To Catch a Thief Delivers Charming & Easygoing Caper Antics

Alfred Hitchcock is well-known for delivering movies that chill you to the bone. Sequences in his filmography like the shower scene in Psycho, for instance, are iconic for their power of utterly terrifying viewers. This makes his 1955 motion picture To Catch a Thief an interesting oddity in his catalog of work. What we have here is a feature that has brief flashes of being a thriller but primarily prides itself on being an easygoing romantic heist movie. Yes, I said easygoing. That's not a word you'd normally associate with the works of Hitchcock, which typically are extremely intense pieces of cinema. Like I said, To Catch a Thief is an interesting oddity in Hitchcock's resume.

How Much Is That Doggie In The (Rear) Window?

While his most famous films (mainly the annual holiday TV fixture It's A Wonderful Life) have given Jimmy Stewart an image in mainstream pop culture as a loveable good o'l boy, it is interesting to see Alfred Hitchcock's collaborations with the actor (in Vertigo and the subject of this review, Rear Window) dive into darker territory, ones that show off both different sides of Stewart and demonstrate what a versatile actor he is. Rear Window also serves as a splendid opportunity to take witness of just how much of a maestro Hitchcock is at conducting suspense in the most restrained circumstances. All he needs is a window, a neighborhood of various personalities and one man peeping at the world around him to create something truly gripping.