To Catch a Thief

*** out of ****

A sexy Hitchcock cat burglar caper (in VistaVision!) set on the handsome French Riviera. Cary Grant stars as John Robie, a former burglar known as "the Cat" and the ubiquitously Hitchcockian man mistaken for the crimes. Grace Kelly, in her last performance for Hitchcock, is the pretty, rich American girl secretly seeking a thrill as Robie's "assistant," though he is simply trying to figure out the identity of the real burglar. "To Catch a Thief" features another solid screenplay and electric dialogue from Hitchcock's '50s screenwriter, John Michael Hayes. The film is no masterpiece like "Vertigo," but it is immensely enjoyable, nonetheless. The innuendo-laden fireworks scene is unforgettable. The film won one Oscar for Robert Burks' cinematography. 1955, 106 mins.