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TO CATCH A THIEF
Long before he started scaring the bejesus out of us with unexpected showers, angry birds, and neckties, Alfred Hitchcock was providing sparkling screen entertainment through his uncanny ability to make an ordinary story special through his stylish direction and few films proved this better than a 1955 gem called To Catch a Thief.
The setting is the contemporary French Riviera where a string of jewelry robberies have occurred and the methods employed during the thefts all point to one John Robie (Cary Grant), a retired jewel thief who was known as "The Cat" who realizes the only way he can prove his innocence is to catch the real criminal in action.
Robie acquires a list of the victims from an insurance investigator (John Williams) which leads him to a wealthy heiress named Francie Stevens (Grace Kelly) who, is immediately attracted to John and not fooled by his attempt to pretend that he is someone else. As a matter of fact, knowing who John really is just seems to fuel Francie's attraction to the man, which just makes John want to protect the woman from the danger that she seems determined to dive head first into.
John Michael Hayes, who provided screenplays for two previous Hitchcock smashes, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window, has given the Master another clever story that is rather simplistic on the surface but is rife with subtle humor and some surprisingly (for 1955) bold sexual double entendres in the dialogue between Grant and Kelly. This is another place where the director really hits a bullseye...casting. The chemistry between Grant and Kelly pretty much burns a hole through the screen and when you combine this steamy chemistry with Hitchcock's artistry, brilliantly illustrated during the characters initial meeting to that classic hotel room encounter with our two protagonists separated by a window blazing with fireworks, it is clear that there was no director who could take an ordinary story and turn it into blazing entertainment better than Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitch also utilizes first rate production values in making this story viewer friendly, including Oscar-winning cinematography from Robert Burks and breathtaking, Oscar-nominated costumes from Edith Head. Grant is at the peak of his onscreen charm here and Kelly, fresh off her Oscar winning unadorned performance in The Country Girl is the smoldering sex goddess we know and clamor for. I have to admit it was a little uncomfortable watching Kelly in those driving scenes around those sharp mountain curves considering how the actress eventually died. Throw in a pair of effective supporting turns from Williams and Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's mother and you have supreme movie entertainment that does provide the requisite happy ending but it makes you wait for it, but the wait is well worth it.
Long before he started scaring the bejesus out of us with unexpected showers, angry birds, and neckties, Alfred Hitchcock was providing sparkling screen entertainment through his uncanny ability to make an ordinary story special through his stylish direction and few films proved this better than a 1955 gem called To Catch a Thief.
The setting is the contemporary French Riviera where a string of jewelry robberies have occurred and the methods employed during the thefts all point to one John Robie (Cary Grant), a retired jewel thief who was known as "The Cat" who realizes the only way he can prove his innocence is to catch the real criminal in action.
Robie acquires a list of the victims from an insurance investigator (John Williams) which leads him to a wealthy heiress named Francie Stevens (Grace Kelly) who, is immediately attracted to John and not fooled by his attempt to pretend that he is someone else. As a matter of fact, knowing who John really is just seems to fuel Francie's attraction to the man, which just makes John want to protect the woman from the danger that she seems determined to dive head first into.
John Michael Hayes, who provided screenplays for two previous Hitchcock smashes, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window, has given the Master another clever story that is rather simplistic on the surface but is rife with subtle humor and some surprisingly (for 1955) bold sexual double entendres in the dialogue between Grant and Kelly. This is another place where the director really hits a bullseye...casting. The chemistry between Grant and Kelly pretty much burns a hole through the screen and when you combine this steamy chemistry with Hitchcock's artistry, brilliantly illustrated during the characters initial meeting to that classic hotel room encounter with our two protagonists separated by a window blazing with fireworks, it is clear that there was no director who could take an ordinary story and turn it into blazing entertainment better than Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitch also utilizes first rate production values in making this story viewer friendly, including Oscar-winning cinematography from Robert Burks and breathtaking, Oscar-nominated costumes from Edith Head. Grant is at the peak of his onscreen charm here and Kelly, fresh off her Oscar winning unadorned performance in The Country Girl is the smoldering sex goddess we know and clamor for. I have to admit it was a little uncomfortable watching Kelly in those driving scenes around those sharp mountain curves considering how the actress eventually died. Throw in a pair of effective supporting turns from Williams and Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's mother and you have supreme movie entertainment that does provide the requisite happy ending but it makes you wait for it, but the wait is well worth it.