Nutshell: John Robie (Cary Grant at his most suave) is an ex-cat burglar who was paroled from prison to fight in World War 2 in a squad of fellow convicts. After the war, he has retired to a villa on the French Riviera where he raises grapes for wine. When a rash of burglaries of expensive jewels using John Robie’s M.O. has the police itching to make an arrest, he has no choice but to find the real burglar before the police catch up to him. Robie partners with the Insurance Company rep (John Williams the actor) who reluctantly provides him with a list of the most expensive jewels in town, the ones the burglar is sure to go after. So it’s set a thief to catch a thief. Top of the list are Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis, who played Grant’s mother in NORTH BY NORTHWEST) and her single attractive daughter Frances (Grace Kelly). While Robie tries to trap the real jewel thief, Frances tries to trap Robie and drag him to the wedding chapel.
Hitch Appearance: On a bus sitting next to Grant in the opening ten minutes.
Hitch Stock Company: John Williams from THE PARADINE CASE, DIAL M FOR MURDER, and a bunch of episodes of the TV show. Grace Kelly from REAR WINDOW and DIAL M FOR MURDER. Jessie Royce Landis from NORTH BY NORTHWEST... and Cary Grant.
Bird Appearance: Hitchcock ofter has birds in his films... When Cary Grant hops the bus (Hitchcock's cameo) there is a woman with two caged birds sitting next to him.
Great Scenes: We are going to look at the ALLIANCES and ALLEGIANCES and ADVERSARIES in the film - Hitchcock made a truckload of films about people who were falsely accused and on the run from the police, as have many imitators and other film makers. One of the things that often rings false to me in some of the films by others (and I have a script tip about the Wesley Snipe film ART OF WAR that focuses on this) is that the people on the run have no one to turn to... literally, It’s as if they were dropped on the earth five seconds before the film begins and have no friends or family. Heck, if I were a wrongly accused guy on the run, I’d start calling ex-girlfriends for help, and if they all told me to drop dead I’d start calling guys I used to work with... and eventually I’d find help somewhere. The police would probably be staking out my mom & dad’s house, but I’d find some way to get word to them that I was okay.
In TO CATCH A THIEF ex-cat burglar John Robie has a number of people he can go to for help with his problem, and they can be broken down into people he owes loyalty to (due to a past relationship of some sort), and people who are his friends because they are the enemy of his enemy.
Rooftops: It’s impossible to talk about this film without mentioning the opening sequence - it sets the tone for the entire film with its wit and elegance. Terra cotta rooftops at night... a cat creeps in the darkness from roof to roof. A jewel case is opened by a gloved hand, the jewels are taken. The cat continues creeping from roof to roof. The gloved hand continues to steal jewels. And the sequence ends with a woman screaming that she’s been robbed.
Opening Scene: There’s this strange belief that old films took their time getting started, that they spent maybe a half hour introducing characters before the story kicked into gear. As someone who has watched hundreds, probably thousands of old movies, I’m here to tell you nothing is farther from the truth. Old movies usually hit the ground running, and TO CATCH A THIEF is no exception. I’ve used it in a tip as a film that doesn’t waste the audience’s time before it jumps into the story... Film opens with a woman screaming. Her jewels have been stolen.
Time:
From 0:12 to 1:00 (minutes) We cut between cats on rooftops and women screaming that they've been robbed
At 1:00 there is a police meeting, ending with 5 policemen sent to arrest John Robie (Cary Grant).
At 1:30 We see Robie's maid cleaning up... and the black cat.
At 2:00 Robie hears the police car racing towards the villa. After he sees the police car, he runs inside.
At 2:50 the 5 policemen pull up, surround the villa.
At 3:25 Robie loads his shotgun, hides it.
At 3:50 Robie talks to the police - they're here to arrest him. He says he's innocent - they don't believe him. He asks if he can change...
At 4:30 Robie goes into the bedroom... and the shotgun fires! The police rush the door (locked).
At 4:50 we see Robie on the roof of the villa.
At 5:00 the police break down the door - the bedroom is empty.
At 5:10 the police hear a car roar away and run out of the bedroom - the chase has begun!
From 5:10 to 7:20 there is a car chase - the police chasing Robie's car around hairpin turns. There's a sheep obstacle, too. When they catch up with the car - it's driven by Robie's maid! The police turn around and go back to the villa.
At 7:20 Robie flags down a bus and goes to town.
Restaurant: Robie goes to a restaurant owned and operated by his pals from the French Resistence during World War 2... men he owes an allegiance to. But these are not your standard group of WW2 heroes - they’re kind of the Dirty Dozen - all were released from prison to fight the Nazis and pardoned for their heroism. Like Robie, they all have criminal pasts, and like Robie they have all promised to go straight. This new string of burglaries has brought the police down on *all* of them, and they see this as a betrayal on Robie’s part.
When Robie first arrives at the restaurant, elegant waiter Foussard is opening a bottle of champagne for some customers, and when he sees Robie, he pops the cork wrong and sprays champagne all over the place. This is an *action* rather than an expression on an actor’s face - a way of *showing* Foussard’s emotions.
Almost as soon as Robie steps into the kitchen area, someone throws an egg at him. Another one of the guys - a huge guy - comes at him with a jagged edged broken plate, and Robie cleverly throws a wine bottle to him, and the huge guy catches it - dropping the jagged plate. Not only has he let these men down, they are now gunning for him. They have become his adversaries. Even his buddy Foussard wants him to stop the burglaries, and none of them believe him when he pleads innocent. His *friends* have turned against him...
But when the police show up at the restaurant, they hustle Robie out the back door and put him in a speedboat with Foussard’s daughter.
Speedboat: Foussard’s daughter is maybe 20 years old, and wants Robie to just turn himself in so that everyone else can go back to their normal lives. One of the great things in John Michael Hayes’ script are all of the cat references - any phrase or homily that has to do with cats ends up in the witty dialogue - most of it from Foussard’s daughter, so when Robie pulls back after getting splashed by a wake, Foussard’s daughter says, “It’s true what they say, cat’s don’t like water”.
In a precursor to the crop duster scene in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, a police airplane zooms overhead, and Robie is forced to hide below decks. The plane keeps buzzing the boat, looking for Robie. From below decks he tells her to wave to the plane like a pretty girl out for a cruise, and she pulls her skirt *way* up, giving Robie a show. She continues to flirt with him throughout the film, and eventually this creates a love triangle.
JOHN ROBIE
I only regret one thing.
DANIELLE FOUSSARD
That you never asked me to marry you?
JOHN ROBIE
No, that I never taught you better English.
Instead of docking, Robie puts on swim trunks and swims to the shore at a crowded Cannes beach. Here is where costume design can sink your film - there is a woman on the beach in some overly designed swimsuit and dark glasses the size of a table and a hat the size of an umbrella, who watches Robie cross the beach. You have no idea who this person is under all of this costume, but it’s Grace Kelly, soon to be our female lead. I must have seen the film a half dozen times before I realized it was her. When you introduce a character in a film you have to make sure we can identify who they are!
Flower Market: Since Robie’s friends all believe he is back cat burglaring and have turned against him, he must find new allies to help him find the real thief. This is where the enemy of my enemy can be my friend - and Robie arranges to meet with the Lloyds Of London insurance man, H.H. Hughson (John Williams, the reserved British actor not the film composer). Because Hughson can’t be seen with a professional thief, and Robie can’t be seen anywhere there may be police; they decide to meet at the flower market. This is another great thing about this film - every single amazing location on the French Riviera becomes a setting for a scene. Robie’s house is a beautiful mountainside villa, the road into town twists along cliffs, and the flower market is a post card come to life. Robie and Hughson become reluctant allies - Hughson could turn him into the police, and Robie may use the information Hughson provides (a list of all of the most expensive insured gems in town) to pull a string of burglaries. But Robie’s plan is to find the cat burglar’s targets ahead of time and stake them out... to catch the thief.
The police crash the flower market and there is a chase with a comic ending - a flower fight - and Robie *is captured*! He makes bail, but has *10 days* before his trial, which creates a ticking clock. He has ten days to find the real burglar... and the police are following him everywhere!
But Hughson and Robie are now allies - unlikely partners trying to catch the thief. The stuffy insurance man and the suave cat burglar... and neither can trust the other.
Casino: The most expensive jewelry on the Riviera is owned by an American mother (Jesse Royce Landis) and daughter (Grace Kelly) on vacation. Robie wants to get close enough to them that he can catch the burglar in the act - and that means gaining their confidence. So he finds an interesting way to gain their attention at the casino - he plays at the roulette table across from them and accidentally drops a chip down the low cut dress of a female player... then wants it back. He can’t go digging around in her cleavage, she can’t really dig around in there in public, and it creates a funny moment - where the woman eventually just hands him some of her chips. But it catches the attention of Mrs. Stevens and her daughter Frances, and they end up having dinner together.
Mrs. Stevens and Frances are *unknowing* allies of Robie - they think he is a lumber man from Oregon in France on vacation. Robie is using them... but he isn’t the only one with a scheme, here - Mrs. Stevens has come to France to find a rich husband for her daughter, and a wealthy Oregon lumber man fits the bill.
Goodnight Kiss: Robie walks Frances to her door, and she is about the coldest and most unfriendly woman in all of Cannes... until they get to her door and she gives him one of those killer kisses that could bring the dead back to life... then slams the door in his face.
They’ve just met. He doesn’t know her. And she kissed him like that?
After the kiss, Robie cases the hotel - looking for ways the burglar might break in... or ways that *he* might break in? It’s a little ambiguous... which is cool because that night one of the other people on Hughson’s list gets burgled... and Hughson believes Robie did it. There’s a fun scene with Robie, Hughson, Mrs Stevens and Frances where allegations are subtle and alliances may be changing.
Beach: Robie and Frances go to the beach... and who shows up but Foussard’s hot daughter. She swims out to a diving platform and waits for Robie to follow. When he gets out there she accuses him of the robbery the previous night... then tells him the police are putting pressure on the guys at the restaurant, and they are turning on him - and may kill him if there are more robberies.
But all of this is leading up to Frances swimming out to the platform - the two people who Robie does not want to have meet each other are now in the same scene... And a verbal cat fight between the two women with Robie in the middle. Suspense builds - will Foussard’s daughter say Robie’s name (and spill the beans that he’s not the Oregon lumber man)? Will Frances ask how she knows Robie? Will Frances let slip that she’s a wealthy American tourist with a pile of jewels in her hotel room (which means Robie *is* back to his old tricks and endangering his old Resistence friends including Foussard)? This is a great suspense *situation* because we have our protagonist between two women who are politely tearing each other apart, and each has information about him that he doesn’t want the other to learn.
JOHN ROBIE
We only met a couple of minutes ago.
DANIELLE FOUSSARD
That's right, only a few minutes ago.
FRANCES STEVENS
Only a few minutes ago? And you talk like old friends... Ah, well, that's warm, friendly France for you.
***
JOHN ROBIE
Say something nice to her, Danielle.
DANIELLE FOUSSARD
She looks a lot older up close.
FRANCES STEVENS
To a mere child, anything over twenty might seem old.
DANIELLE FOUSSARD
A child? Shall we stand in shallower water and discuss that?
How can Robie keep the conversation *away* from anything that might allow either woman to learn information that incriminates him? How can he keep his secrets and keep these women from tearing each other apart? The great thing about this scene is the suspense keeps building, and the verbal cat fight is witty, and it’s all in creating a *situation* then placing the characters in it and letting them just be themselves.
Casing The Villa: Frances insists on spending the day with Robie, which is going to get in the way of his finding the real burglar... so he tells her he’s going to look at a villa to rent, and let’s her tag along. He’s actually casing one of the places on his list of jewel owners.
That list, by the way, is the focus of some suspense scenes. When he pulls it from his pocket while looking at the villa, Frances wants to look at it and tries to snatch it from his hand. At the end of the previous beach scene when Robie changed back into his clothes he found a wet finger print on the list - someone was looking at it. Who? That fingerprint is a great visual bit - and builds suspense! Who looked at the list? Who can Robie trust? Is one of his allies really an antagonist? Throughout much of the film, the list is an important part of the scenes, used to build suspense or conflict - and it’s just a folded piece of paper!
As Robie and Frances walk around the villa, she hammers him with questions - she is suspicious of him. This makes it more difficult for him to case the place - but we get some great visual storytelling where he looks from the roof of the villa to a ledge to a drain spout to a window... and we know how someone could easily get from roof into one of the rooms. We also get another tension situation as Robie spots the restaurant owner (Charles Vanel from WAGES OF FEAR and DIABOLIQUE) who is *also* casing the villa. Again - we have one character who knows who Robie really is in a scene with another character who thinks Robie is an Oregon lumber man... Will his secret identity be exposed? Hitchcock (and probably Hayes) drag this scene out to the breaking point - it takes *forever* for the restaurant owner’s path and Robie and Frances’ to intersect. When they come face to face, the restaurant owner just nods at Robie and keeps moving. Close call!
Twisting Road: After casing the villa, they drive on one of those narrow winding roads with a cliff on one side and a mountain on the other, to a picnic spot Frances has selected. The police are following them. Robie encourages her to ignore the speed limit (hoping to lose the police) and we get a scary chase on a road you wouldn’t want to drive *carefully* on. I believe this is actually the same stretch of road that Grace Kelly lost her life on. The cars speed down the narrow road, almost going over the cliff, almost hitting a bus, almost hitting a woman crossing the street... the whole time we see Robie applying the “passenger side brakes” and holding on for dear life.
Frances takes curves at high speed, almost drifting over the cliff... as she hammers Robie with questions about Oregon and logging - she not only doesn’t believe he’s who he claims to be, she’s pretty sure he’s John Robie, cat burglar. It’s suspense from three directions! The police chasing them, the narrow winding road, and Frances adding up the clues that proves he’s a wanted man. Eventually she loses the police - a chicken crosses the road - and she asks why the police would be chasing them if he was *not* John Robie. Busted. Now, is Frances an ally or an antagonist?
Picnic: They pull over on an outlook with the city below them, and open the picnic basket, Frances asking Robie, “You want a leg or a breast?” Takes a moment for you to realize they’re talking about chicken. Between the sexy flirtation, Frances ticks off more clues to Robie’s guilt - including casing the Villa. She knows the owners of the Villa, it’s not for rent, in fact - they have a big costume party every year and Frances and her mother are invited. Lots of people will be staying at the villa, lots of jewels for Robie to steal... Can she help?
Frances is bored being a rich girl, and would like to be a bad girl. This puts Robie is a strange position - he pretty much has no choice but to admit he *is* John Robie - jewel thief... but when he admits to *not* being responsible for this recent rash of burglaries, will she turn against him? When he says he’s retired from crime, she grabs the list from his pocket, sees what’s on it, and offers to help him with the next target... He says he’ll be watching fireworks instead, and she insists he watch them from her hotel room.
Fireworks: Okay, there’s no way we can talk about TO CATCH A THIEF without talking about the *amazing* lighting and cinematography by Robert Burks. Throughout the film his lighting is amazing - instead of that over-lit color cinematography we’re used to, Burks uses shadows and lighting to create deep, rich colors. It’s almost as if, instead of painting colors on a white background, he is painting colors on a black background. This gives the film a “color noir” feel (even though the story is a thriller rather than noir). I’m not a cinematographer, so I don’t know how this is done, but I’m guessing instead of using less light and opening the lens more, Burks used *more* light and then closed down the lens. Unlike “dark” cinematography today, where you sometimes can’t see anything, *everything* is lighted in TO CATCH A THIEF, but some things are more lighted than others. He is painting with light. I would recommend this film, just for the beautiful lush cinematography.
I’m not a big fan of the fireworks scene, which cuts between Robie and Frances making out on the couch and a fireworks display. After a couple of shots of fireworks, we get it... and the shots just become annoying to me.
The making out scene was probably pushing the envelope for the time, and is full of all kinds of sexy, witty dialogue. Frances is wearing a low cut dress with a diamond necklace and keeps pushing her chest into Robie’s face, ans asking him to “hold them” (the jewels, of course). Then we see more fireworks just when it’s getting good.
Snatched: During the night, Mrs. Stevens’ jewels were stolen, and Frances is quick to accuse Robie... and Mrs. Stevens asks if the jewels weren’t the only thing taken last night. It’s obvious from Frances’ reaction that sometime during all of those fireworks outside some sex was happening inside... and now Frances feels betrayed and has become an adversary to Robie.
Robie is forced to admit to Mrs. Stevens who he really is, and while Frances is searching his room for the jewels, he searches Mrs. Stevens’ room for evidence that might lead him to the burglar. He does a good reconstruction of the crime, figuring out how the burglar broke in and how they escaped. Because Frances is no longer an unknowing ally but an adversary, she calls the police to arrest Robie - but he manages an escape through the window and over the rooftops. Robie is back on the run from the police with no one to turn to - all of his allies have become adversaries.
The Trap: Robie convinces Hughson (who is in deep trouble because all of the jewels stolen have been from the list he gave a known jewel thief) that he’s innocent, and the two hatch a trap for the real burglar. The trap backfires, resulting in a fight in the dark between Robie and the burglar as the police close in. Robie throws the burglar off a cliff and escapes...
But the dead man the police find in the ocean at the base of the cliff is Foussard. Now all of his Resistence buddies are gunning for him - and Foussard’s daughter spits on him at her father’s funeral. Robie’s allegiance with these guys is dissolved - they are now his adversaries. Robie has not a friend in the world. The police close the case, and Robie is off the hook... except Foussard had a wooden leg, making it impossible for him to climb over rooftops like the Cat Burglar. The real burglar is still out there someplace, and Robie decides to capture him... at the big costume party at that villa he cased with Frances. To do that, he need the help of Hughson and Mrs. Stevens and Frances
Costume Party: Before we even see the party, we see the rooftop of the villa. Robie would never be invited to the party, because he’s a notorious jewel thief... so he goes in full costume - face covered with a mask - as Frances and Mrs. Steven’s servant. The place is not only crawling with cleavage and diamonds, it’s infested with cops in costumes. Oh, and guess who’s catering? The restaurant owner, Foussard’s daughter, and the rest of the ex-Resistance fighters. It’s like the entire cast at one location! The cops hear Robie’s voice, and now his disguise is more of a marker - the police keep their eye on him. Robie and Frances dance the night away with the police watching their every move. Of course, it’s not Robie in the costume, it’s Hughson. They have switched places and the police assume it’s still Robie in the costume.
Robie is on the roof, looking for the cat burglar.
Hanging By A Thread: Robie spots the cat burglar on the other side of the rooftop - and we have a tense game of hide and go seek coupled with a rooftop chase, where Robie tries to corner the burglar on the roof... but a falling tile alerts the police, shw blast a spotlight on... Robie! Now the police are sure that Robie is the burglar, and he must still capture the real burglar... while the police are shooting at him! The hide and go seek is more difficult with the spotlight, but Robie eventaully catches up with the real burglar - who falls off the edge of the roof! He catches the burglar, but they are hanging by a thread! He must now get the real burglar to confess to the police - or he will drop them!
Don’t miss the twist after the happily-ever-after with Robie and Frances.
Sound Track: Pre-Herrmann, the score by Lyn Murray is big and glossy but sometimes too light for the scene. Of course it was Murray who introduced Herrmann to Hitch, so those moments where the music needed tp be darker are forgiven.
TO CATCH A THIEF is a great piece of entertainment that holds up well. It’s fun to watch the shifting allegiances and the pairing of the stuffy insurance man and the suave gentleman thief. Sexy, witty dialogue (and a great bit where you realize *you* are as much a thief as Robie is, and maybe more!), and no shortage of suspenseful situations. Great cast, fun story, beautiful locations, and amazing cinematography.
- Bill
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