Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941) and the 2005 version starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie share little beyond their title and the concept of a married couple. Hitchcock’s film is a screwball comedy centered on a married couple navigating a personal crisis when they learn their marriage may not be legally valid. The plot revolves around misunderstandings and quirky, light-hearted conflicts, typical of the era’s romantic comedies.

On the other hand, the 2005 version, while also about a married couple, transforms the narrative into a high-octane action film where the spouses discover they are both secret assassins working for rival agencies. While the comedic aspect is still present, the Jolie-Pitt version is driven by action, espionage, and marital tension wrapped in a much darker, modern context.

In terms of themes, the 2005 film reflects on the tension of dual identities and the breakdown of trust within a marriage, concepts only lightly touched upon in Hitchcock’s version. However, the modern film’s exploration of domesticity in the context of professional secrecy could be seen as an amplified, action-packed version of the marital misunderstandings in Hitchcock’s work, though the tone and stakes are entirely different.

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