Vera Miles, James Mason, and George Sanders in "A Touch of Larceny"(1960-Not OT)

Here's one of those examples about how Psycho -- and Hitchcock -- can rather "infect" other movies having to do with neither.

I was skimming cable the other night, lighted on TCM and found this movie just starting. I watched it out of a certain "nostalgic curiosity" -- for the year, the era...and the actors of course.

"A Touch of Larceny" has both release dates of 1959(the year of North by Northwest) and 1960(the year of Psycho.) The 1959 release was evidently in the UK at the end of the year; the 1960 release was in America, early in the year. And it has one star from North by Northwest(James Mason) and one star of Psycho(Vera Miles.) And they look and sound VERY MUCH as they do in NXNW and Psycho -- Mason in particular says certain lines with exactly the same cadences he uses on lines in NXNW, one realizes how an actor "fits the lines to his speaking style."

But there is this difference: In " A Touch of Larceny," Vera Miles is done up (hair style, lipstick, eye make-up) and costumed to a glamourous "T." She's not dowdy Lila Crane(however pretty Lila was, because she was Vera Miles) and she doesn't have that tight Lila Crane hairstyle (which, we know now, was a wig, because Vera had had a butch/shaved haircut in Five Branded Women, ANOTHER 1960 acting job for hard-working Vera.)

In the glamourous Vera Miles of A Touch of Larceny, I think we can see how she would have looked as Madeleine had she made Vertigo as Hitchcock intended. Though not necessarily. I always found that Hitchcock tended to "formalize" his beauties with somewhat too old-fashioned, too formal hairstyles. Take a look at Kim Novak, Vera Miles, and Janet Leigh in movies OTHER than their Hitchcock films of the time. Much more modern and relaxed glamour looks(Tippi Hedren,too, in her commercial and in her screen test for Hitch.) Its like Hitchcock turned his sexy babes into matrons(with the exception during this time, I would say, of Eva Marie Saint.)

So anyway, in the opening scene of "A Touch of Larceny" -- filmed in black and white and therefore feeling more like Psycho than NXNW -- James Mason, Vera Miles and a third notable Hitchcock veteran , George Sanders (Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent), share a scene and THIS Hitchcock fan took in all the possibilities for study.

One is this: I always felt that if James Mason had not done Vandamm, George Sanders would be a great substitute. A Touch of Larceny lets the two men have at it with their great VOICES,and Sanders actually wins in terms of baritone richness. Sanders is also considerably taller than Mason, and more strapping -- in A Touch of Larceny, James Mason actually comes off as rather spindly and slight of build.

But this: in 1959/1960, James Mason was a bigger star than George Sanders. Its hard to determine how these things happen. Mason was younger, and had landed the lead in A Star is Born, and subsequent leads in movies like "Bigger Than Life" and "Cry Terror." Sanders had been more willing to take supporting roles -- after all, his All About Eve win was Best Supporting Actor.

And so, one watches A Touch of Larceny and realizes: James Mason was a starrier actor for Vandamm than George Sanders would have been, even as Sanders was perhaps more formidable in size and voice than Mason.

But back to Vera Miles: this "Touch of Larceny" role is about as glamourous and NICE as I've seen Vera Miles play. From Lila Crane on, Miles always seemed to have a prim, angry toughness to her that mitigated her beauty -- she rarely played a woman that a man would want to pursue into the bedroom.

Except in "A Touch of Larceny," where Miles DOES play such a woman and, alas, I found her rather lacking in trying to do so.

In short, I didn't see Vera Miles as an accessible glamour queen even as she was PLAYING an accessible glamour queen here. And that was a revelation.

The plot of "A Touch of Larceny" starts interesting and sexy...and then devolves down to practically nothing of interest. I found THAT interesting...here is a great example of the "typical 1960 movie." A story is told of moderate interest. There is romance. There is a little comedy. There is a touch of caper. There are no set-pieces or action or murder or violence. Nothing much happens. Its pretty boring, really...and movies like this were put into British and US theaters ALL THE TIME in 1960.

To look at "A Touch of Larceny" is to realize just what a world-shaker Psycho was in 1960 -- stuff HAPPENS in Psycho, a LOT of stuff. To look at "A Touch of Larceny" also allows one to see the value of being in a great Hitchcock film, period. James Mason is the star of "A Touch of Larceny," but as the villain of NXNW(and off screen for long stretches), he really got to be in a much more memorable movie. And stuff HAPPENS in NXNW, too.