To Catch A Thief

B-

Despite an interesting premise about a thief trying to catch another thief, and despite coming right after the brilliance of Rear Window, Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief disappoints. To be fair, I knew from the start that this wasn't to be in the same league as Rear Window or North By Northwest, but even with some of the auteur's signature brushes, To Catch A Thief is a mediocre movie by any standards.

It takes one to know one. John Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired and reformed jewel thief who was once infamously known as The Cat. A string of new burglaries in France, however, has led the police to see him as the prime suspect. His old comrades too think he did it. As such, to clear his name, he vows to catch the impostor as he's the only one who can. In anticipation of the next burglary, Robie became acquainted with heiress Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her pampered daughter Jessie (Grace Kelly), who eventually falls for him. He realizes that he's playing a gamble, because if the Steven's gems get stolen, he'll be into a deep rut for sure.

The problem with To Catch A Thief is the plot. Throughout the film, it felt like a half-baked movie, where it could have gone either way - romance or thriller. Hitchcock and screenwriter John Michael Hayes failed to incorporate these 2 major aspects to work together (Rear Window showed that such an endeavour is possible), and here, unfortunately, they steal the focus off each other. One has a sense that Hitchcock realized the central theme about catching a thief is thin beyond measure, and hence he tried to clog up the screen time by injecting a romance story. It didn't work.

Cary Grant's performance in this movie lacked energy. I thought he was fine in North By Northwest, but John Robie came across as bland with him. There were a number of times when watching the movie that I left uncomfortable seeing Grant's aloofness made an already thin and unexciting plot seem even more lacklustre. Likewise, Grace Kelly turned in a much more solid performance in Rear Window than here. Francie never developed into a real woman. We see little pieces of a real character, but never the whole person. Jessie Royce Landis showed a much more memorable prowess as Fraces' mother, though her role is minimal. Most other supporting characters are only on screen long enough that one confuses them for others.

Dialogue in To Catch A Thief sparkles with the usual Hitchcock flair and wit. But compared to his masterpieces, To Catch A Thief is an insult. Though, of course, it's not that bad, but it is disappointing that the auteur is capable of mediocrity.
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