- Catch as catch can: the hand on the collar above the rooftops of Nice
- High-class burglary caper sees idle rich being fleeced on the Côte d’Azur
- Cary Grant is another Wrong Man; Grace Kelly a not-so icy Hitchcock Blonde
- Long-lived lady: athletic support Brigitte Auber is still with us at the age of 101!
- Original audio all but unavailable though seven foreign dubs are authentic mono
- La Main au collet: at least one viewing of the French version is highly recommended
- Curiously absent from the remake stakes, but the last decade saw two reinterpretations
- To Catch Another Thief: latest much-publicised screen remakes elusive as the titular star
- Source novel author’s other film adaptation is the complete opposite: a dark, murderous noir
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
To Catch a Thief: Writing on a Classic | Making of a Masterpiece | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Soundtrack and audio mixes, 3: Home video, 4: 2020s revisions
This beautiful Belgian poster displays both the French title, La main au collet (A hand on the collar); and the Dutch, Houdt den dief (Hold the thief).
Contents
Production
↑ Technicolor trailer with misaligned matrices causing slight fringing | TCM, WHRO intros | 2012 Blu-ray clips, more
Cary Grant plays John Robie, a reformed jewel thief who was once known as “The Cat” in this suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock classic thriller. Robie is suspected of a new rash of gem thefts in the luxury hotels of the French Riviera, and he must set out to clear himself. Meeting pampered heiress Frances (Grace Kelly), he sees a chance to bait the mysterious thief with her mother’s (Jessie Royce Landis) fabulous jewels. His plan backfires, however, but Frances, who believes him guilty, proves her love by helping him escape. In a spine-tingling climax, the real criminal is exposed. The film earned three Academy Award nominations, including an Oscar for Best Cinematography. – all home video releases
Chase on the Riviera
Photographed against the varied magnificence of the French Riviera [fittingly, it’s Hitch’s first use of a helicopter for aerial photography], this film has been chosen as one of the two official American entries to the Venice Film Festival. Despite the old magic of the Hitchcock name, the chances are that it will not take the top prize. But it is good entertainment, nevertheless, with sprightly acting by all the principals. The Cat (Cary Grant), a reformed jewel thief, finds the gendarmes looking his way after a series of thefts break out in Cannes. Each has the hallmark of the stealthy, neat style he had perfected.
To clear his name, Grant sets out after the real thief, hoping to catch him in the act. To help him, John Williams of Dial M for Murder fame, whose insurance company has suffered the financial burden of the robberies, supplies Grant with a list of the company’s rich clients who might be on the thief’s list. One is Mrs. Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis), an American, delightfully frank about her recent affluence, who is husband-hunting for her daughter (Grace Kelly). The story then turns from intrigue to romance. Kelly helps Grant catch his thief, and she catches Grant. Summing Up: Worth catching. – Newsweek
Grace Kelly and Edith Head selecting costume designs for To Catch a Thief
Kelly’s iconic attire in the film was envisioned by renowned costume designer Edith Head:
“When people ask me who my favorite actress is, who my favorite actor is, who my favorite director is, and what my favorite film is, I tell them to watch To Catch a Thief and they’ll get all the answers. The film was a costume designer’s dream. It had all the ingredients for being fun, a challenge, and a great product.” – Edith Head’s Hollywood (1983/2008) by Head and Paddy Calistro
Hitch and Head were kindred spirits in that, despite their inestimable accomplishments, they frequently claimed the work of others as their own. For instance, in Head’s case she took credit for Kelly’s famed Monaco wedding dress by Helen Rose of MGM, and to have outfitted Grant in this film but he demurred:
“Edith dressed the women but she didn’t design my costumes. I planned and provided everything myself. In fact, I bought everything in Cannes, just before we began shooting. She didn’t go with me when I purchased the clothes, nor did she approve anything. I was the only one who approved my clothes. Hitch trusted me implicitly to select my own wardrobe. If he wanted me to wear something very specific he would tell me, but generally I wore simple, tasteful clothes-the same kinds of clothes I wear off screen.” – Edith Head’s Hollywood
Grant was persuaded to come out of retirement for this jaunt on the Riviera after more or less quitting acting for good two years earlier. This was partly because he was very unhappy with, following years of continued FBI persecution, HUAC’s mistreatment of his friend and fellow Brit actor Charlie Chaplin over his refusal to name names or take American citizenship. Working in France on a highhearted film with Hitch and Kelly were major incentives for Grant’s return, even though at the time of filming, he was 50 years old to her 25. In the event, To Catch a Thief was only moderately successful at the box office though it’s since made a fortune in over 70 years of TV broadcasts, home video releases and theatrical revivals, etc, largely due to its stars and director. Nonetheless, “Grant made more than $700,000 [while] Hitchcock, for producing and directing it, made less than $50,000.” There’s Grant’s chief motivation. Most recently, the star pair found themselves cast as Hitch’s friendly interrogators in an expansive graphic novel of his life and career.
Thief was adapted by radio, film and TV scriptwriter John Michael Hayes, and was his second of four successive films with the director. It was joined by Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much; all are covered extensively in Steven DeRosa’s excellent book.
David Dodge’s 1952 source novel, first abridged in the December 1951 issue of Cosmopolitan, was inspired by, and in turn inspired, many similar works in all media, so it’s only natural that a screen remake has been mooted as far back as 2011 and as recently as 2022. The long-gestating film and a TV remake are currently listed on IMDb. But the only one to transpire thus far is a limited, 10-episode Spanish-language TV series from 2019, shot in Spain and Argentina, which appears to be no longer available on streaming and has just one obscure, non-subtitled Brazilian DVD set. However, there are plenty of trailers, clips and interviews on YouTube to provide an ample taste. It was preceded by a 2011 adaptation for BBC Radio 4 whose writer, Jean Buchanan, also created a tie-in programme about the film’s inspiration and locations.
- Villa for Sale – Abby Montanez
- Movie Locations: To Catch a Thief
- Hitchcock Zone: To Catch a Thief Locations/Trip to the French Riviera
- Following in Hitchcock’s Footsteps: To Catch a Thief Location Guide (2018) – Dirk Dominick
Plunder of the Sun (1953)
A vivid tale of priceless Zapotecan artifacts, deadly deception and sinister treasure-seekers unfolds in Plunder of the Sun, based on the novel by best-selling author David Dodge (To Catch a Thief). Brought to the screen by John Wayne’s Batjac production company, Glenn Ford (Gilda, Blackboard Jungle) stars as American insurance adjuster Al Colby, a man who unwittingly becomes involved with a fortune in ancient curios after being asked to carry a mysterious package aboard a ship sailing from Havana to Mexico. Colby’s seemingly innocent mission becomes a dangerous game of pursuit when he discovers that others – including two seductive women (Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina) and a double-crossing rogue (Sean McClory) – are determined to take possession of the parcel he carries… at any cost. John Farrow (The Big Clock, Hondo) directs this mystery-thriller set amidst the spectacular archaeological ruins of Mitla and Monte Alban near Oaxaca, Mexico. – DVDs
- Prime Video HD | YouTube
- US: Paramount DVD (2006), also in 4-DVD John Wayne’s Suspense Collection
- Spain: Paramount DVD (2007) | bootleg
- Australia: Paramount DVD (2007)
- Via Vision 4-BD Essential Film Noir Collection 2 (2021)
Thus far, Dodge only has two other screen credits, the first being for”Angel’s Ransom”, an unavailable episode of short-lived tv anthology series The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956–1957) that’s based on his 1956 novel Angel’s Ransom aka Ransom of the Angel. The other is for this gritty film noir based on his eponymous 1949 novel, first adapted for radio the same year. It was helmed by Australian-born writer-director John Farrow, who had a prolific and hugely successful Hollywood career from the late 1920s to the end of the 1950s.
Escape: Plunder of the Sun, November 11, 1949 – Paul Frees, Gerald Moore and Lucille Meredith
Foreign dubs
Hitchcock sur la Côte d’Azur/Youtube
To Catch a Thief has a total of seven original theatrical dubs: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish (both Castilian and Latin). They’re all still in their original 2.0 mono and apart from the French, which appears on every disc issued to date, are now found scattered across various releases as appropriate. But bear in mind that although the film’s primary audio track is English, it was shot largely on location in the French Riviera and aside from the four top-billed leads, most of the cast could only speak French so had to be dubbed anyway. However, for the French track their original voices were kept and the leads were dubbed instead, making it equally as valid. What’s more, as per French laws regarding films shot there, a set number of the cast and crew had to be natives, with the former dressed exclusively in French labels. It’s well worth watching To Catch a Thief, aka La main au collet (A hand on the collar), at least once that way, with subtitles if necessary. Doing so certainly adds to the continental glamour and general air of joie de vivre.
La Main au collet : instantanés d’un tournage – Rachel Guyon
Meanwhile, in Germany, where it was retitled Über den Dächern von Nizza (Over the Roofs of Nice), the many wartime references proved a sticking point for local sensibilities so the dubbing studio, Berliner Synchron, ensured their version was „inhaltlich angepasst“ (content adapted). Therefore, as with many films first released abroad in the post-war era, including Hitch’s own Foreign Correspondent, many references and particularly those to killing Germans, were either ameliorated or simply substituted altogether. Incidentally, in 2020 Paramount redid To Catch a Thief’s opening and closing credits in at least German, since broadcast on TV, but thankfully only the original English version has been released on home video.
Essays, etc
Filming was interrupted on 13 August 1954 to celebrate Hitch’s 55th birthday but apparently his secretary loudly announced, “Ladies and gentleman, would you all come into the other room, please, and have a piece of Mr. Hitchcake’s cock?” Swallowing was, presumably, optional. (alt)
- To Catch a Thief – Le Stuff
- To Catch a Thief – Joe Valdez
- To Catch a Thief – Dani Haley
- To Catch a Thief – Frank Magill’s Survey of Cinema
- To Catch a Thief special issue/German – sisterMAG
- The Duality of Man: To Catch a Thief – Dani Haley
- To Catch a Thief’s 18th Century Masquerade – Kendra Van Cleave
- Remembering To Catch a Thief on its 60th Anniversary – Michael Coate
- Mr Dodge, Mr Hitchcock, and the French Riviera: The Story Behind To Catch a Thief (2014) – Jean Buchanan
- The Golden Hour: Bringing the French Riviera to Hollywood – Jennifer O’Callaghan, author of Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece (2025)
All of Grace Kelly’s Outfits in To Catch a Thief
- Hollywood’s Hottest Property: Grace Kelly – Life
- Alfred Hitchcock & Grace Kelly: A Trilogy – Elaine Lennon
- Hitchcock’s Women: Frances Stevens in To Catch a Thief – Rebecca McCallum
- TCaT: Is Cary Grant Still Influencing the Style of Today? – From Tailors with Love
Not a Cary in the world… Brigitte Auber, here as Danielle Foussard, turned 101 on 27 April 2026. Though her career arguably peaked with this film, she made an even greater contribution to cinema history when her relationship with a young Alain Delon provided his entrée to the industry.
To Catch a Thief: Writing on a Classic | Making of a Masterpiece | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Soundtrack and audio mixes, 3: Home video, 4: 2020s revisions
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This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
