To Catch a Thief. 1955. USA. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by John Michael Hayes, based on the novel by David Dodge. With Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Charles Vanel. DCP. 106 min.
Grace Kelly falls under the spell of a suave jewel thief (Cary Grant) on the prowl in the South of France. When Truffaut notes that To Catch a Thief was the first picture Hitchcock shot on location in France, he asked what the Englishman thought of the film as a whole. Hitchcock replied, “It was a lightweight story…. It wasn’t mean to be taken seriously. The only interesting footnote I can add is that since I hate royal-blue skies, I tried to get rid of the Technicolor blue for the night scenes. So we shot with a green filter to get the dark slate blue, the real color of night, but it still didn’t come out as I wanted it.”