TheBigSick Alfred Hitchcock has been long recognized as one of the greatest film directors of all time, and is famous for his slow-building approach to mystery thrillers. Nevertheless, he overdoes it in this film "To catch a thief". The pace is too slow, and many scenes are irrelevant to the resolve of the mystery and thus useless in pushing forward the plot.

adrian-43767 Hitchcock was in his best decade, the 50s. He had just made the sublime REAR WINDOW, also with Grace Kelly, and soon he would be making VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and PSYCHO. It stands to reason that TO CATCH A THIEF is not bad at all, albeit not in the class of those masterpieces. It shows inspired directorial work, good acting by the extremely attractive leads, Grant and Kelly, magnificent VistaVision cinematography, great locations, and even some enticing one-liners and good humor.But the screenplay has quite a few holes and is ultimately fluffy. Still, one should never pass up on Hitchcock and TO CATCH A THIEF certainly deserves watching and going back to. I have watched it about once every five years, and never been bored.The sequence where Kelly suddenly drops her innocence act and kisses Grant is an absolute gem, and the film's most memorable moment.

gnc98 Admittedly I haven't seen many Alfred Hitchcock movies. I'm familiar with his work and I've seen staples like Birds and Psycho, so I mostly associate Hitchcock with thrillers. While To Catch a Thief is still a thriller, it's odd to me to see Hitchcock involved in a romantic film. That's not to say To Catch a Thief is your typical romance flick, as it focuses on John Robie, a retired cat burglar formerly known as the "Cat" (very on the nose) trying to clear his name after a new "Cat" arises. While most of the film is dedicated to this, there are segments involving Robie's love interest, Frances, who he ultimately gets into a relationship with by the time he proves his innocence. Now I personally am not much of a romantic film guy. I don't mind romance per se, but I can't stand "quirky" romcoms or films completely dedicated to telling the story of how two people fell in love. It's just not my thing. The way Robie and Frances are handled here is tolerable for me. I think it was done well, and I didn't have to suspend any disbelief at the end when they got together. It made sense and didn't get in the way of the main story, which I found to be more urgent anyways. Now even though I haven't seen much Hitchcock, I'm aware of his affinity for plot twists, and to no one's surprise, this movie has its fair share. There are three big one's I can think of, the first being the red herring with Foussard, who dies after having an altercation with Robie on a rooftop. The second is during the masquerade ball where Frances removes the mask that Robie had been wearing before, and it reveals Hughson, who took Robie's place so he could escape the police. The last is soon after, where the new "Cat" is revealed to be Danielle, Foussard's daughter. If I'm being completely honest, I called the last one right after being introduced to the character. I'm sure at the time for other people it was huge, but so many people have been inspired by Hitchcock's work, watching any thriller in a similar vein nowadays will get you used to those kinds of reveals since they copy him so much. Despite this, the film was very good. I enjoyed the cast and story, and I thought the twists, although somewhat predictable, were fun and kept the movie at a steady pace. It's by no means the best thriller I've ever seen, but I did enjoy it for what it was.

blanoue324 Hitchcock directed this movie but its not like his other movies. It avoids his niche of suspense movies and he uses his art to create a less horrific film. The movie is very funny with Cary Grant making jokes and doing funny things. Hitchcock uses his technique of music to really make you feel what's going on. The music builds suspense and he uses it to make you feel the way he wants you to. The cast of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly are very good choices for the roles they play. Grace a young American girl and Cary a cool headed ex thief. The costume design matches the period and the location. The ball scene is completely ridiculous though. The costumes in this scene are outlandish. Hitchcock used an interesting technique for night shots by turning everything green. Not sure if it was a limitation of the equipment or if it was a technique he chose purposely to do. Either way the lighting in the rest of the movie is excellent. The movie is almost like a James bond movie because it has car chases and some fighting interspersed. The movie is one of Hitchcock's lesser known masterpieces.