To Catch a Thief

Plot synopsis:
John Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired infamous jewel thief or "cat burglar", nicknamed "The Cat", who now lives in a hilltop villa in the French Riviera growing grapes and flowers. The modus operandi of a recent series of robberies leads the police to believe that Robie is active again; they attempt to arrest him, but he gives them the slip.
Robie visits a restaurant. The staff are his old gang from his French Resistance days, paroled based on patriotic war work as long as they keep clean. Bertani, Foussard, and the others blame Robie, because they are currently all under suspicion while the new Cat is active. Still, when the police arrive at Bertani's restaurant, Foussard's teenage daughter Danielle (Brigitte Auber), who has a crush on Robie, spirits him to safety.
Robie can prove his innocence if he can catch the new Cat in the act. He enlists the aid of an insurance man, H. H. Hughson (John Williams), who reluctantly obtains a list of the most expensive jewelry owners currently on the Riviera. Widow Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her daughter Frances (Grace Kelly) top the list. Robie strikes up a friendship with them. Jessie's delighted but Frances offers a pretense of modesty. When Robie and Frances run into Danielle at the beach, Robie keeps up the mask of being a wealthy American tourist, despite Danielle's jealous barbs about his interest in Frances.
Frances sees through Robie's cover as an American industrialist. She seduces him, dangling before him her jewels, teases him with steamy tales of rooftop escapades, and offers herself as an accomplice who might share his crimes. Fireworks fill the night sky.
The next morning, Jessie discovers her jewels are gone. Robie is accused by Frances of being merely a distraction so he could steal her mother's jewelry. The police are called, but Robie has disappeared.
To catch the new Cat, Robie stakes out an estate at night. He struggles with an attacker, who loses his footing and tumbles over a cliff. It is Foussard, who dies in the fall. The police chief publicly announces that Foussard was the jewel thief, but, as Robie points out privately in the presence of the abashed Hughson, this would have been impossible because Foussard had a wooden leg, and could not climb on rooftops.
Foussard's funeral is marred by Danielle's loud accusation that Robie is responsible for her father's death. Outside the graveyard, Frances apologizes to Robie and confesses her love. Robie needs to continue his search for the Cat. He asks Frances to arrange his attendance at the masquerade ball the coming weekend, when he believes the Cat will strike again.
At the ball, Frances is resplendent in a gold gown, Robie unrecognizable behind the mask of a Moor. The police hover nearby. Upstairs, the cat burglar silently cleans out several jewel boxes. When Jessie asks the Moor to go get her "heart pills", Robie's voice tips off his identity to the authorities. Upon his return, the police wait out Frances and the Moor as they dance together all night. Finally, Frances and the Moor go to her room, and the mask is removed: it was Hughson, a switch to conceal Robie's exit.
On the rooftop Robie lurks. His patience is finally rewarded when he is joined by another figure in black. But just as his pursuit begins, the police throw a spotlight on him and demand he halt. He flees as they shoot at him, but he manages to corner his foe with jewels in hand. Unmasked, his nemesis turns out to be Foussard's daughter, Danielle. She slips off the roof, but Robie grabs her hand before she can fall. He forces her to confess loudly to the police of the father-daughter involvement, and that Bertani was the ringleader of this gang.
Robie speeds back to his villa, and Frances races after to convince him that she has a place in his life and home. He agrees, but looks less than thrilled when she says, "Mother will love it up here."

Tags: murder, atmospheric

Review:
Enjoyable and riveting comedy-thriller by master of suspense , the great Alfred Hitchcock .On the French Riviera a retired jewel thief nicknamed ¨The Cat¨ (Gary Grant) falling for a gorgeous American girl (Grace Kelly), a high society woman accompanied by her mother (Jessie Royce Landis) , she suspects he's up to his old jobs when a rash of jewel thefts happen.
This seems to be an excuse for bringing together John and Frances, a beautiful and elegant woman who makes a point to show how much she hates having even a conversation with Robie, who will display all his charm and ultimately win her over.The best asset in the film is the elegant and ravishing Grace Kelly, at the height of her beauty.
Ms. Kelly, dressed by the incomparable Edith Head shows an innate elegance and a great flair to carry clothes in such a wonderful manner.Cary Grant, as John Robie, was at his best portraying the debonair former jewelry thief, a man with a past that had not committed a robbery for many years now, but whose fame preceded him everywhere.
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.
Robie is innocent of course (we are led to believe) and to prove his innocence he is motivated to find the real thief.Grace Kelly plays Frances Stevens, the slightly naughty nouveau riche daughter of the widow of a Texas-style oil millionaire.
It is interesting to note that by this time Cary Grant (51 when the film was released) had become such a heart throb that directors liked to have the women (who were always noticeably younger; Kelly was 26) chase after him.
Hitch makes his de rigueur appearance as a passenger on the mini-bus that Robie takes to get away from the gendarmes early in the film.See this for Grace Kelly whose cool and playful demeanor and statuesque beauty form the heart of this somewhat languid romantic thriller.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
But the color photography which won an Oscar of the French Riviera is breathtaking and Cary Grant and Grace Kelly play the whole thing with such style that you really don't care.My favorite in the film is Jessie Royce Landis who is Kelly's mother.
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.
In between his suspense masterpieces,Alfred Hitchcock sometimes liked to work on less intense projects,and this is one of them.There isn't much opportunities for palm-sweating tension or balletically-composed thrills as you'd expect from old Hitch,but in TO CATCH A THIEF this seems quite deliberate.The intention from the very start is partaking in a light comedy-thriller,and on this level it is very enjoyable.And accomplished performers such as Cary Grant,Grace Kelly,Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams further help to give it further resonance and quality.The one disappointment in the film is it's slow pace.There are some parts in the film that drag and produce lethargy,but the beautiful locations,photography and cast save it,including a witty and sometimes surprisingly risqué script which caused some concern from censors at the time.Grant and Kelly rank as one of the best romantic couples ever on screen,and rub genuine sparks off each other.Even at 50 years old,Grant is as handsome,if not more handsome,than he ever was previously,and also looks amazingly lithe,agile and fit,as befits a retired cat burglar,and despite being almost double Grace Kelly's age,is wholly convincing as her suitor.Grace herself never looked more alluring and ravishing,and Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams provide fine support.Williams himself is barely a year older than Grant,yet you wouldn't suspect that at all when they're together on screen,and how ludicrous it is compared to Grant when towards the film's end Kelly puts a relieved head on his shoulder(even Williams himself seems embarrassed!).Such is Grant's eternal youthfulness that Miss Landis played his mother in the superior NORTH BY NORTHWEST(1959);the fact is she's a few months younger than Cary!
There's a well-known tragic coda to the film;the later titled Princess Grace of Monaco lost her life in a car accident on the very same stretches of road that Hitchcock filmed a chase sequence,but barring this sad fact TO CATCH A THIEF is still very decent Hitchcock,not great Hitchcock.But very decent Hitchcock is still far better than 95% of other directors,so there's no problem in watching and enjoying this film..
I would have given it 7 out of 10, but the incredible visuals of the French Riviera increased my rating.This movie doesn't measure up to some of Hitchcock's other movies, "To Catch a Thief" is good light entertainment, but the story was simple and I found the ending somewhat lacking in depth compared to "Rear Window", or "Vertigo".Cary Grant, as "The Cat", is a reformed jewel thief trying to go clean, and Grace Kelly, as an American fascinated by "The Cat", are a great romantic couple.
It is beautifully photographed and what better subjects for photography than Grace Kelly and the South of France?"Notorius Cat Burgular meets Wealthy American Heiress" is a plot that only Hitchcock and few others could make into a picture that would hold up for nearly 50 years.
In truth, he was both, but his mysteries (of which this is one of the most delicious) were frequently not thrillers - and visa versa.TO CATCH A THIEF, with Hitchcock's two favorite STAR stars, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, backed by one of his best supporting casts of great character actors from John Williams' insurance detective (superb earlier work for Hitchcock in a similar role in DIAL M FOR MURDER and later in his TV series) to Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's drolly amusing mother who sees through everything (she would go on to play GRANT's mother in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but this may be her best role), and the spectacular scenery of the French Riviera is as good as romantic comedy/mystery gets.
Technical nits may be picked - the "day-for-night" shot where "John Robie" is nearly trapped and killed might have been more effective with today's faster film and real night filming, the elaborate masquerade ball may seem like a scene out of an earlier era to todays's elegance starved youngsters and the film's weakest moment may be the cut away from a moment of romantic "fireworks" to the real kind through the window in the background - but the "ball scene" has a great bit of trickery that always fools new audiences and the "cut away" has become a much quoted icon of romantic film making.Yes, this is the film where Philadelphia's superb high society actress Grace Kelly met her husband-to-be, Prince Ranier of Monoco, and yes, the roads on which she is "shown" dangerously speeding with Grant in their open top roadster are the very cliff-hugging roads where she would eventually suffer her fatal stroke and crash, but that is all subtext to be appreciated or ignored as the modern viewer chooses for one of Hitchock's best mystery films.I've been teaching a university course on Mystery Writing on the Stage and Screen for the better part of a decade now, and I always give over one session to the consideration of Hitchcock - the only DIRECTOR we spend that much time with.
It's always a hard choice which of his later mysteries to focus on - the strong stage-linked DIAL M FOR MURDER (also Kelly showing her unexpected range), the excellent gimmickry of REAR WINDOW or the haunting double life of VERTIGO, the superbly acted intrigue with historical overtones of NOTORIOUS or even FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (the brilliant PSYCHO isn't in the running since it shines brighter as thriller than mystery), but I always come back to TO CATCH A THIEF.
Other Hitchcock films made in the 50s like Vertigo, Dial M For Murder and Rear Window (Grace Kelly being in the last two) have strong story lines, brilliant camera-work and suspense.
Still, it is an entertaining movie and shows Hitchcock's versatility.Grace Kelly seems to be at the height of her beauty during this film, she looks absolutely stunning.
I would recommend To Catch a Thief to anyone wanting to see two of Hollywood's brightest stars, the French Riviera and generally just a charming, light Hitchcock film..
Along the way, he finds time to flirt with Danielle, the attractive daughter of a local waiter, and to carry on a more serious romance with Frances Stephens, a glamorous American oil heiress.Hitchcock is not, perhaps, a director whom one would normally associate with visual beauty, but as another reviewer has pointed out, this is perhaps his most visually beautiful film, with plenty of tourist-brochure shots of the Riviera.
Like "Charade", "To Catch a Thief" is highly enjoyable as a light, glossy romantic comedy, but lacks the tension and psychological depth of Hitchcock's best work.
Whereas most of his movies were all about suspense and camera angle, this one is mostly about aesthetics, at least as far as I could tell.Cary Grant plays John Robie, an ex-cat burglar now living in retirement in Nice, France.
From there, we start to become intrigued about which of the various characters is doing what.One of the undeniable aspects in this movie is how it makes use of Grace Kelly's incomparable beauty: no matter from which angle they film her, she and her clothes always light up the screen.
When Jessie's jewelries are robbed, Frances blames John, but her mother believes in his innocence and decides to help the retired burglar to catch the real thief."To Catch a Thief" is a delightful romantic comedy and one of the last movies of the gorgeous twenty-six year-old Grace Kelly that is astonishingly beautiful in the role of a spoiled daughter of a millionaire.
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, two of the most gorgeous stars in film history, as a suave thief and his equally stunning love interest.
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly combine well, making it a pleasure to watch, and a film I smiled all the way through.
You can sense that Hitchcock wasn't really interested in the plot about John Robie (Cary Grant) who was a notorious but retired jewel thief or "cat burglar," nicknamed "The Cat," who now tends to his vineyards in the South of France.
The story and the action are almost secondary to the cool interplay between Hitchcock's two favourite actors (united for the only time), Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.A series of daring jewellery burglaries on the French Riveira are suspected as the work of "The Cat", a.k.a John Robie (Cary Grant).
As the noose tightens, with the police pushing hard to track down and apprehend the innocent Robie, he enlists the aid of beautiful Francie Stevens (Grace Kelly) and her mother (Jessie Royce Landis), to help him trap the real thief.Although this was a surprisingly conventional film for Hitch, it remains an enjoyable experience.
......and sexy too.Having just purchased this film on DVD and watching it about 3 times in a row i must say that it is one of the better films of it's type.The cast is truly wonderful with Cary Grant well cast as the master thief[I have always thought that this role inspired James Bond creator Ian Fleming]and I fell in love with Grace Kelly for  oh about the millionth time watching this film again.Not one of Hitchcock's best but very entertaining.The supporting cast is excellent and it has only lost a rating point due to the fact that the story at times is rather confusing and contrived.
The suavity of Cary Grant, the glamour of Grace Kelly, and the wit of Alfred Hitchcock are all on fine display in a film that may not represent a career peak for any of them, but reminds you why they are still treasured more than half a century later.Grant is John Robie, an apparently-reformed cat burglar now growing grapes off France's Mediterranean coast.
Even with Grant and Kelly, it's more about how they look than what they say."To Catch A Thief" reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's previous film, "Rear Window", with its arresting viewscapes, May-December romance, and overall theme of crime as background noise to building a relationship.
Cary Grant is perfectly debonair as the cat burglar John Robie, who here has to catch a thief because he is the chief suspect for a spout of robberies on the French Riviera.
The story, in which reformed cat burglar John Robie (Cary Grant) tries to discover who is behind a series of jewel heists on the French Riviera, has potential for mystery and suspense, but this goes largely unfulfilled.
The film is livelier when it focuses on Robie's romance with heiress Francie Stevens (Grace Kelly), told in an escapist, sophisticated style."To Catch a Thief" is a beautifully filmed movie; many scenes seem to be there just to take advantage of the Technicolor and Vistavision (widescreen) technology.
This isn't the most typical movie to expect from the master of suspense, but it has to be one of his most enjoyable ones.Two specific reasons make this a real pleasure to watch: 1) Grace Kelly, who looks astonishingly gorgeous, 2) the striking cinematography, which is equally breathtaking as Kelly.It's interesting to notice that Jessie Royce Landis (who plays Kelly's mother) would play Grant's mother in "North by Northwest"!.
Now it's time for Robie himself to find out who is the real thief...Typical Hitchcock movie, with a man accused falsely and a pretty blonde (Grace Kelly in what could be her best role).
The Stars Make This a Must See. To Catch a Thief (1955) *** (out of 4) John Robie (Cary Grant) was at one time the greatest cat burglar working in Paris but he turned his life around after becoming a hero in the war.
His luck runs out when someone starts to rob jewels in the same fashion that he did so obviously the police think he is up to his old tricks so he must try and find out who the real thief is while at the same time courting a rich American woman (Grace Kelly).Alfred Hitchcock's TO CATCH A THIEF isn't one of the director's best films but it's certainly a good, solid little gem that manages to work best because of its two stars.
Nice is nice--certainly in the 50's when Hitchcock filmed a tame little tale about a cat burglar (Cary Grant) outsmarted by a dazzling Grace Kelly (who hooked up with Prince Rainier after this movie was made).
Still, it's a good story, and Hitchcock livens it up over the book with a much better and suspenseful ending.The time is 1951 and Cary Grant plays an expatriate American, John Robie.
The chemistry between Cary Grant and gorgeous Grace Kelly (oh, they don't make movie stars like that anymore) is just fantastic experience to watch.
Hitchcock, Grant, Kelly, the French Riviera, this film had so many great things going for it that I was sure to enjoy it.
In what appears to be a film made for its location alone, To Catch a Thief was an interesting installment in the standard Hitchcock fair of an innocent man being blamed for crimes he did not commit.After retiring from the lucrative profession of cat burglary, John Robie's (Cary Grant) life is interrupted by a copycat robber.
a film like many others but different for its sparkles - the costumes, the atmosphere of South France, the admirable performance of Jessie Royce Landis, the same Cary Grant and a little different manner to do her role by Grace Kelly.
It's Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
I mean this though as a compliment; Hithcock's film is lavish and lush with colors of those beautiful locations and settings on the French Riviera, and made as a fantastic vehicle for its two stars, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
It is what really sets the film apart from the majority of his later work.Cary Grant stars as John Robie, an American living in France who was once an infamous burglar known as 'The Cat'.
Frances is played by Grace Kelly in her third and final appearance in a Hitchcock film and, much like Grant, she provides the charisma needed in spades.