Ultimate Catch
To Catch a Thief (Paramount Home Video, 3.6) “looks marvelous on dual-layered Blu-ray. Everything tightens-up impressively and the contrast takes notable strides in the 1080p resolution. Colors also appear to improve with better balance in the presentation that has more than 4X the bitrate of the last SD transfer. A fair dusting of grain, no disturbing noise, no signs of digital manipulation. By far the best viewing I’ve ever had of this film. Beautiful.” — DVD Beaver‘s Gary Tooze.
I’ve always thought this was a delightful if somewhat lesser hitch film. I love all of the scenes with the French actress. And the funeral scene where Grant physically pushes people to walk away through the crowd always strikes me as one of the most forceful of his. I’ve seen this probably more than some of his greater works.
But…but…IT’S 1.85!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert Burks’ remarkable cinematography for To Catch a Thief, alternating between deep-shadowed hotel rooms and sun-kissed beaches, is so vivid, it appears more 3-D-like than his actual stereoscopic work, including Dial M for Murder and Hondo.
Shot in VistaVision, 1.85 (or more precisely 1.78 to 1) is totally fine, way it should be, etc.
Hitchcock surely knew audiences of the future would be watching this film on 4:3 television sets, clearly the appropriate way to watch this is at 1.33:1 with all that ugly extraneous information cropped off the sides
Paramount have committed artistic vandalism by leaving out all the lovely headroom in the original 1.5:1 version, the 1.85:1 fascists are at it again
I was happy to read this morning that STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is scheduled to hit Blu fairly soon. Hitch never gets old.
You can’t know how refreshing it was to go below the jump and NOT see Jeff adding some arbitrary “but” relative to why he thought it was gonna SUCK anyway. Nice. As Rocket J. Squirrel might put it, “Here’s something we’ll all really like!”
I’ve never seen this – I’m lagging on Hitch’s 50′s output, also still have yet to see THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, I CONFESS, and THE WRONG MAN. I’ve got a nice two evening’s worth of double feature in store. I’ll probably watch two of those instead of the Oscars.
“Lovers of the cinema, especially aficionados of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, are especially fortunate that To Catch a Thief, probably the singularly most beautiful film in the Hitchcock Canon, was shot on the earliest incarnation of Kodak’s 5248 emulsion…
and in VistaVision.
Because of the early 5248 stock, dye fade is far less a problem that several years later, and as to VistaVision.
Just take a look.
The color, densities and sheer brilliance of image as captured by cinematographer Robert Burks is once again as astounding as it was in 1955.
Decades ago, before there was that thing called “home video,” I had a 16mm dye transfer print of TCaT, and the overall look and textures of this new Blu-ray from Paramount reasonably accurately mimic that print, down to the rather odd cyan-green day-for-night shots, which are correct.
Grain on this release is virtually nonexistent. Jeff Wells over at Hollywood-Elsewhere will love it. The image, aside from a couple of bumpy dissolves, is extremely stable. Main Title sequence should have more of a gold metallic look to the lettering, but we’ll excuse that.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m extremely jealous of those seeing certain films for the first time. You can only do it once.
And this is one of those times. Have I spoken of color?
Wait until you see the final gala sequence. And keep in mind that this is only the second generation Kodak tri-pack negative stock, replacing 5247 — the first 5247. Kodak has an odd way of using the same numbers of totally different stocks.
I’ll leave it to the HTF reviewer to give you a few details as to plot, but suffice to say that Paramount has pulled a rabbit out of a hat with this one. I believe the image harvest was performed several years ago, and previously used for the SD version, but no matter.
To Catch a Thief on Blu-ray is about as stunning as a Blu-ray from this (or any) era will get. Barred none.
Stars?
Image 4 1/2
Audio 5
One of the great classics of the ’50s, and prime Hitchcock.
Very Highly Recommended.
RAH”
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/318618/a-few-words-about-to-catch-a-thief-in-blu-ray
Just preordered this. Screen caps looks beautiful.
Burks won Oscar, one of the most deserved ever. One of my ten favorite films. Everything about it is sublime.
Burks and James Wong Howe, two sides of the same coin, genius of lighting both. Still I disagree that this is ‘not great’ Hitchcock.
First of all, ‘not great’ Hitchcock is better than great almost anybody else doing thrillers, anytime.
What seems to us as ‘not great’ is because Hitchcock is the most copied director in the world. (Fellini a close second, John Ford, too, once before) Of course Hitch’s tricks look old on Hitch’s own movies. We keep seeing them everywhere else!
Burks’ work here is, believe it or not, not garish at all but very subtle. It is the artist in him that makes the very old, surrealistically dense color film work best for the movie he is shooting. How gorgeous it looks is not the work of Kodak. That’s only a tool. It is all Burks.
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