To Catch a Thief

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: August 5, 1955

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

82	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

Hitchcock's superbly insouciant crime caper from 1955 must surely be one of the last movies in which the American super-rich are indulged so extravagantly and adoringly – the kind of people who stub their cigarettes out in fried eggs. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

Few Alfred Hitchcock movies are more fun to watch than To Catch a Thief. [15 Jun 2007, p.C7]

100

Mike Clark

Conceived as froth with an edge and a smash on both counts. [11 May 2007, p.4D]

Nathan Rabin

Thief is giddy with eye candy, but the scenery is always secondary to the screenplay, which well serves the blinding star-power on display. Read full review

Josh Larsen

A model for breezy, bantering filmmaking of the criminal kind, To Catch a Thief has the feel of being made while on a getaway vacation. Read full review

D.W. Mault

A constantly surprising treat of a film that returns more the less you give. Read full review

Brigid Murnaghan

Hitchcock makes it come off with a pair of beauties named Cary Grant and The French Riviera. [09 Nov 1955, p.6]

EmpireWilliam Thomas

Lesser Hitch, but still superb entertainment. Read full review

Tara Brady

It’s all very superficial, but carried off with impeccable style. Read full review

The Observer (UK)Philip French

An engaging comedy thriller, one of the Master's rare straightforward whodunnits, producing real cinematic chemistry between Grace Kelly (her third and last Hitchcock film) and Cary Grant (his third and penultimate Hitchcock picture). [19 Oct 2014, p.48]

Don Druker

Alfred Hitchcock's fluffy 1955 exercise in light comedy, minimal mystery, and good-natured eroticism (the fireworks scene is a classic). Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Cary Grant is at his most suave and Grace Kelly is stunningly beautiful in To Catch a Thief, a bubbly and effervescent Alfred Hitchcock romantic-suspenser that finds the Master in a relaxed and purely entertaining mood. Read full review

Fernando F. Croce

Hitchcock and screenwriter John Michael Hayes posited voyeuristic spectacle as the essence of cinema in Rear Window; in To Catch a Thief they validate their thesis with plenty of spectacle to be voyeuristic over. Read full review

Bruce Dancis

All that beauty, Hitchcock's panache and a certain amount of cleverly suggestive, double entendre-filled banter between Grant and Kelly may be enough to keep To Catch a Thief entertaining for modern viewers, but it clearly falls short of the director's best work.

Liam Lacey

Very light-hearted and glamorous. [09 Nov 2002, p.R24]

Bosley Crowther

To Catch a Thief does nothing but give out a good, exciting time. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

While a suspense thread is present, director Alfred Hitchcock doesn't emphasize it, letting the yarn play lightly for comedy more than thrills. Read full review

Pauline Kael

There are few thrills in this romantic comedy-thriller--it's no more than a pleasant minor diversion, but it does have a zingy air of sophistication.

Staff (Not Credited)

One of the most lightweight (and not even particularly deceptively so) of Hitchcock's comedy-thrillers. Read full review