Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel, Brigitte Auber, Jean Martinelli, Georgette Anys, Rene Blancard, Jean Hebey, Dominique Davray, Marie Stoddard, Russell Gaige
John Robie (Grant) lives a quiet life in a villa in France’s Cote d’Azur. Robie has a past, as a jewel thief named The Cat. When a series of jewel burglaries are carried out in Robie’s stealthy style, the French Police suspect that he has returned to his old profession and begin to monitor his activities. Robie worries that the unwelcome Police attention may lead to a resumption of an unfinished jail term for which he has only an unofficial pardon. Insurance company investigator H. H. Hughson (Williams) is highly motivated to stop the burglaries that are causing his firm to settle huge indemnity claims. Suspecting that Robie is not the current burglar, he works to set former thief Robie to catch the furtive jewel thief. Thinking that the Police may end up charging him with the burglaries, Robie decides to take matters into his own hands. Hughson helps him by providing a list of his company’s clients most likely to be burglarized for their jewels. Robie begins to follow and mingle with potential victims, trying to anticipate his imitator. He meets wealthy American widow Jessie Stevens (Landis) and her daughter Frances (Kelly). Frances is used to being pursued for her beauty and her money by eligible and not so eligible men, but Robie is at work under an assumed name chasing the cat burglar and seems uninterested. Robie’s coolness toward her piques Frances’ interest. She investigates him and discovers his past as The Cat. Suspecting Robie’s after her mother’s jewels, Frances uses splendid jewels to lure him. Robie is also being pursued by Danielle (Auber), the daughter of Foussard (Martinelli), a man that fought alongside Robie in the French resistance during World War II. Frances initially thinks that Robie is guilty, but as their relationship develops she begins to trust him, and she helps his hunt for the copycat burglar. Her help is needed, because with the French Surete and the insurance companies hot on his trail, Robie must hurry to find out who the culprit is. The film is set in the 1950’s in the South of France, with splendid hotels and villas, twisty roads, picturesque towns, and the sparkling Mediterranean for background. Based on the David Dodge novel of the same name.
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