TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) **1/2 I don't think that anyone really put much thought into what they wanted to do with this movie. I've never seen Alfred Hitchcock so lazy, it's like he was taking a vacation, or was so taken with the French Riviera that he forgot he was a participant. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly figured that they were working with a master, so they didn't have to do anything but what they were told. There's a palpable sense of Hitchcock unease in the early going but Cary and Grace don't worry about sustaining it, instead contenting themselves with occasional glimmers in a desperado dialogue. It was all somewhat racy for the time, I suppose, talking about chicken legs and such. Jessie Royce Landis is some fun for her scenes, but it's all a bit smooth for a bourbon enthusiast. Hitchcock's idiosyncrasies are in short supply though they are played well, and welcome, on their rare appearances. For all that they do maintain the mystery right up to the end. I had part of it figured out early, then got conned by the master (Hitchcock, not Grant, I think).
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