To Catch a Thief

Paramount | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Matt Brighton

The names "Alfred Hitchcock", "Cary Grant" and "Grace Kelly" are truly the names of immortals. Hollywood icons that were proof that "They don't make 'em like they used to". Hitchcock, who has gone down in history as perhaps the greatest director that has ever lived, had worked with both actors before. His teaming with Grant placed him in North by Northwest and Notorious while Grace Kelly had worked with him on Dial M for Murder and my favorite Hitchcock movie, Rear Window the year before. And as intriguing as To Catch a Thief is, it's also a great romance movie, even placing highly with the American Film Institute's Top 100 Passions (#46). This was also one of his more entertaining films from the man who could scare us, make us laugh and also cry. As with most of his films, this one is also a case of mistaken identity and I believe that Mr. Hitchcock had a laugh on all of us from time to time with his films. But enough about that...

As the opening credits start to roll, we see a male figure dressed in black, cut in with shots of a black cat, the thief is collecting quite a slew of precious (and expensive) diamonds. Yes, this is the cat burglar. John Robie (Cary Grant) now lives in the French Riveria and is a very famous ex-jewel thief. When word of this new wave of crimes hits, he and his former crew are the first suspected. The police are on him very quickly, but he manages to give them the slip and turns tail to his old cohorts. As it turns out, they're not too happy with their reputation due to the new jewel thief. Working in a restaurant owned by Bertain (Charles Vanel). His advice is to help Robie escape the heat and to meet with someone from Lloyd's of London (the world's most prestigous insurance agency). Robie figures that the best way he can get he and his friends out of hot water is to catch this thief (cleverly enough, the title of the movie) during the act and therefore clear his name. Too easy, right? Of course! We then meet Frances (Grace Kelly) and her mother, two wealthy Americans who just happen to be carrying a LOT of jewels. Robie, thinking they're prime targets, passes himself off as a businessman from Oregon and somehow works his way into Frances' heart. However, the stakes are a lot higher when she finds out of his mysterious past.

To Catch a Thief shows us classic Alfred Hitchcock, we have chases (a la North by Northwest), romance, action and adventure. Granted, this is a tame pace compared to today's action movies, but this has something they don't...plot. The chemistry between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly is something that the silver screen didn't have very often. Two of the better-looking humans...ever, on screen and entertaining us in the process. And, as mentioned before, this movie works on many levels. Truly just looking at Grace Kelly is enough to watch the film again and again. Ironically enough, this is where she met her future husband and therefore gave up acting. Take the good with the bad, I suppose. What I believe to be one of Hitchcock's better movies (not that he had many, if any, bad ones), To Catch a Thief is sheer pleasure to watch. Recommended.

The films of Alfred Hitchcock have off and on treatment when it comes to DVD. Some of his better works, like Psycho and Vertigo don't even have 16:9 transfers, then again North by Northwest, Rebecca and Notorious look like diamonds in the rough, shining examples of what DVD is all about. To Catch a Thief has been enhanced for 16:9 TV's and the 1.85:1 image is fair at best. This was one of the films shot in VistaVision, a Parmount method of trying to improve the image quality. The image seems muddled and kind of overexposed at times, with some grain adding to the quality of the transfer. Granted, this is undoubtedly the best the film has ever looked, but when you compare it against some of the films of it's age, this looks average at best. Still, the films of Hitchcock stand up as some of the best made, so it's possible that we'll be treated to brand new DVD's of all of his works and perhaps one day they'll all look the way they should. I don't think viewers will be disappointed with the way this looks, but it's not the most shining example of how "old" movies should look on DVD, either.

There's really not a whole lot to say about the audio here. Both English and French soundtracks are included are mono. With mono, and a movie that's nearing fifty years old, the sound is limited to only one channel. Not to say that's bad, as Woody Allen still films all of his movies in mono. Still, the range is very limited and we have an entire soundtrack that could conceivably take up 5.1 channels and stuffs them into one. The dialogue is a bit harsh, with the score sounding a bit dry at times. It's easy to understand, but this sounds like a movie that is fairly old (and it is). Don't expect a lot, but it's not so bad that you can't watch it.

Paramount, long (and currently) a studio that puts out the most bare bones releases (even for some very popular titles) has found some supplements to add to this title. And what a great surprise it was! We start off with something that's not included on most of their catalog titles, a theatrical trailer. It's shown in its entirety and what a great thing to have on a disc. Next up are a trio of featurettes, starting off with "Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief" in which the daughter and granddaughter of Hitchcock are interviewed. They tell of how the story evolved and ended up at Paramount, how Cary Grant initially refused the part but was eventually persuaded to do it and the rest as they say - is history! We then find "The Making of To Catch a Thief" in which we're essentially greeted with some more of the same. This focuses on several key scenes and how the code at the time made it hard to film some of these without the sexual innuendo. My how far we've come...Lastly we have "Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief: An Appreciation". Telling of the success of the movie, how the characters loved to work with one another and of Grace Kelly's exit from movies. Truly this film holds a high rank among even Hitchcock's films. We then are greeted with an eight minute montage of pictures, actually it's called a photo gallery, but it's set to music. Lastly, "Edith Head - The Paramount Years" focuses on the great costume designer, Edith Head. This follows her start at Paramount and how she quickly became one of the most well-known costume designers of all time. For forty of her sixty year career, she was at Paramount and this provides a great history of her work. Overall, it's nice to see a catalog title that gets this sort of treatment. Could it be a sign of things to come from Paramount? Let's hope so!