Review of To Catch a Thief (1955) by Ben L — 15 May 2016

I'm far from being a Hitchcock expert, but of the small handful of his films I've seen, To Catch a Thief was by far the worst. This movie starts out so strong as it introduces the story, and shows how slick and smart Cary Grant's character can be.

I love the way they setup the plot, because it is a fascinating concept for a film. The story, for those who might not know, is about a retired master thief who is suspected of committing a new rash of robberies.

Therefore, in order to clear his name, he decides to catch the thief himself. If that was the movie I got to watch then I could see it being tense, exciting, and mysterious. However, somewhere along the way his plan devolves into romancing some rich socialite woman (played by Grace Kelly.

) I was mystified with how slow and boring this movie became in the second and third acts. It actually took me 2 days to finish the movie because I literally fell asleep multiple times. It's just remarkable how little mystery and crime-solving is done, and how many wry smiles and batting eyelashes were there instead.

The story was weak, and the solution to the big mystery was obvious (at least it seemed obvious to me.) Even if I hadn't figured out the thief early on, I lost interest so much because of that second act that I doubt it would have been an exciting surprise.

Naturally, with Hitchcock behind the camera, the look of the film was marvelous and the way it was cut together worked well. The lead actors were great as well, I mean I've never had an issue with Cary Grant's performance in any movie.

For me it was just the story that disappointed, so I would recommend people avoid this one.