Falkner1976

The three films Hitchcock made consecutively with his new female star, Grace Kelly, couldn't be more different: a dark drama of infidelity and jealousy that takes place almost entirely in the living room of a small apartment; a love and crime story, comical and sinister at the same time, filmed inside an apartment but with sweeping views of a neighboring courtyard; and a romantic comedy with a playfully detective plot shot in spectacular exteriors (the French Riviera, Monaco).

The quality and ambition of the films are also quite different: compared to the interesting but modest exercise that is Dial M for Murder, Rear Window is one of the director's undoubted absolute masterpieces; and finally, To Catch a Thief is a highly commendable light comedy with great moments and a high budget but without too many complications.

Naturally, To Catch a Thief is more a Cary Grant film than a Grace Kelly film, and if we consider the four films the actor and director made together, there are significant differences too, which is only logical given that they span almost 20 years. The characters he plays not only logically age, but at the same time, they also show a kinder side. In Suspicion, he was a potential murderer, and aside from the ending, Cary Grant's presence was certainly unsettling. In Notorious, while he was on the side of the law, he still had a rather dark side. In To Catch a Thief, we are introduced to a white-collar thief, likable and redeemed by years of dedication to the honorable cause of resistance during the occupation.

The film never takes itself too seriously-we could almost say it doesn't take itself seriously enough. Kelly's character is very appealing but lacking in depth, and the love affair never manages to interest us much. This causes the story to lose some steam as it progresses, and some key scenes, such as the seduction during the fireworks, a cinematographically elaborate one by Hitchcock, end up sounding hollow. The suspense here is very occasional.

Among the supporting cast, Jessie Royce-Landis, the down-to-earth, rich Texan with a sense of humor, plays Kelly's mother (she'll be Grant's mother three years later!)

Even so, the show has a good pace, especially in the first half, beautiful images thanks to Robert Burks' spectacular cinematography, some good chase scenes, and Hitchcock knows how to make the most of everything. Its greatest asset is, of course, the glamor of the Grant-Kelly couple in magnificent outdoor locations and a fun story about wealthy people in exclusive settings that is followed with great interest.

Definitely not among the director's most interesting works, more mechanical and less witty than his other films.

Marisa Paredes, as a queen of song (voiced by the extraordinary Luz Casal), with gestures as extreme and bizarre as the most unbridled drag, both on stage and in her private life, plays the distant and selfish mother of Victoria Abril, who knows how to belittle herself or become hoarse as required.

Miguel Bosé makes for an unlikely judge who disguises himself as a very credible drag when the investigation requires it.

The film doesn't delve deeply, focusing on the more camp aspects of the story, the only ones that seem to interest the director. However, the tone is less fun and comical, although more focused on the main plot, with fewer distractions from characters and subplots.

This seriousness and correctness kills the film (the comedy, when it exists, as in some mother-daughter arguments and in the Bosé scenes, is unintentional), which ends up being a rather unappealing nonsense, with characters we fail to care about and who remain a display of superficial mannerisms.

The dialogue is uninspired and feels like a rehash of commonplaces in these stories.

The visuals are a trademark, but more restrained than in the director's other films.