#To catch a thief filming locations movie

The juxtaposition of cheerful tourism posters and screams of “My jewels!” is an intriguing shock.

Shots of screaming women, empty jewel cases, and a black cat traipsing across nighttime rooftops with that insouciance only cats possess, set the scene quite nicely. It’s not happy there, at the moment, because a master jewel thief is emptying the jewelry boxes of wealthy hotel guests. To Catch a Thief begins with the credits over a tourist office window before moving to the Carlton Hotel in Cannes. To Catch a Thief was also their last film together, though if Kelly hadn’t become Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956 and retired from movies, perhaps they might have made more. Grace Kelly was arguably Hitchcock’s favorite actress, and To Catch a Thief was their third film in a row together ( Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954)).

#To catch a thief filming locations movie

(After this movie he continued acting for eleven more years!) Grant changed his mind about the retirement thing. Alfred mentioned that the movie would be filmed on the Riviera, and that it would star Grace Kelly. He was fifty years old, and the public’s fascination with a new type of actor, the Method guys like Marlon Brando and James Dean, convinced Grant that his time had passed.īut he let his good buddy Alfred Hitchcock take him to lunch to discuss his next project, anyway. Grant hadn’t made a film since Dream Wife (1953), and thought it was time he retired. This was Cary Grant’s third of four films with Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1945), To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest (1959).

And like Rebecca (1940), this one also begins on the Riviera, though timid Cardigan Girl and Grace Kelly‘s character could not be more different. Like Notorious (1946), this film stars Cary Grant. So here we go with another Hitchcock movie. He films a classy cat burglar who’s neither seen nor heard as jewels disappear from wealthy tourists’ hotel rooms in the dead of night. It’s all quite gauche compared to Hitchcock’s version. The recent robbery occurred in broad daylight at a jewelry show, and the thief used a gun as persuasion. Very few news programs missed the chance to show Grace Kelly and Cary Grant looking gorgeous on the Riviera.Īlthough many scenes in the movie do take place in the Carlton Hotel, the actual robbery lacks the elegant finesse and suave danger of the movie’s heists. You may have heard the movie referenced in news reports and articles, as the theft and the film seem to be strikingly similar. Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own screenshotsĪfter over $50 million dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from the Carlton Hotel in Cannes in July 2013, I was reminded of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spectacular film To Catch a Thief (1955).