Exactly 364 days separate the release of Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955), two of the most famous and beloved Alfred Hitchcock's movies, who in those years was probably at the peak of his popularity and success, both with the audience and the critics.
Nevertheless, although both sports some of the typical filmic elements of the Leytonstone's director, few similarities and an irresistibly charming Grace Kelly, the two movies couldn't be more different: where James Stewart was confined to his wheelchair observing other people's lives, Cary Grant is an acrobat, as he really was in his youth, constantly observed by the Police, his past accomplices, women, an insurance detective, really everybody, where Rear Window was static and indoor, To Catch a Thief is dynamic and outdoor.
John Robie (a debonair fifty-one years old Cary Grant who, although handsome and charming, could never be seriously taken for a man in his mid-thirties as pretended in the film, probably to prudently reduce the age gap with a twenty-five years old Grace Kelly), a former acrobat and jewels thief turned WWII Resistance hero, is peacefully and gracefully enjoying the results of his rewarding profession in a golden retreat in the south of France when a series of high profile jewels robberies copycatting his unique style put him under investigation as the perfect 'usual suspect'. Since, as everybody knows, you need a thief to catch a thief, John springs into action to bring to justice the real culprit, helped by the apparently quite but in reality strong-willed and wittily sensual American heiress Frances Stevens, to whom Grace Kelly lends a breath-taking absolute beauty in her last Hitchcock's movie before becoming soon a real princess.
One of first movies filmed in Vistavision, a format that allowed depth and focus effects revolutionary for the times, To Catch a Thief is belonging more to the comedy genre than to the thriller one; the film is gifted with graceful performances, not only of the protagonists but also by Jessie Royce Landis as Grace Kelly's mother and Brigitte Auber as a key, young and outspoken French character, as well as brilliant dialogues, generously sprinkled with sexual innuendos, rather daring for the mid-fifties. Rightly categorized as a romantic thriller, To Catch a Thief in the end has only one real suspense: will Cary Grant and Grace Kelly stay together at the end of the movie?
The film has remained, even after so many years, still very enjoyable to watch over and over again, oozing refreshing levity and glee in the cinematography, which gained Robert Burks an Oscar, and in the characters, as highlighted by the sexual cheeky impudence of both Grace Kelly and Brigitte Auber, who made John Robie an immediate hero and role model for almost every man on earth!
John Robie (a debonair fifty-one years old Cary Grant who, although handsome and charming, could never be seriously taken for a man in his mid-thirties as pretended in the film, probably to prudently reduce the age gap with a twenty-five years old Grace Kelly), a former acrobat and jewels thief turned WWII Resistance hero, is peacefully and gracefully enjoying the results of his rewarding profession in a golden retreat in the south of France when a series of high profile jewels robberies copycatting his unique style put him under investigation as the perfect 'usual suspect'. Since, as everybody knows, you need a thief to catch a thief, John springs into action to bring to justice the real culprit, helped by the apparently quite but in reality strong-willed and wittily sensual American heiress Frances Stevens, to whom Grace Kelly lends a breath-taking absolute beauty in her last Hitchcock's movie before becoming soon a real princess.
One of first movies filmed in Vistavision, a format that allowed depth and focus effects revolutionary for the times, To Catch a Thief is belonging more to the comedy genre than to the thriller one; the film is gifted with graceful performances, not only of the protagonists but also by Jessie Royce Landis as Grace Kelly's mother and Brigitte Auber as a key, young and outspoken French character, as well as brilliant dialogues, generously sprinkled with sexual innuendos, rather daring for the mid-fifties. Rightly categorized as a romantic thriller, To Catch a Thief in the end has only one real suspense: will Cary Grant and Grace Kelly stay together at the end of the movie?
The film has remained, even after so many years, still very enjoyable to watch over and over again, oozing refreshing levity and glee in the cinematography, which gained Robert Burks an Oscar, and in the characters, as highlighted by the sexual cheeky impudence of both Grace Kelly and Brigitte Auber, who made John Robie an immediate hero and role model for almost every man on earth!