To Catch a Thief (1956) Movie Review & Film summary, Cast

And what electric eye-candy it is. One gets so used to the dark undercurrents of Hitchcock’s work that it’s refreshing to watch him create a piece that is basically total style. Yet even here the colour and light obscure the utterly delightful and perverse depths of its characters and their relations. Like most of Hitchcock’s films this is about a weird romance – and the metaphoric sex that goes with it – presented here in the teasing menage of ageing roue Grant, quietly kinky Kelly – who gets off on suspecting Grant a thief and then acts outraged when it seems proven – and Brigitte Auber’s duplicitous teenage wannabe femme fatale. Grant is fine but Kelly really shines in a part that’s actually very difficult to play – the woman who may be a safe harbour or a reef to be smashed upon. Great fun.