To Catch a Thief

There have been a swath of cat burglaries of expensive jewelry, the burglaries all along the French Riviera resort towns. The police believe the burglaries have been committed by ex-con John Robie - nicknamed "the cat" - the burglaries hallmark of his M.O. Robie's old associates, most who have gone the straight and narrow in working for one of their own, Bertani, in his restaurant, believe it's Robie, which they don't like in guilt by former association pointed in their direction. The overall belief that it's Robie is despite he having been a hero for the French Resistance during the war, he and his former cat burglary associates paroled for that war effort. Robie, who lives a comfortable life as an amateur horticulturalist in a seaside villa, asserts he hasn't cat burgled since before working for the Resistance. As such, he feels that he has no other option but to catch the burglar himself. He believes it has to be someone who knows him or could have learned the details of his former burglaries, such as someone who worked for the local police before the war. In doing so, he will have to think like the cat burglar in anticipating his next targets and catching him in the act. In the process, two women pursue him romantically. One is Danielle Foussard, the daughter of one of his former associates - the current wine steward at the restaurant - she who wants him to see her as a woman and not the child he knew. The other is Francie Stevens, an American socialite vacationing with her mother, Jessie Stevens, who is top of the list as the burglar's next target. Francie's pursuit of Robie is seemingly to add a little excitement in her life as he, cat burglar or not, has that sense of danger unlike most of the men she dates at home. Robie, Francie and Danielle may be placed in mortal danger either at the hands of his former associates who may want to get rid of him in only turning down the unwanted spotlight on them, at the hands of the authorities in Robie, Francie and/or Danielle being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the real new cat burglar if they get too close to discovering the truth.