Alfred Hitchcock has long been known as one of the kings of the suspense movie, but I think that his direction of To Catch a Thief, was actually in a different direction, and didn't hold up the suspense level of his normal efforts. Cary Grant stars as John Robie, a former member of the French Resistance in WWII, now a retired jewel thief, who has moved on to other endeavors. Spending time in jail has not dulled his senses, and he can still do everything that gained him the nickname "The Cat". When a rash of robberies breaks out in France, he is named the prime suspect, because of the way that each of the crimes is pulled off. The burglar is using stealth, agility, and surprise to pull off each heist, and Robie is the only one who everyone suspects could be doing it.

The movie turns to Robie as he attempts to prove his innocence throughout the duration of the film. Hitchcock's direction keeps him as a suspect though, at the same time, by giving him the opportunity and the motives to be pulling off each one of these crimes as well. It all comes down to the audience, who much choose whether they believe him when he says he isn't doing it. With the police, his friends, and even his former French compatriots all sure that it is him, he has a tough task ahead of him if he plans to put light on another suspect. In order to do this, he is going to have to be more cunning than the next man, and take full advantage of all of his skills. This is where the film fails a little bit though, because I wasn't caught up in the drama of the plot twists, instead I struggled to keep my attention focused on the screen.

Playing the leading lady in the film, is Grace Kelly as an American oil heiress who takes a fancy to Robie from the start. He serves as someone that could bring excitement to her life, and she grasps at the chance to be a partner to the whole thing. Kelly is very beautiful in this role, and it is easy to see why she was such a successful actress. She is great in her role, and brings a cunning innocence to the screen that adds a lot to any picture that she is in. This one in particular really benefits from having her in it, and helps make the film better than it actually is. Her chemistry with Grant is great to see, but I actually thought they could have taken the whole thing one step further instead of playing the cat-and-mouse romantic route with this film. But putting them together in the movie was definitely a good move by Hitchcock.

Now earlier I mentioned that Hitchcock went in a different direction with this movie. Well what I meant by that, was that he relied more heavily on the actors of the film, instead of giving them a really strong story to work with. The suspense is there that any character could be committing these crimes, but I think that he failed at making sure that we were really interested in the story at the heart of the film. Grant and Kelly were very interesting to watch, but I was left wanting more, and thought that the film could have been made a lot better. Seeing beautiful shots of the French countryside, and the car chases along the cliffs was a bonus, but didn't quite bring enough to make this film a winner for me. It is a classic film in the opinion of a lot of people, but I found the film to only be interesting, and not exuding any greatness. It is a nice, clean story, but I look for a lot more when the plots are unfolding, and I don't think that this film delivered the goods. With Hitchcock, Grant, and Kelly the movie gets 3 stars and a recommendation from me, but it doesn't stand up against the great films of cinema.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD