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To Catch a Thief and The Lion in Winter

© David Macdonald

I've frequently made comments about how certain people of my generation, and perhaps even of generations previous, think of Hitchcock as simply "the guy who made Psycho, without realizing that he's made many films of a much more classier veneer. Notorious, North by Northwest, and Vertigo are classy looking movies employing the best of Hollywood glamour and filmmaking. And you can put To Catch a Thief (1955) on that list as well, as it's a film that could not be any more different from that slasher film prototype.

Cary Grant plays a former jewel thief, retired in the splendor of the French Rivera, who is being blamed for a recent rash of burglaries in the area. In another unique twist on Hitchcock's perennial theme of the innocent man wrongly accused, here's a man who claims to be innocent, although it's pretty hard to fully trust a man who was not just a jewel thief, but an infamous one. Nevertheless, the man does his best to find the real culprit, through risky means. He gets an insurance salesman to give him a printout of all the rich people in the area -- his plan is to stake out the areas and try to trap the criminal. The cops, as usual, are on his path, creating many chase scenes on foot in which our hero and the cops knock down all sorts of flower stands, and other things, on the streets of France.

Along the way, of course, he finds romance, in the form of Grace Kelly, as a daughter of a rich old widow, whose priceless jewels Grant tries to protect. Kelly's character is fairly dated -- this good girl immediately takes to this bad boy (she figures out who this guy really is, even though he's going by another identity during his investigation), and isn't really as strong or as sensible a female character as she might be if this film were being made today. Nevertheless, our hero and heroine have a number of good romantic scenes, with lots of innuendo characteristic of the 1950's. (During the big love scene, we are treated -- literally -- to fireworks. Hint, hint!)

To Catch a Thief is one of Hitchcock's least compelling works (at least from my experience). It isn't, naturally, as profound or as thought-provoking as Rear Window or Vertigo, and isn't even near the fluffy perfection of North By Northwest (also starring Grant). It's quite literally a throwaway. It's the sort of inconsequential caper film from the good old days, with romance, intrigue, and crime, all in good taste, and slight, easy-going humor. There's very little of the brilliance or gripping scenes that Hitchcock is known for -- while this film was a pleasant time-waster, Grant and Kelly are a great romantic pairing, and there's a fair bit of deliberate silliness, I probably won't bother again with this film any time soon.

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