HotelChatter

The Carlton has long been connected to the Cannes Film Festival. With its views of the bay of Cannes and opulant suites, the 338-room, 36-suite hotel is perhaps the hospitality epicenter of the festival. Built in 1909, it's a French National Historic Building. The Carlton merits its own Wikipedia entry.

As for the movie, Grant plays a reformed jewel thief named John Robie. Grace Kelly plays American heiress Francie Stevens. Kelly is vacationing in the Riviera with her mother, who's on the prowl for a husband for her twenty-something daughter. Grant is an ex-pat who's lived in France for years.

There's been a recent spate of jewel thefts. They bear the mark of Grant, who was dubbed The Cat for his ability to slip in and out of apartments and hotel rooms on upper levels without leaving a trace. (He was a trapeze artist before he became a jewel thief.) Not surprisingly, Grant is the prime suspect.

Grant and Kelly cross paths for the first time on the hotel's beach. Grant has just swum to shore after fleeing the police by boat. The two don't speak, but Kelly notices Grant and they run into each other that evening in the hotel casino. Kelly and her mother have just had dinner in the hotel restaurant with a Lloyd's insurer who, unbeknownst to them, has elicited Grant's assistance in apprehending the thief.

At the end of the evening, Grant escorts Kelly and her mother to their separate hotel rooms. Kelly gives Grant an impetuous kiss at her door. The next day, they swim at the hotel beach. Even though they only met the night before, Kelly gets quite jealous when Grant speaks to a young French woman he knows.

That evening, Grant comes to Kelly's suite for drinks and to watch the fireworks display. Kelly thinks Grant is the thief, and offers to become his accomplice. In a hysterically symbolic scene, Kelly entices Grant with her diamond necklace as fireworks explode outside the suite's window. The camera cuts back and forth between the two of them on the couch and the fireworks detonating through the window.

Later that evening, Kelly's mother's jewels are stolen, and she realizes that Grant is not the thief, and she sets out to help him exculpate himself. Alas, after a scene with Grant, Kelly and her mother discussing the stolen jewels, there are no more Carlton scenes, interior or exterior.

Of course, Grant catches the thief. No spoiler in this writeup -- except that girl (Kelly) gets boy (Grant). To Catch a Thief may not be Hitchcock at his apex, but it's immensely entertaining and a real treat for movie buffs with a hotel bent.