TO CATCH A THIEF: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Paramount, 1955) Paramount presents...

A seminal masterwork in the romantic/thriller genre and an elegant romp through the moneyed landscapes of Monte Carlo besides, Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955) is a gorgeous affair, oft' mistakenly critiqued as 'lightweight' entertainment from the master of suspense. I wholeheartedly disagree. What seems to throw most critics off is Robert Burks' absorbingly lush cinematography that takes the already elegant playground of the super-rich and transforms it into a plush and fantastical backdrop, fairly reeking of class. And yet, this pervasive style never negates the taut story elements. John Michael Hayes’ expertly crafted screenplay is perhaps one of the best shooting scripts a Hitchcock movie has ever had. The deliciousness in those prose, dipped in double entendre, stems from an acerbic sense of comedic timing, and, from the uber-cleverness Hayes manages to balance with an underlay of eeriness to document the rash of jewel robberies terrorizing those vacationing by the sea.

Cary Grant – perhaps the most handsome actor ever to grace the movie screen – marks a most handsome rake herein, while Grace Kelly, positively emanates feminine wiles as his vogueish, headstrong, cosmopolitan girl. Grant and Kelly, two of the most sophisticated and alluring movie stars the world has ever known, populate this mythic French Riviera as though they were living monuments to its chic good taste. The ‘who’ of this ‘who done it?’ is hardly at the crux of the narrative. Rather, we are lured by Hitchcock into exploring the virtually aborted aspects of this thriller, only to become utterly absorbed into the mélange of a well-tailored tale of danger from which a combustible sexual chemistry positively ignites. The ploy thereafter becomes not ‘whodunit’ but ‘how long’ will it take for Kelly’s Francie Stevens to bait and conquer the intercontinental man of mystery, John Robie (Grant) whom she desperately desires yet seems too quick to believe is the cat burglar stealing everyone’s jewels.  To Catch A Thief is therefore pursuing another kind of ‘thrill’, carefully calculated to be ogled as a true cinema bon-bon – visually arresting, and, a rare feast for the eye.

Take just one moment – the oft’ resurrected and endlessly discussed ‘fireworks’ sequence in which the caustic sparks and bursting bombshells, pirouetting beyond the window of Francie’s hotel suite, are but a prelude to the inflamed desire playing out between Francie and John. Hitchcock and Burke frame Francie in a series of ever-tightening close-ups, gradually redirecting our gaze on her spectacular jeweled necklace. At one point, Burke even casts a shadow over Kelly’s peerless Patrician beauty, as if to say to the audience, “No, silly. Look over here.” Tempting John to take hold of her paste, and by extension to possess her completely, he instead offers her an astute observation that threatens this seduction. “These are fake.” Francie leans back against the couch. “But I’m not” she confides.

And, indeed, her desire to be taken is beyond question. Yet, from here, Robie is a hooked fish and destined to remain so, despite his best intentions to finagle himself free from Francie and her disarmingly frank mother, Jessie (Jessie Royce-Landis) before the final reel. Aside: Royce-Landis would play Grant’s mother in 1959’s North by Northwest. Grant’s lean into Kelly and their subsequent embrace was the subject of some consternation for the censors who ordered Hitchcock to either cut or shorten the length of this sequence, lest audiences assume kisses enjoyed were a prelude to great sex. Instead, to maintain his vision, Hitchcock rather cleverly chose to interpolate close-ups of the actual fireworks with the scene as already shot. And while the censors were satisfied, what Hitchcock actually managed to do was heighten, rather than diminish the eroticism of this moment, punctuating its sensuality, even to suggest an orgasmic release in his final and frenzied display of exploding colors, ably assisted by a crescendo in Lynn Murray’s incredible underscore.

To Catch A Thief is so obviously a movie framed by such set pieces, some critics continue to demean it as ‘travelogue film-making’. Rubbish!  Each vignette builds, in either the dramatic intensity of the central ‘who’s chasing who’ lover’s pursuit, or the more superficially laid out, yet no less expertly executed thriller – the picture’s clever dialogue, intriguingly providing the connective tissue between these seemingly bipolar interests. Take the scene at the flower market where Robie, having acquired the participation of anxious insurance investigator, H.H. Hughson (the sublime John Williams) is thereafter forced to flee detectives already suspecting him of the robberies. Hitchcock begin with Hughson’s obvious hesitation at allowing a former jewel thief access to his list of clienteles. Hughson informs Robie that he must serve two masters – his wife “Felicity, God bless her” and “the home office.” He must return “worthy of both of them.”

Robie toys with Hughson in much the same way a cat might with its captured prey. But only a few moments into their conversation, Robie realizes he is the one being hunted. In his failed escape, he incurs the wrath of an elderly flower seller after accidentally knocking over her tented display, the crone struggling to hang onto Robie’s striped pullover, even as he cannot bring himself to strike her in order to make his getaway complete. The end of this sequence dovetails into a perfect reunion between Hughson and Robie at the latter’s fashionable mountainside villa. Hitchcock has deliberately left out the details of the anticipated and subsequent police interrogation upon Robie’s apprehension. Instead, he cuts to the chase of his burgeoning camaraderie with this nervous insurance man.

Later on, under false pretenses, Francie offers to take John in search of some prime real estate that Robie, still professing to be an American ex-pate from Oregon, is supposedly interested in buying. Francie drives her silver sports car at breakneck speed, careening in and out of oncoming traffic, her blonde tresses and coral scarf violently trailing behind her, all the while tempting Robie to insist she put on the brakes – both figuratively and literally. To heighten the suspense of their playful exchange, Hitchcock has the couple tailed by two policemen, placing several obstacles in their oncoming path; a bus, an old woman with a laundry basket, and finally, the proverbial chicken crossing the road (get the joke?). The latter causes the police to crash into a retention wall, thus affording Robie and Francie their momentary respite for a picnic lunch on a secluded perch, overlooking the Riviera.

Asked by Francie to choose between “a leg and a breast” for his chicken luncheon, Robie playfully replies, “You decide.” When Francie prods him about his real identity, Robie responds, “I must remember to occasionally holler ‘timber!’” And yet, he has no intention of letting this obstinate thrill seeker cut him down to size. Upon inspecting one of the villas, presumably the cite where the penultimate heist will later occur, Francie again chides John for toying with the affections of Danielle Foussard (Brigitte Auber), the oversexed early-twenty-something daughter of a wine steward, suggesting he told the girl all his ‘trees’ were Sequoia – about as sexually overt and daring as Hayes’ screenplay gets to inferring the overconfidence celebrated by the male erection. However, these moments do more than titillate. They steadily advance the grand seduction that is at the heart of our heroine’s pursuit. As with all women in love, Francie divulges more than she gains, allowing female jealousy to play its part, even as Robie’s ego, while undeniably stroked, is strangely never stirred to a frenzy. 

To Catch a Thief’s penultimate set piece is undeniably its sublime and gargantuan masquerade ball where Hitchcock arbitrarily exposes the true identity of the real jewel thief. However, before the big reveal, comes the spectacle, an eye-popping finale featuring Edith Head’s extraordinary costumes and jewelry on loan from the house of Harry Winston. Here, Head outdoes herself on a flamboyant gold lame ball gown for Grace Kelly. And while Hitch’ and Head have undeniably conspired on producing one hell of a glamorous fashion show, as in the ye old days when MGM afforded its resident couturier, Adrian, the opportunity to stop the action with a blatant display of his new line of clothing, this moment in To Catch a Thief is about more than the clothes. In fact, the apparel here is all about mis-direction and deception, as Robie – costumed almost entirely from head to toe in black - deliberately reveals himself to Commissaire LePic (Rene Blancard) before exchanging places with Hughson, who carries on the charade until the wee hours, past midnight, thus throwing everyone off his scent while Robie takes to the rooftops to set his trap for the real thief. If anything, the ‘travelogue’ aspects of the production elevates the unsettling mood, its regal hotels, pristine sandy beaches and nocturnal festivities, pitched in their devil-may-care gaiety as the perfect counterbalance against Hitchcock's 'wrong man' McGuffin.

To Catch a Thief begins with a round of perilous jewel robberies inside the posh hotel suites of some very ritzy guests. The police suspect the crimes are being committed by John Robie (Cary Grant) a onetime jewel thief who fought for the resistance during the war, and, was pardoned for his pre-war crimes. Robie lives obscurely in a fashionable villa with his loyal housekeeper, Germaine (Georgette Anys) - who once strangled a German general with her bare hands. But Robie's perfect world is about to implode. Danielle (Brigitte Auber), the daughter of wine steward, Foussard (Jean Martinelli) - one of Robie’s former accomplices during the war years - believes John has come out of retirement. She goads Robie with prospects of a life together in South America, but to no avail. John is not interested in surrendering his cushy lifestyle for romance.

Or is he? We move on, to glacially elegant girl-about-town, Francie Stevens (Kelly) and her icy cool infatuation with Robie, passing himself off as Mr. Burns from Oregon. Francie’s mother, Jessie (Jessie Royce Landis) is a flirtatious matchmaker with her eye on John. Eventually, Francie warms to the idea too. But the police take Robie in for questioning and even tail him as he and Francie tour lavish estates along the coast. However, when Foussard is accidentally murdered during yet another attempted robbery, the police conclude he was their man all along. But was he? Unfortunately, that is precisely the moment when John recognizes his life is in danger. Now, he begins to have second thoughts about Foussard’s daughter, Danielle. Inevitably, the truth is revealed. Robie stalks the rooftops and intercepts Danielle after her latest heist. Before everyone, Danielle is forced to confess her crimes, leaving Robie and Francie to be reunited in the end.

To Catch a Thief is Hitchcock's most slickly packaged entertainment, deceptively to never allow our eyes to be lulled into mere appreciation of its lavish escapism, perhaps because the screenplay (and of course the characters themselves) are constant reminders something is remiss in this fabulous realm of the ultra-sophisticated elite. Robert Burks' photography takes locations like the beach club at Cannes and puts everything slightly askew. As example: consider our first intro to John Robie’s villa, accompanied by a deathly silence, and then, the faint sound of screeching tires and the omnipotent blank stare of a black cat, whose claws have dug into the morning paper revealing a headline about the latest crime on the Riviera.

This is not the set-up for a place to visit, stay and relax (as cozy and isolated as these visuals establish), but a prelude to a moment of pitched escape from a mountain top lair, beginning with a staged gunshot, and ending, rather humorously, with the police pursuing the wrong vehicle while on a bus, Robie finds himself seated next to none other than Hitchcock himself (appropriately droll for his cameo). Like the best of Hitchcock's thrillers, nothing is as it first appears. The master is at his most chic and edgy in this sex fantasy with a double-edged twist. If the focus is more on romance than suspense - and it is - this never negates our anticipated tension for thrills - and there are certainly plenty of those throughout To Catch a Thief.

Remember that when we are first introduced to the Beach Club at Cannes it is from a low angle shot between bare manly legs planted firmly in the sand, the man, Claude (Roland Lesaffre), yet another sinewy goon working for restauranteur, Bertani (Charles Vanel, who spoke not a stitch of audible English and had to be dubbed), and, looking down with modest contempt at Robie who has just emerged from his dip in the sea. Claude is one of those minor, though nevertheless  silently menacing figures who remains ever-present, returning to the forefront during Foussard’s funeral, then again, smoking a cigarette at the Sanford’s soiree, as one of the wait staff cautiously serving drinks to the well-heeled crowd. Nothing he does is directly foreboding, and yet, he gives every indication of being intimately tethered to this organized crime syndicate.

Even the most innocuous moments in the picture remain marginally unsettling, as in Robie and Francie's luncheon date. This takes place on a precariously narrow cliff overlooking the panoramic Riviera. One slip of the brake and the meal may turn deadly. And, of course, Hitchcock has primed us for this possibility by preceding Robie and Francie's verbal sparring with a daring chase that leave the usually restrained Robie white-knuckled. Aside: the original ending of To Catch a Thief actually had Francie and Robie return to this picnic spot for an embrace in the front seat of Francie's car. The brake was to have slipped, allowing the car to slowly roll to the cliff’s edge. At the last possible moment, Robie tenderly reaches over and sets the hand brake with the back wheels of the car gingerly hanging over the cliff's edge, loosely spinning.

Later, when Robie is invited to Francie's room for the fireworks, the well-lit interior is plunged into relative darkness, with only moon glow and the bomb-bursting illuminations to backlight the couple. Yet, if Francie truly believes John Robie is responsible for the most recent spate of jewel heists, might she not also fear for her life by exposing, then luring, a known criminal to her bed chamber? After all, what is Robie's freedom worth to him? Like the original marketing campaign for 1945’s Spellbound - that reads "Will he kiss or kill me?" Hitchcock is ever-priming his audience here with unsettling subliminal questions to consider, even as our eyes are meant to adore Kelly’s obvious physical allure. That Hitchcock shifts the focus deliberately to her necklace by casting a dark shadow over Kelly’s face, is the cream of the jest. What is more appealing to Robie? A seduction or a steal?

Viewed today, To Catch A Thief remains one of the best made thrillers of all time - and not just by the master of suspense. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly have a genuine and undiluted romantic chemistry. The cloak and dagger are slickly packaged and the movie, while hardly a roller coaster ride in the traditional sense, nevertheless, remains an iconic escapist fantasy, pre-lit by the bright lights of Monte Carlo. Regrettably, behind the scenes, To Catch a Thief also proved a bittersweet occasion. Hitchcock worked with his favorite ‘cool’ blonde, Grace Kelly, knowing it would be for the last time as Kelly was trading in Hollywood’s high society for even higher society as Princess Grace of Monaco. Commencing in the south of France, Hitchcock was challenged by Paramount's insistence to shoot extensively on location – something Hitchcock abhorred. The studio also imposed VistaVision – their newly patented widescreen process on Hitchcock, a decision that immensely benefited its plush and precise pictorial value.

To Hitchcock’s testament, the locations in France and photographic composite work, achieved back on sound stages at Paramount, is seamless – mostly, and, even under close scrutiny. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes contains plenty of razor smart repartee and engaging situations to divert our attentions away from the fact our story is not about the apprehensions faced by a reformed criminal, but the cleverness applied by a young woman eager to catch herself a thief for a husband. In the last analysis, To Catch A Thief remains a high watermark in Hitchcock’s peerless canon - one of his best and undeniably one of his most extravagant outings.

Paramount Home Video has come around to a ‘new’ native 4K remastering effort, following their disastrous attempt at a ‘Paramount presents…’ remastered Blu-ray which suffered from manipulated colors and anemic black levels. When Paramount announced To Catch a Thief in native 4K, sporting the same packaging as that aforementioned release, I did not hold out much hope. So, it is saying a great deal that, upon screening the new 4K release, I have come away mostly pleased. To be accurate – it’s a solid effort. Paramount did not bother to rescan from the previous Blu, which was also mastered from 4K elements, albeit, dumbed down to 1080p.  To reiterate, the 2020 Blu-ray was a fiasco. So, arguably, there was nowhere to go but up.

And Paramount has ascended from that earlier flubbed botch job. The oppressive DNR from the Blu is gone. Grain appears and looks indigenous to its source, although a handful of shots still look a tad soft, though never waxy, which was the case with the Blu. Most of the film will surely dazzle with its richly saturated hues, beautifully rendered flesh tones, excellent contrast and corrected colors. The night scenes are once again ‘emerald green’ instead of the awful azure that was on the Blu. Aside: though Hitchcock used a green filter for these sequences, he later regretted it. Oh well, it’s part of the look and appeal of the movie. Disheartening for some, the shimmer/aliasing in John Robie's B&W pullover endures. Had a new scan been performed, this would have been corrected in native 4K. But Dolby Vision has certainly ripened the color palette. It’s bold and gorgeous. And fine details abound. So, what’s not to love?

There is a downside here: Paramount has NOT restored the original Perspecta Stereo mix on To Catch a Thief, but instead ported over its 5.1 DTS remix. To be clear, Perspecta was an ingenious way for Paramount back in the day to get around the fact VistaVision’s camera negative made no allowances for true six-track stereo the way Cinemascope did. The Perspect has never found its way to home video. The 5.1 has been the main staple since the DVD release in 2007, reappearing in 2020. Is the 5.1 bad? Well…no. But it lacks the spatial spread, with only Lynn Murray’s score ever spreading across all channels. Otherwise, dialogue is front and center.

Paramount has finally included all of the extras that were on their 2012 Blu-ray (until now, the preferred way to screen the film on home video). For those unfamiliar, Drew Casper weighs in with his usual self-aggrandizing pomposity. It’s part of his charm. We also get Leonard Maltin’s ‘filmmaker’s focus’ – all too brief. Ported over from 2012, A Night With The Hitchcocks, and a ‘making of’ divided into several short featurettes that cover the writing, shooting and post-production. Finally, there’s a handful of featurettes, independently devoted to Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock and Paramount’s resident fashion designer, Edith Head, plus an original, and very badly worn theatrical trailer. Bottom line: while Paramount did not re-scan the movie in 4K for this native 4K release, it did go back to the earlier native 4K scan, rectifying many of the egregious sins committed on the 2020 Blu. This looks light-years better than that appalling and shameful effort. What could Paramount have done better? Perhaps, to have included a ‘new’ remastered Blu with this 4K disc, and also to have restored the Perspecta track. Otherwise, To Catch a Thief in native 4K looks pretty spiffy and satisfying…if not thoroughly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

5+

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

4