder, regardless of class and culture. It’s a representation of how clothing can disguise the complex notion of the self that goes beyond appearance and one of the greatest devices of mistaken identity deployed by Hitchcock in his films.

The Festival de Cannes is underway and this year also marks the 70th anniversary of To Catch a Thief. Two more reasons to celebrate and review this Hitchcock classic.

Brigitte Auber and Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”, 1955. Paramount Pictures