To Catch a Thief

This Hitchcock movie is not about suspense. It is about Grace Kelly, Cary Grant and the French Riviera. If you don't worry about the plot and just watch THEM, you will enjoy it immensely. Hitchcock went through what I call his "travelogue phase" which consisted of Dial M for Murder (London), Vertigo (San Francisco), North by Northwest (Mount Rushmore), and, here, The French Riviera. I consider this phase the time of his masterworks (before he became fixated on the macabre) and although this particular movie is the most insipid of the lot, it is his finest travelogue. For Americans of this period, the mention of Europe must have invoked black and white images of war. Not here!! One really wishes he could take a time machine back to this gloriously beautiful time and place. A movie that can enjoyably be watched time and again. However, I do agree with others that Grant was somewhat miscast as a thief -- even a high-class one.

This film, "disappointing"? Who is that reviewer kidding? No female would ever say that. This film is escapism at its finest, and what, pray tell, is wrong with escapism in this ever-more-dreary and stressful world? I don't CARE that this isn't a serious acting effort on Cary Grant's behalf; I don't CARE that the plot is telescoped. What I DO care about is the fantasy of it all: the beauty of the two stars, their clothing, the surroundings, the sets, and the way this movie just takes a (female) viewer away to a place and time that she will never have experienced but would love to experience: the South of France in the '50s; healthy, witty people with unlimited funds; sunshine, flowers, villas; amusing intrigue involving stolen jewels; the sparkle of the Mediterranean. And that gaspingly gorgeous costume ball! Wow! Please. This is a frothy and fabulous dreamscape like no other. After a very stressful day, to lie down with a glass of chilled champagne and watch Cary Grant and Grace Kelly cavort on the French Riviera is the most sublime thing one could do. I know more than a few females who honestly could not have withstood their lives without the escape this film provides. Thank you Mr. Hitchcock! You have performed a great, great service!

The best thing about this film is the chemistry between leads Grant and Kelly. Grant is as debonair as usual and Kelly was never more glamorous. The costumes she wears are very flattering to her and she is to the clothes. The dialogue between them sparkles throughout and is a pleasure to watch even if the course of their relationship is predictable. Grant's self-deprecating in-jokes are another nice touch. Further pleasantly adding to the fantasy ambience is the spectacular photography of the French riviera. John Williams is also great as the insurance investigator, the type of character he played in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (also with Kelly) and in the Doris Day-Rex Harrison film, Midnight Lace. This film is not one of the most psychologically involving in Hitchcock's pantheon but it is not designed to be. It is enjoyed best as what it was produced to be: glossy high production value escapist fare. 8/10.

There is much to like about Hitchcock's TO CATCH A THIEF: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly at the height of their appeal, a witty script that offers Jessie Royce Landis one of the funniest roles ever seen in any Hitchcock film, and excellent cinematography designed to show off the beauties of Monte Carlo--all packaged in a lightweight tale that is two parts romance, two parts travelogue, one part comedy, and just enough classic Hitchcock suspense to keep this lighter-than-air confection from flying apart.

The well known story concerns a string of jewel robberies along the Riviera which lead local officials to suspect that a famous and long retired cat burglar (Grant) is once more on the prowl--but rather than hope the authorities will find the real culprit Grant elects to protect himself by unmasking the thief for himself. In the process he encounters an icy beauty (Kelly) who takes considerable pleasure in tantalizing him with her charms, her jewels, and her knowledge of his criminal past, and her mother (Landis), who is perhaps the best of the "clever matrons" to appear in any Hitchcock film. As the police close in, the three of them devise a plot to expose the thief and clear Grant, with whom Kelly has now fallen in love.

Unlike most Hitchcock's most famous films, TO CATCH A THIEF offers nothing dark to trouble our thoughts, and it is perhaps best regarded as a romantic fantasia, the director's vacation from his more typical material. While it will never compete with the more famous VERTIGO and REAR WINDOW of the same period, it is extremely well done and quite a bit of fun to watch. Viewers seeking a pleasant film with a romantic touch will enjoy it a great deal.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A bit of a departure for Alfred Hitchcock, somewhat lighter and with less of the trademark suspense. Thoroughly enjoyable, though. Cary Grant was playing Cary Grant by this time, and no one could do it better. And Grace Kelly, what eye-candy! The snappy dialog with the sexual innuendo was done perfectly. And huge kudos to Brigitte Auber, who was gorgeous and very good. An interesting aside was that Grant's character, while pretending to be someone else, claimed to have been an American circus acrobat, which Grant sort of was early in life (albeit English, not American.) Grant (with his accent) could really never be mistaken for an American, even though he usually played one. Also it was a little eerie to see Grace Kelly driving so fast on those French Riviera cliffside roads, in light of what happened to her later. (Of course, she obviously wasn't doing so, they were using back-projection) Anyway, this film is a must for fans of Hitchcock, Kelly or Grant. Grade: A