To Catch A Thief Director: Alfred Hitchcock (1955)
“Why did I take up stealing? To live better, to own things I couldn’t afford, to acquire this good taste which you now enjoy and which I should be very reluctant to give up.”
★★★★★
Hitchcock at his most playful, To Catch A Thief is a joy to watch. I have yet to meet a Hitchcock film of poor quality. To Catch A Thief tells the story of a retired jewel thief who is forced out of hiding to capture an impersonator who is framing him. Shot in the beautiful and luxurious French Riviera, this film stars Cary Grant (in his penultimate Hitchcock film followed only by North By Northwest) as John Robie, a long-retired jewel thief who was once notoriously known as “The Cat.” He was pardoned of his criminal activity due to his work with the French Resistance. Robie now lives in retirement growing grapes and flowers from a villa atop the Mediterranean hillsides overlooking the French coastline. However, he is brought under suspicion when a series of robberies matching his signature style surfaces in France. To investigate, he pays a visit to his old gang, now working at a restaurant in France, but the police chase him on this misadventure. Robie narrowly escapes with the help from the daughter of one of his former gang members, Danielle (played by Brigitte Auber, a French actress).
Robie’s plan is to lay a trap for the new “Cat” burglar in order to prove his own innocence. He receives help from a local insurance agent who helps Robie identify all the people staying along the French Riviera who are also carrying expensive jewelry. Robie takes on an alias as a lumberman from Oregon and he quickly befriends a wealthy woman named Jessie Stevens (played by Jesse Royce Landis, who also played the roll of Cary Grant’s mother in North By Northwest) and her beautiful daughter, Frances, or “Francie” (played by Grace Kelly in her third and final role in a Hitchcock film). Frances and Robie strike up a romance and she discovers his secret past. One night while she seduces him, her mother’s prized jewels are in explicably stolen and Robie is blamed. Racing against the clock, Robie discovers the true culprit on the roof during the night of a masquerade ball –it is none other than Danielle, daughter of Robie’s former associate.
Grace Kelly gives a stunning performance, bolstered by several costumes designed by Edith Head. Interestingly enough, Truffaut once called To Catch A Thief one of Hitchcock’s most cynical films –a quirky comedy that refuses to take itself too seriously. At age 50, Cary Grant was slowing down and planning to retire (much like John Robie in the film) but Hitchcock convinced him to play this part. Robie is a thief who falls in love with a bored but wealthy heiress who wants to help him steal jewels for cheap thrills –there is very little moral difference between a thief and an heiress. Their romance is filled with one cheeky innuendo after another, but it is Grace Kelly who steals the show, along with Hitchcock’s favorite cinematographer, Robert Burkes, who elegantly captures the beauty of the French Riviera.
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Credits:
- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Screenplay by: John Michael Hayes
- Based on: To Catch a Thief by David Dodge
- Produced by: Alfred Hitchcock
- Starring:
- Cary Grant…..John Robie (“The Cat”)
- Grace Kelly…..Frances Stevens
- Jessie Royce Landis…..Jessie Stevens
- John Williams…..H. H. Hughson
- Cinematography: Robert Burks
- Edited by: George Tomasini
- Music by: Lyn Murray
- Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Other Notes:
- Hitchcock Cameo: Alfred Hitchcock makes his signature cameo approximately ten minutes into the film. He appears as a bus passenger sitting next to Cary Grant and a caged pair of birds.