Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Watch us on Youtube Join the Archive Mailing List Read our Blog

Roman Holiday (1953); To Catch a Thief (1955)

To Catch a Thief (1955)
August 24, 2014 - 7:00 pm
In-person: 
Paddy Calistro, co-author (with Edith Head), "Edith Head's Hollywood."

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Directed by William Wyler. 

Audrey Hepburn’s princess, weary of tedious diplomatic duties during a visit to Rome, joyfully tours the city incognito with her newfound “friend” (Gregory Peck), an undercover reporter.  Capitalizing on the dramatic situation and the demands of location shooting, Edith Head designed tastefully understated clothes that established willowy Hepburn as an international fashion icon in an age that privileged curvaceous figures.

Paramount Pictures Corp. Producer: William Wyler. Based on a story by Dalton Trumbo. Screenwriter: Dalton Trumbo, John Dighton. Cinematographer: Henri Alekan. Editor: Robert Swink. Costume Designer: Edith Head. Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams.

35mm, b/w, 118 min.

Watch the trailer below:

Print courtesy of the ConstellationCenter Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 

By all accounts costume designer Edith Head’s favorite project, this story of a reformed jewel thief implicated in a series of robberies on the French Riviera afforded ample opportunity for “costume-as-dialogue,” as wealthy socialite Grace Kelly pursues glamorous, reformed, jewel thief Cary Grant.  Masquerading, flirting, concealing and revealing make up the very vernacular of this stylish romp.

Paramount Pictures Corp. Producer: Alfred Hitchcock. Based on the novel by David Dodge. Screenwriter: John Mitchell Hayes. Cinematographer: Robert Burks. Editor: George Tomasini. Costume Designer: Edith Head. Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel.

35mm, color, 103 min.

Watch the trailer below: