OPENING SEQUENCE
Hitchcock’s opening shot is of a display window at a travel service featuring posters advertising the beautiful beaches of Nice, France. Also in the window is a model of the Eiffel Tower standing just behind a model of a cruise liner, and we see cars and busses driving by on the street in the reflection of the window, along with pedestrians walking the sidewalks. The shot pushes into one of the posters that reads, “If You Love Life You’ll Love France” just before a quick cut to a woman screaming as she discovers her jewels have been stolen. She exits the balcony screaming for help and the police. The next series of shots are of a black cat traveling back and forth across a roof in the green darkness of the night, intercut with shots of two more robberies we see happening, but only gloved hands are seen. These shots take us to the Commissaire de Police.
Hitchcock uses this opening sequence to create the atmosphere and tone for what’s to come. The travel service window let’s us know that we are going to be swept away to a beautiful place (Nice, France from the posters) that is not the everyday life we are accustomed to (this can be understood from reflection of cars, busses and people passing by in the travel service window, it represents normal day to day life continuing on while we experience a not so normal place). Hitchcock then pushes into one of the beautiful posters taking us to Nice with a cut to a screaming woman. Amongst this beautiful scenery there is something foul happening.
The images of three separate robberies, a black cat in the night, gloved hands and screams for the police all reveal that these crimes are connected and we are going on a journey to figure out "who done it." We are now right in the middle of the circumstances of the story. And with a shot of a slew of police officers gathered around the commissioner's desk, we understand that the chase is on.
INTRODUCTION OF JOHN ROBIE
Hitchcock slows the pace down as we are taken to a chateau far away from the beachfront where all the robberies have taken place. The sounds of birds chirping and a bell tolling all relax us into a different mood, which reveals to us where the character is currently at emotionally. As a housekeeper cleans the home we see a black cat lounging on a sofa and the music changes as we see a newspaper clipping speculating to whether John Robie, “The Cat” a former cat burglar is up to his old tricks with these new robberies. We also discover that Robie is a hero of the French Resistance Army. It’s important to note that thematically the newspaper clippings provoke the media's ability to sway public opinion, whether it is the truth or not.
We first see Robie tending to roses in his garden, wearing brown gloves (a subtle association to the burglar's black gloves). He sees the police furiously approaching and heads for his upstairs bedroom to watch them arrive, and split up in order to surround the house. He willingly comes down to meet the officers in his living room, and is able to escape the house by asking to put on formal clothes before being taken in. He locks himself in his room and blasts a shotgun. Expecting that he’s killed himself, they break down the door as his car speeds off. They chase after him to find that it’s the housekeeper driving the car, and Robie is still at his home.
From this scene we that Robie is incredibly capable and cunning, but most importantly capable of staying one step ahead of the police which he he will need in order to prove his innocence. Robie, quietly hops aboard a bus taking him to the coast, and the scene of the crimes. We also see an appearance from Hitchcock sitting on the bus next to Robie.
ROBIE RETURNS TO THE SEASIDE
Robie’s first stop at the Nice seaside is a restaurant where the workers are not happy to see him. They are all former convicts who the police have shaken down as suspects because of their acquaintance in prison with Robie. Bertani is the owner of the restaurant. Since the French Resistance ended he employs ex-criminals, and helps them maintain the terms of their parole. Robie says he has returned to the restaurant to tell them that he has not committed these crimes, and get Bertani’s help.
We see that there is quite the difference between the employees of the restaurant and John Robie as they use their brute strength and intimidation to get what they want while Robie uses his wit and mental sharpness (e.g. when the dishwasher is coming to fight him, Robie tosses a bottle of wine at him to catch and he drops the plate in his hands, disarming him and changing the mood of the kitchen). He is a different type of criminal, a higher class. We also gain insight into the fact that Robie will have more than the police as adversaries in this town, thus Hitchcock shows us the heightened circumstances in which Robie must now operate in order to clear his name.
The conversation with Bertani is expository. Robie tells us he’s innocent, and he’s got to use his skills to catch the real thief.
Bertani, after revealing he may have a contact for Robie (a snoopy insurance man), helps Robie to escape the police who have arrived at his establishment. One shot that I want to point out is of the policemen on the outside dining terrace. Hitchcock shoots them with a wide lense from the inside dining room, the perspective of Bertani, who has just stepped out of his office. We see them inside the framing of the doorway that leads outside and just beyond them is the sea, which is where Robie first entered. This shot shows that there are multiple layers which must be journeyed, and we are traveling more deeply into them, with Robie still one step ahead of the police as he exits the kitchen the police enter. This shot also establishes the exposition for the viewer, in that we are moving from broader to more refined strokes, or actions that Robie must take.
Robie is escorted through the wine cellar into a speed boat with Danielle, who accompanies him. We then see from the director’s previous shot choices that the police’s search had narrowed and Robie was nearly caught, and Hitchcock then opens up the search once again with the next sequence.
DANIELLE AND THE RIVIERA
We quickly learn that while Danielle is helping Robie, she is resentful of him, his lifestyle. Her and everyone in the restaurant work like pigs while he lives in luxury. This argument adds another layer to Robie’s journey in that he must clear his name with the police, and he must now deal directly with all those who feel left behind, discarded even by him. Danielle’s father is one of those people. We find out that Robie was in jail during the war and it was bombed. He escaped and joined The Resistance to repent for his crimes, and he hasn’t stolen since (15 years). He, and all of the employees from the restaurant were paroled for their service in The Resistance.
During this conversation Hitchcock chooses to have them stop the engine on the boat, floating on the water while they speak. This shot reveals two people together on one boat, saying certain things, but there is an ocean beneath them, i.e. the truth of Robie’s past is still not fully out of the dark to her or her father and his friends. We can also deduce that Danielle could potentially have more going on than what she is revealing on the surface.
Robie floats into the the beach club at Cannes, only to receive a phone call from Bertani letting him know that he’s set a meeting for him with the insurance man at the flower market.
THE INSURANCE MAN
Robie meets H.H. Hughson of Lloyd’s of London, an insurer of nearly all of the high valuable jewelry being stolen, at the flower market in Nice. Hughson agrees to give Robie the names of his clients with insured jewelry in Nice so that he can stop the real thief. This helps Hughson because Lloyd’s of London doesn’t want to continue paying out insurance to its clients for stolen jewelry worth a fortune. In the beginning of this scene we get the feeling that Robie is searching for a needle in a haystack (see section on IMAGERY), which he finds, but soon becomes the needle the police are searching for, and is caught.
In France there is provisional liberty based on insufficient evidence. Robie, has been set free and now has 10 days to clear his name or he’ll be arrested. Thus justifying what is a strange cut from Robie being taken into custody to then immediately sharing wine at his chateau with Hughson completely free of the police. Hughson gives Robie the list of names of his clients, and a Mrs. Stevens and her daughter appear to be the obvious first choice.
During this scene between Robie and Hughson, we see Hughson down four drinks. Robie talks bout having killed 72 men during The Resistance, and that his housekeeper once strangled a German officer. Whether Robie is telling the truth or not is unsure, and Hughson is uncomfortable. Though he’s doing his best to maintain his cool, the drinking gives away his nerves about working with Robie, a former thief. And having a black cat in this scene is a reminder to Hughson that Robie may still be the man he’s trying to prove he isn’t anymore. It’s a simple, if slightly overt, reference that adds more to this scene.
MRS. STEVENS and HER DAUGHTER
Jessie Stevens, a wealthy widower, and her daughter, Frances meets Robie at the gambling tables at their hotel in a set up by Mr. Hughson. By the end of the night Robie has charmed the mother, and Frances has planted a passionate kiss on him. He’s told them that he is in the lumber business in Oregon, and his names is Burns.
Hitchcock shoots Frances (Grace Kelly) mainly in profile as she is introduced. It makes her seem cold and uninterested in Robie. In his interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock said he shot her this way so that when she kisses him the audience feels the suspense of sex, it’s not overt because Kelly plays the character very cool on the outside, but with a lot of heat on the inside.
Another robbery occurs, and Hughson has to pay out $35,000 in insurance money. Hughson insists that Mrs. Stevens keep her jewels in the hotel safe. She won’t. Robie is now on the inside with Mrs. Stevens, and Frances is more overt about her attraction to Robie.
Robie informs Hughson that he’s going in search of a villa to rent.
8 of 9 LIVES
Robie and Frances are on their way to swim in the Riviera when Robie receives a note left at the front desk that he’s used up 8 of his 9 lives.
Just as it appears Robie is beginning a romance with Frances the note appears as a reminder of his fate if he fails to find the real burglar, and the stakes become higher by introducing Frances. If he is unable to prove his innocence, he now also loses a shot at love.Danielle appears on the beach and talks to Robie on a floating island set up by the hotel in the Riviera. She wants him to run off to South America with her. She makes her intentions clear that she desires Robie, and as they are talking Frances swims out to interrupt.
In this scene, the first we’ve seen with Danielle since the boat, Hitchcock shoots the three of them in the water. Only their heads are above, again the director uses the water to show all of the characters’ current states (and symbolize that while these individuals are talking, there is a lot more going on beneath the surface). By the end of the scene Danielle is holding herself up with the ladder while Frances is quite ably keeping herself up in the water, while Robie is sinking slightly beneath the surface. It shows how different levels can be used to reveal character in a shot.
Frances leaves them behind, and while getting dressed in a beachside changing room, Robie sees that there is a thumbprint on the insurance memo Hughson had given him. Someone has been in the changing room.
We see that Robie is being followed by men in suits, and as he crosses the street he sees Frances standing at the entrance of the Carlton Hotel. She doesn’t look pleased, and he stops in his tracks in the middle of the street. The meaning I perceive from this shot, which follows an ominous shot of a man after him, is that Robie is at a crossroads, either way he goes there’s going to be trouble. It’s his choice which trouble he heads towards.
Frances convinces Robie to let her drive him in search of a villa to rent. The men in suits follow them. Robie finds out that Frances is in search of a husband, and as they tour the villa gardens a strange man passes by them in a white suit.
Robie encourages Frances to drive faster, but doesn’t tell her they have a tail. She begins to drive so fast around the narrow cliffs that she makes him uncomfortable, all while she is completely at ease. She reveals that she knows that Robie is “The Cat” and not Burns. Also she’s seen the police tail, that’s why she’s driven so fast.
What we see once Frances and Robie have their picnic overlooking the city we see that she is not who she appears to be either. She is a wealthy, headstrong woman, but craves the adventure Robie represents, a man living a lifestyle far more exciting than the men who have been chasing after her.
FRANCES IN DIAMONDS
Robie joins Frances in her room for a fireworks display. This is the first time Frances has worn jewels in the whole film. We see the fireworks are going off in the background as she is seducing him to to steal her diamonds right off her neck. This offering symbolizes a giving of herself to him. She offers him a way into an exclusive event along with her jewels, and he chooses to kiss her and let go of the necklace she’s placed in his hand.
This erotic game she’s played turns rotten once she awakens and discovers her mother’s jewels have been stolen. She accuses Robie, and demands them back. As Frances unravels in her accusation Hitchcock takes us on a sharp emotional turn. We’ve just journeyed with Frances from a wide eyed woman thrilled by the possibility of catching a thief as a lifelong partner, to seducing him and in the end believing she’s been betrayed. Was Frances seducing Robie to see what he desired more, the jewels or her? Was it a test, or was she genuine in her ecstasy of “catching a thief?” Hitchcock is able to reveal a character who is much different than the one we were introduced to, and now that this change has occurred we arrive at the truth of who everyone is.
Mrs. Stevens casually allows Robie to enter her room, and doesn’t overreact to his admitting his real identity. In fact, Mrs. Stevens reveals that her faithful Jeremiah, was a swindler and she sees the same in Robie, but she believes Robie is innocent. Frances attempts to hand him over to the police, but he escapes with the assistance of Mrs. Stevens. We see that Frances and her mother are on opposite sides here. Frances doesn’t want to be swindled, and her mother doesn’t want her miss a chance at love.
GONE FISHING
All of Robie’s known associates are being rounded up as he’s been in hiding for three days. Robie meets with Hughson to get him to send the police to a South American couple’s villa that he believes in the jewel thief’s next target based on a note he received in a shopping bag. Foussard, an employee at the restaurant shows up and is killed after a struggle with Robie. The press claims Foussard is cat burglar. The only problem is that Foussard had a wooden leg, and there’s no way he would be able to climb up the buildings the burglar has scaled. The press has left his detail out, and the police commissioner failed to mention it to them as well. Everyone has benefited, the press sells papers, the police commissioner gets glory, but the real thief is still at large.
FOUSSARD’S FUNERAL
We learn that Foussard is Danielle’s father, and she openly accuses Robie of being his murderer in front of everyone at his funeral. He slaps her, and walks out. He finds a place to sit, grabbing his knees, struggling with it all. Just outside Frances is waiting on him. Once again we find Robie between Danielle and Frances, with Danielle at her father’s grave and Frances outside of it all. This scene mimics the ocean scene with the three of them earlier in the film. Frances confesses that she is in love with Robie, he believes her foolish. He asks that she gets him an invitation to the gala and that he will phone her in a day or two. We see that he’s still hurt by her accusation and willingness to turn him in. This time Frances has shown up based on the truth of who everyone is, and instead of her being the one leaving everyone, this time Robie is the one who walks away leaving the two women behind, Danielle at her father’s casket and Frances in her car. Both of them drowning in different ways.
THE GALA
Every guest is in full costume celebrating the jewels of the wealthy. Bertani’s staff is catering the party, and Robie has disguised himself and gained entry. Everyone’s costume represents that no one is who they appear to be, and this comes true when we realize that Hughson has the same costume as Robie and has traded places with him in order to throw the police off his tail.
Robie is on the roof waiting for the thief, who finally comes after the party has ended. The roof is the same green we saw at the beginning of the film, except there are two “cats” on the roof. Robie, and Danielle who has been stealing the jewels for her father and Bertani who has been misleading us all the entire time. Danielle is captured, and Bertani as well.
In the end Robie has cleared his name, and mirroring where we met him we are back at his home where he can now live the peaceful life he’s wanted. But, in revealing the truth of who he is, Robie has found love...and a mother in law.
