Prince Albert II of Monaco paid tribute on Tuesday evening to his mother Grace Kelly for the 40th anniversary of her disappearance by attending the screening of The Hand at the Collar, filmed in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock. A hundred spectators attended this session to which the current sovereign of the Principality had been invited by the city of Nice.
The Hand at the Collar was produced for the most part on the Côte d’Azur in 1954. The costume ball for the final scene was shot in the Victorine studios in Nice, which lent the armchairs used by Grace to the Cinémathèque for the occasion. Kelly, Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock during filming.
“Not everyone necessarily knows the actress”
“My mother is lovely in this film, to put it mildly, and then there are superb images that evoke Monaco and the Côte d’Azur, and it’s also a great story”explained after the session Prince Albert, who had himself chosen to review this feature film, confiding that he had so far “seen more times The train will whistle three times”.
“The role she was most proud of was perhaps the one she played in A Country Girl, where she was perhaps less expected”, also indicated Albert II to the public. This role earned Grace Kelly an Oscar in Hollywood.
“Everyone knows the Princess of Monaco by heart but not everyone necessarily knows the actress, so I wanted the Nice cinematheque to pay tribute to the Princess of Hollywood”said the writer and journalist Henry-Jean Servat, also assistant to the cinema at the city of Nice.
Eleven films shot in five years
The eleven films featuring Grace Kelly were shot in the space of five years, between 1951 and 1956, before the latter, who became Princess of Monaco following her marriage to Prince Rainier, stopped all collaboration with the movie theater.
Other film proposals were made to her after her marriage, notably from Alfred Hitchcock for his thriller No Spring for Marnie. “She wanted this adventure but in the end reason prevailed”explained Prince Albert.
Prince Albert lent himself to the game of photographers by posing in front of these pieces presented in the hall of the cinematheque for the occasion. They are carefully kept in the props store of these film studios that the city of Nice, which took them under management, is trying to revive.