Don't Burn Up All the Fireworks, John: To Catch a Thief

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Alfred Hitchcock makes what amounts to a change of pace from his normal nail biter, in his expertly photographed suspense thriller of a jewel thief whose hunting ground is the French Riviera in To Catch a Thief.

Cary Grant (Gunga Din) is the protagonist whom everybody thinks is "the Cat," because that's what he was; a cat burglar famed for doing second story work. But he was caught and paid his debt to society fighting in the French Resistance in WWII. Now, somebody is stealing rich dowagers' jewels and everybody suspects Cary is up to his old tricks. Cary, rather than making himself scarce as a wise man might do, decides it is in his best interest to catch the thief in the act.

Grace Kelly is the foil for Grant, and she is every bit as beautiful as she ever was, however, this is basically a love fest between Cary and Grace with very little dramatic tension but plenty of sexual. Her role seems more to model the many fashions and hairstyles they adorn her with than to do a serious job with the lightweight script. Ditto for Grant, who looks dead into the camera a couple times with a perturbed look on his face, seemingly sharing his frustration with the audience.

This movie is not about a cat burglar or suspense but about the two of them, and, I would hazard, Alfred Hitchcock's preoccupation with boobs. Lots of shots of those fabulous diamond necklaces are carefully framed to emphasize the curves and cleavage of the various actresses - or else I'm just a pervert. You'll have to watch it with that in mind and decide for yourself.

The real star of the movie is the French Riviera and it is spectacularly photographed by cinematographer Robert Burks, who got an Oscar for his work here. Hitchcock's "fussy" direction with the precise cuts and background projection behind studio action sequences, and typical over-the-shoulder conversation shots that don't quite match up, seem jarring and are not as attractive here as the spellbinding location shots of the Riviera.

As luck would have it, 27 years later Grace Kelly was killed on the very same road where she is shown driving recklessly and scaring the bejeebers out of Cary Grant; all done in the studio, as was the norm with Hitchcock, with the car on gimbals and background projection of the curvy road, but still sort of gives me the willies, anyway.

Hitchcock does his cameo about ten minutes in and he uses John Williams, familiar in several Hitchcocks, like Dial M for Murder.

The script really doesn't have that much suspense in it and I think Hitch was really just trying to bring us a view of two beautiful people falling in love in a spectacular setting. "To Catch a Thief" could mean actually catch him stealing or to catch him by Grace Kelly's character. Cary Grant was 50 and Grace Kelly was 24, in keeping with Hollywood's tradition of these older guys getting all the young chicks. Cary, I noted, is not quite as dapper looking as he usually is, which I attribute to the lightweight script, which was probably frustrating for a fine actor. He just didn't seem as sharp or engaged as he usually did. Grace Kelly, of course, only had to look beautiful and she did a fine job of that. While filming, she met Prince Rainier of Monaco and soon dropped out of pictures. To Catch a Thief was her last Hitchcock.

The Paramount DVD runs 106 minutes, in superb color, and presented in 1.85:1 theatrical format. There are several featurettes, including a "making of;" one on Edith Head costuming; Writing and Casting; and Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief; subtitles, English and French audio; and the theatrical trailer.

You won't find more beautiful footage of Southern France than this.

More Hitchcocks featuring the beautiful Grace Kelly -

Dial M for Murder
Rear Window