That Wasn’t Cary

I was surprised to find that Malcolm Johnson could make such an incredible faux pas in an otherwise excellent article (“Hollywood Revs Up Its Love Affair With Fast Cars,” June 26). He cites several examples of films that have used wild rides to create suspense, notably some of Alfred Hitchcock’s best ones “with Cary Grant at the wheel.”

In “To Catch a Thief,” he has the totally wrong person in the driver’s seat! It’s not Cary at all but the beautiful and headstrong Grace Kelly who has Cary baring white knuckles as she careens down the steep and curving roads above Monaco--with the police chasing her!

If he wanted to include another Cary wild ride, all he has to do is look to “North by Northwest,” where he is captured by the bad guys, forcibly fed liquor until he is completely drunk and then shoved into the driver’s seat alone and left to navigate a dark, twisting mountain road.

Of course, he makes it! Otherwise there would have been no movie at all.

MARILYN LESTER

Alhambra