"The Angle" On Arbogast and on Bertani (in To Catch A Thief)

One of the pleasures of watching a Hitchcock movie is WATCHING a Hitchcock movie.

Its not just the "big things" -- like the Bates Mansion viewed from outside in Psycho or Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest. Or the "big scenes" like the shower or the crop duster.

It can be the smaller moments, too.

Consider in Psycho when Arbogast first arrives at Sam Loomis Hardware store. The emphasis is on his head and face at first -- materializing out of nowhere and studying Sam and Lila from the window; entering the store and literally ramming his face in close-up right into the camera(Scorsese would give DeNiro a similar shot early on in Cape Fear.)

But once Hitchcock gets Arbogast into the room and with Sam and Lila, Hitch first elects to hold the three of them together in a medium shot ("Where is she, Miss Crane?" "I don't know you" "Oh I know you don't, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to follow you") but then on Sam's "what's your interest in this?"...

Arbogast crosses the room and leans back against the counter of the hardware store("Weellll...forty thousand dollars."). Full medium shot, but Hitchcock's ANGLE is low. Arbogast has a raincoat(never used) over one arm, and joins his hands together and just "leans back" comfortably against the counter, watching Sam and Lila talk and argue, darting in occasionally to ask a question or make a comment.

This shot is the essence of Hitchcock to me. Its a COOL shot, and establishes that Arbogast is a COOL man. As a guy, I want to hang with this guy Arbogast. I like his style...placing himself away and apart from Sam and Lila, expressing the right thoughts(but he's wrong). Watching.

Arbogast is a cool guy, but Hitchcock's shot has ATTITUDE. Watch this guy.

The best exchange when Arbogast is in this position is this one:

Arbogast: Miss Crane, can I ask you a question? Did you come up here on just a hunch?
Lila: Not even a hunch. Just hope.
Arbogast: Well, with a little checking, I COULD get to believe you.
Lila: (Angrily, with contempt.) I don't care if you believe me or not. I just want to see Marion before she gets herself in this too deeply.

Its like a quick few shots exchanged in a tennis match...and then Lila brings down an overhead smash("I don't care if you believe me or not") and Hitchcock does a smart, quick cut to Arbogast, his tough guy routine a bit deflated, shrugging and backing off. Its a small, smart laugh.

Eventually, Arbogast leaves his position at the counter and rejoins Sam and Lila to utter his final lines and leave the scene ("She's here , in this town, somewhere. I'll find her.") But our memories of "Cool Arbogast leaning back at the counter" set that character's course for the entire film. Eventually, Arbogast CANNOT just lean back and observe the action. He will be PART of the action, and he will die.

--

I was watching To Catch a Thief the other night. So great in such a different way than Psycho. French Riviera locations, gorgeous colors(Oscar winning cinematography), little violence, a glamourous tale about people as rich as the ones in Psycho are struggling.

But early on, a cool Cary Grant goes into the kitchen and back office of a restaurant to have a little expository conversation with a man named Bertaini(Charles Vanel) a Frenchman who once fought in the French Resistance with Grant but also ran a gang of thieves(now working in the restaurant kitchen.)

Bertani is not going to be as compelling a character as Arbogast -- he won't get killed -- and his villainy, such as it is, is largely talked about and offscreen.

But hey...Hitchcock's ANGLE on Bertani in this scene. Low in medium shots -- Bertani at his desk, Bertani circling around to sit in a chair. Though Cary Grant -- also shot from low, interesting angles - is the star of the movie and the scene, Bertaini functions as a "suave counterweight" to Grant, and it is largely because Bertani gets "the Arbogast treatment" -- though, clearly, Bertani got it FIRST. Hitchcock just continued the tradition five years later when Psycho and Arbogast came along.

And that's one of the reasons why BOTH Psycho AND To Catch a Thief are a pleasure to watch, and to "hang with." Fine actors, nicely filmed and angled by the director, Mr. Hitchcock.

PS. On the downside, Charles Vanel as Bertani is dubbed, so he is never quite as believable as Arbogast. Hitchcock cast Vanel out of The Wages of Fear( a movie Hitch wished he had made) but Vanel couldn't master English well enough.