To Catch a Thief stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, and is (at least in title and in theme) the inspiration for Saturday’s episode of The Clone Wars, To Catch a Jedi. This charming comedy/caper was Cary Grant’s third outing with director Alfred Hitchcock and casts him as a retired jewelry thief known as “The Cat” who struggles to maintain his innocence after a ring of copycat burglaries.
After the ending of the last episode of The Clone Wars, The Jedi Who Knew Too Much, it’s rather obvious where the plot of this film will most likely fit into the inspiration for the next episode of The Clone Wars.
After being framed for an assassination and the murder of almost half a dozen clones, Ahsoka flees custody. Early trailers and descriptions of the next episode imply that she’ll be working hard to both prove her innocence and capture the force user who set her up.
There’s nothing funny or charming about the situation, so I think it’s safe to say that The Clone Wars won’t be matching the tone of To Catch a Thief, which is a breezy film, much less intense than some of the more taut Hitchcock fare. This was really a stepping stone for Hitchcock and Grant to get to the perfect balance of suspense and charm in their next collaboration, North by Northwest.
To help clear his name, Robie (Cary Grant’s character) teams up with an attractive heiress who quickly turns into his love interest. I don’t see Ahsoka teaming up with a romantic foil (though Lux might not be far behind), but Asajj Ventress has featured prominently in the advertising for the next episodes. She’s no heiress, but she is attractive.
The love interest in To Catch a Thief is played by Grace Kelly, in her final performance for Alfred Hitchcock. It’s amazing how good he was at photographing her. In every movie she did for him (particularly Rear Window) she’s especially breathtaking. It’s too bad she didn’t make more movies and it’s too bad she died so young, so tragically.
The thing I’d expect to feature in this next episode, inspired by To Catch a Thief, other than the basic premise, would be a stunning rooftop chase. In order to catch the thief, Robie stakes out a rooftop and pursues his impostor. There’s a spotlight and dizzying heights, though part of the chase in the last episode could have easily been taken as an homage for that, too.
The other thing is the lighting:
This feels very Clone Wars, and I’m sure Joel Aron can find a thousand great things about the lighting in this film. I’m sure he could find a thousand things wrong with it, too, but that’s a different story.
This is a great film and I had fun watching it with my son. It’s certainly worth revisiting for any reason, but watching it before the next episode of The Clone Wars would be an excellent idea. It might not be the best Hitchcock film, and not even close to my favorite of his Cary Grant collaborations, but it’s a lot of fun to watch.
It is not currently streaming on Netflix, but it is on Amazon Prime’s free streaming service.