I was revisiting an old favorite, Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief, when it occurred to me that the kitchen scenes in the French restaurant were more than a little familiar. Another film favorite of mine, Pixar's Ratatouille instantly sprang to mind. It appears to me that Pixar was scrutinizing Hitchcock's film while creating theirs.
And then another interesting possibility came to mind.
The French maitre d' with that incredibly pronounced "forelock," actually an entire streak of white hair…COULD THIS CHARACTER HAVE BEEN THE INSPIRATION FOR WARNER BROS. "PEPE LE PEW"???
Maybe it's the other way around. Perhaps the make-up artist/hair stylist did this as a deliberate homage to Pepe. By the way, I also seem to recall that there was a brief restaurant kitchen scene in I Confess.
Doc, given Hitchcock's macabre sense of humor, it is altogether fitting that he may have found it funny for a maitre d' to look like a skunk! He certainly ate at fine restaurants on a regular basis. It might be his comment on maitre d's in general!
