Some directors have made a name for themselves and as viewer you have specific expectations when you go see their films. Whether it is the violence, dialogue and references to other movies in Tarantino films, the weirdness of David Lynch’s work or the practical way Christopher Nolan shoots everything on film, you have an idea of what to expect. It is something you look forward to when checking their work out. Alfred Hitchcock is also one of those names. I’ve seen a lot of his work and love the look of them (of course because of the era they were shot in), the character interactions and of course (usually) the suspense. To Catch a Thief was a movie of his I hadn’t seen yet and added to my blindspot list for this year. It turned out to be slightly disappointing.
John “The Cat” Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired burglar, living a luxurious life in the French Riviera. That all is shook up when he is visited by police, who suspect him of stealing jewellery at various places. He is retired though and has to prove that he isn’t guilty. He decides to try and catch the perpetrator by getting his hands on a list of people who own expensive jewels and staking them out. One of them on the list is Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis), a rich widow and her daughter Frances (Grace Kelly). He introduces himself to them as someone else in the hope to get close and catch the thief.
There were a lot of things I really liked in this movie. Cary Grant is always a joy to see as is Grace Kelly and as a time capsule it’s cool to experience the French Riviera in the fifties. It als has a couple of cool helicopter shots during chases, which was something new and a special rig had to be made to film this. The story itself though I thought lacked a lot of suspense. It’s more about the relationship between Jessie and Frances and although that is fun, you never get a convincing feeling that Jessie is in danger or approaching this in an extremely smart way. Compared to the better Hitchcock movies it simply missed that magic ingredient which makes you want to rewatch it over and over.
[score6]
I’m with you. Grant and Kelly are always watchable. I love them both. But while I enjoyed the movie, it does seem to be missing that Hitchcock magic.
Yeah, it is not a bad movie, but it simply doesn’t stand out. I must admit that I’ve probably seen all the best ones of his, so that’s a high standard to live up to.