") Insulted by the film, fascist Italian dictator Mussolini banned the film in his country.Fortunately, the film was rediscovered by a generation of 1960s college students, and by revival film festivals and museum showings.BackgroundTo Catch A Thief(1955) is a Hitchcock-directed, lush, entertaining comedy/thriller concerning jewel heists by "The Cat" on the French Riviera.Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.Rick orders his crazy Russian bartender Sascha (Leonid Kinskey) not to serve Yvonne any more drinks, and then orders Sascha o call for a cab to get her to leave quietly and go home.[The film capitalized on the recent repeal of Prohibition, although in the novel set before Prohibition""s repeal, he couple had to drink boot-legged hootch...and awoke America""s conscience!"A few other prison films had already been released before this short, 90 minute film: the classicThe Big House (1930)about brutish prison conditions, Howard Hawks""Criminal Code (1931),Ladies of the Big House (1931), and director Rowland Brown""sHell""s Highway (1932)(the first of the hard-hitting chain-gang films - deliberately released by RKO""s producer David Selznick a few months earlier).