Yesterday's post made me think a bit more about the appeal of Grace Kelly.

Conspiracy theories abound about Princesses and Grace is no exception: did she not realise she would have to give up acting when she married Prince Rainier? did her family pay a $2 million dowry? who was driving when she had the fatal car accident?


She was much loved, though: closeknit newly rich family; paired with many of her leading men (not James Stewart, though); long marriage and close times with her family in both Monaco and America.

I'm not sure she was really in enough movies to be able to say if she simply acted how she was herself.


In Rear Window she's stylish and beautiful, a glamourous foil to Stewart's doldrums. But she's also open and loving, in one scene she is comfortably in Stewart's arms, curled up on his broken leg and wheelchair; in another she produces a gorgeous nightgown from the tiniest case, clear that she is going to stay the night. She also places herself in the most dangerous situations, not a woman that NEEDS Stewart, but who chooses to be with him.


I love this dress Kelly wears in the climactic scene - rich and sunny, poised and delicate. I think I'm going to get out my pearls again...