Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.
“For what it's worth, I never stole from anybody who would go hungry.”
When I lived in dreary old Bostontown with its interminable winters, I would often put on a movie that is set in a beautiful sunny location to escape the gloom outside of my window. To Catch a Thief was definitely one of those films that I employed to cheer me up during those bleak days. The French Riviera locale is certainly gorgeous and watching Cary Grant and Grace Kelly light up the screen with their easy style and grace is a delight. Then there are the wild vivid technicolors, the fireworks, and Edith Head’s wonderful costuming. The thing that ties it all together for me is the witty mischief that runs throughout the film from Robie’s opening escape from the police to his final entrapment with Frances and her mother.
The other thing about Hitchcock that is so fun is looking for his cameo appearance. In To Catch a Thief, he makes his appearance rather early on in the film as a passenger on the bus sitting next to Cary Grant. It’s one of the most blatant of his cameo appearances - there is no missing it. Cary Grant gets a good long look at him in the scene while Hitchcock stares straight ahead, expressionless. I also like the cat and the canary reference. It makes me wonder about Hitchcock’s persona and recognizability. When did his image become as well known as his movies? Which came first the chicken or the egg?
In the famous Truffaut/Hitchcock interview he says this of his cameos:
[the first cameo in The Lodger] was strictly utilitarian; we had to fill the screen. Later on it became a superstition and eventually a gag. But by now it's a rather troublesome gag, and I'm very careful to show up in the first five minutes so as to let the people look at the rest of the movie with no further distraction.
This is a fun and generous film. The perfect pick-me-up for a bleak winter day in New England or a clear autumn evening in New Mexico.