TO CATCH A THIEF - DVD review

Even while on cruise control, Alfred Hitchcock usually could direct a movie with better results than the vast majority of filmmakers on their best days. However, cruise control remains cruise control, and if a filmgoer's first Hitchcock experience is "To Catch a Thief", he/she may be left wondering about all the fuss concerning the "master of suspense". "To Catch a Thief" offers slick entertainment, but ultimately, it yields little that satisfies.

In the movie (based on a novel by David Dodge), a rash of jewel thefts in and around Cannes in southern France leads the police to think that "The Cat", John Robie (Cary Grant), has taken to his roof-climbing ways again. However, Robie hasn't stolen anything in 15 years, so he allies himself with an insurance agent in order to catch the real thief. Robie also decides to use the American heiress Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly) as bait. Robie and Stevens fall in love, but even she thinks that he's the burglar.

The film's title refers to both Robie's quest to catch the real thief as well as to Stevens's seduction of Robie. However, despite the parallel plots unfolding simultaneously, you might be surprised to find that there's little that happens in "To Catch a Thief" that could sustain a feature-length narrative. Robie never seems to be actually trying to catch the new "cat", nor is there any sense of urgency in the pacing. The last act, which takes place at an elaborate costume ball, takes much too long to unfold. The denouement is both obvious and arbitrary.

"To Catch a Thief" also suffers from never maintaining a consistent point-of-view. Sometimes, we see the story from Robie's perspective. As the film progresses, the audience is shoe-horned into Stevens's understanding of events. Just when we have become accustomed to seeing things from one limited angle, the movie lifts us to the position of third person omniscient observers. Since the kind of information that the viewer receives from the movie is inconsistent in feel, I got the sense that Hitchcock was cheating in order to keep the audience guessing about the outcome. The thing is, without a consistent mood, how could the director have expected to remain intimate with his audience?

The best way to enjoy "To Catch a Thief" may be to focus on little touches such as shots of a black cat skittering across tiled rooftops, Grace Kelly's gorgeous costumes (designed by the legendary Edith Head), and the French-ness of the production. There are numerous passages with characters speaking only French, and the movie does not supply subtitles (either burned onto the print or via the DVD's subtitle stream)--a gesture to the days when sophisticated people were conversant in that elegant language. There are the usual Hitchcock-ian touches, from a cameo by the director to the "an innocent man being wronged" theme, from height fetishes to food fetishes, from stunning ice queens to stunning settings. I think of "To Catch a Thief" as Hitchcock's "Hook".

Video:
The strengths of the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer makes you yearn for the greatness that Paramount could have achieved for the film's DVD. Hitchcock shot the film with the VistaVision process, and the colors are so rich and deep and filled with texture that the movie looks positively alive. Sweeping aerial shots appear to be live images from the vantage point of a person sitting in a helicopter looking down on the Riviera. I also admired the depth and dimensionality achieved by the cinematography and print transfer. However, the condition of the print itself is less-than-perfect. There are scratches and nicks a-plenty, and you can see plenty of dust when the image fades to black. Also, blacks are never as dark as they should be--black-outs look like navy-blues. "To Catch a Thief" could easily have been as pretty as "Doctor Zhivago" on DVD, rating a 10, but it only gets a 7.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English track exhibits little hiss, and the actors' voices aren't thin or hollow. The music sounds pleasing enough, though I would guess that Hitchcock presciently avoided music that would tax the audio technologies of his day. Of course, being a mono track, the audio is not as full or enveloping as today's digital surround sound designs.

Paramount included an optional DD 2.0 mono French track. Optional English subtitles as well as English closed captions support the audio.

Extras:
A set of featurettes comprise the bulk of the DVD's extras. Created by Laurent Bouzereau, responsible for the bonus materials found on Universal's Hitchcock DVDs, these featurettes use interviews with Hitchcock's daughter and granddaughter as centerpieces for anecdotes about the film as well as the director. The titles of the featurettes--"Writing and Casting ‘To Catch a Thief'", "The Making of ‘To Catch a Thief'", and "Alfred Hitchcock and ‘To Catch a Thief': An Appreciation"--are self-explanatory. I appreciate the candor expressed by the interviewees, including the granddaughter's admittance that Hitchcock had a predilection for icy blondes. There's also a slideshow of pictures and posters (the images, set to music, advance by themselves) as well as a theatrical trailer.

The "Edith Head: The Paramount Years" featurette devotes a couple of minutes to one of the most successful costume designers in Hollywood history. Edith Head won 8 Oscars for creating beautiful gowns that draped the shoulders of Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and other goddesses. (You'll find this featurette on the "Sunset Boulevard" and "Roman Holiday" DVDs. Although this may seem like uninspired recycling, the practice is rather appropriate given the fact that Ms. Head worked on so many Paramount greats.)

--Miscellaneous--
A glossy insert provides chapter listings.

Entertainment Value:
"To Catch a Thief" reminded me of the 1999 re-make of "The Thomas Crown Affair". Basically, the audience gets to watch a bunch of bored rich people trying to add some spice to their lives. However, "Thomas Crown" played like a romp between characters who weren't afraid to get dirty. "To Catch a Thief" features oblique angles that prevented me from fully enjoying either the story or the characters. It isn't a convoluted or complex movie--just a slight one that tries to use (admittedly skillful) tricks to create a sense of accomplishment. A couple of witty exchanges between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly will elicit smiles, and the gorgeous cinematography and dresses will dazzle your eyes. In the end, though, even the film's charms don't make it a must-see.