‘To Catch a Thief’ or — Weird Excitement?

Compared to other Hitchcock movies ‘To Catch a Thief’ (1955) can seem a little lightweight and frivolous, yet as someone who finds the overwrought histrionics of ‘Vertigo’ (1958) a tad overbearing this could also be why I found this cat burglar caper so delightful.

Cary Grant plays John Robie, a retired jewel thief who discovers a spate of copycat cat burglaries occurring across the French Riviera. It seems someone is attempting, and succeeding, in pinning the blame on Robie and suggesting he has come out of retirement. But why? Robie’s only recourse is to catch the thief himself even if this course of action risks Robie becoming incriminated further.

Fortunately Robie isn’t completely alone receiving help from an insurance agent from Lloyds of London as well as Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly), daughter of the next potential victim, and who seems to have her own suspicions about the dashing Mr Robie as well as an appetite for “weird excitement”.

‘To Catch a Thief’ has all the ingredients for the perfect cat burglar mystery, a sort of concoction of Lupin III, Fantomas, The Pink Panther and a hint of James Bond continental sophistication. Indeed the story, up to a certain point, almost feels like a precursor to ‘The Return of The Pink Panther’ (1975) as a debonair jewel thief is coaxed out of retirement to trap his copycat. So all a little fluffy compared to the sexual derangements of ‘Psycho’ or ‘’Marine’.

But I love Hitchcock fluff, finding his lighter approach more enjoyable and there’s an awful lot to enjoy in ‘To Catch a Thief’. As a romantic comedy it works just great with Grant and Kelly having a nice, and not TOO creepy, chemistry buoyed by some really rather smart dialogue, although most of the film’s best lines go to Frances’ mother, Jessie and a great performance by Jessie Royce Landis.

This might also be Hitchcock’s most beautiful film with some stunning Technicolor/Vistavision panoramas of the French Riviera where the sea and sky battle it out over which can appear the most shimmering and luminous on screen. With costumes design by Edith Head everything in this movie functions for one specific reason — to elicit a sensation of maximum pleasure. The most striking demonstration of this principle of the sensation of maximum pleasure comes, literally, during the sequence of the ejaculating fireworks. It’s jaw-dropping, both in terms of unbridled aestheticism and eroticism.

There are a few flaws such as a slightly meandering quality to proceedings as well as a climax that’s effective rather than inspired, and even though there’s gorgeous location shooting Hitchcock does his usual thing of interspersing it, almost arbitrarily, with studio footage. It’s seamless and precise and Hitchcock always seemed to prefer the studio but there were many moments I found myself asking why he didn’t just shoot several entire scenes completely outdoors as it’s obvious the bulk of them were done so anyway. I’m sure he had his reasons.

‘To Catch a Thief’ is great. It’s fun, funny and seriously gorgeous. It might not have the weight of some of Hitchcock’s other films but I think the movie benefits from not having such a burden on its shoulders. After all, a cat burglar needs to be light and quick on his/her feet.