28: To Catch a Thief (1955)

This film is as classical Hollywood as it gets. One of the many Hitch/Grant collaborations that serves as a clear precursor to the jet-setting James Bond franchise, TO CATCH A THIEF luxuriates in sumptuous locales and elegant character design, and finishes with a legitimately exciting climax. In theory, it has everything a casual moviegoer would want from a film in 1955, but it has little to offer besides its escapism. Cary Grant is at his most debonair, while Grace Kelly is at her most demure, resulting in a dynamic that is simultaneously dull and iconic as the sheltered but shrewd Kelly pursues the suave jewel thief Grant. However, both are outshined by the French Riviera setting, an open paradise that Hitchcock clearly relishes after shooting such contained films as Dial M for Murder and Rear Window.

Steven Soderbergh riffed on this romance in his 90s classic OUT OF SIGHT. Casting George Clooney, the modern Cary Grant, as his charming thief and tapping the freshly minted Jennifer Lopez as his romantic and legal foil, Soderbergh offers an equally escapist romantic thriller with a liveliness that Hitchcock’s film often lacks.