Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Jewel Thief’ on Hulu, A Doc About A Slippery Crook Who Evaded Capture For Decades

Hulu‘s new documentary The Jewel Thief tells the life story of Gerald Blanchard, a man who turned his talent for shoplifting into a career. Eventually, after stealing a priceless jewel from a museum in Vienna that caused an international scandal, he was caught and now he and the agents and police officers who spent their careers tracking him (and often marveling at his skills) are telling the story of his rise and downfall.

THE JEWEL THIEF: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A group of law enforcement agents speak with reverence about one of the most talented thieves they’ve come across. One says, “This is the story of a conniving, creative, intelligent man, committing frauds that were fairy tale-like.”

The Gist: Gerald Blanchard started shoplifting out of necessity. As the child of a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, his skill for theft grew from stealing milk to building an empire out of fabricating receipts to places like Radio Shack, where he would shoplift huge quantities of electronics and would then “return” stolen goods and pocket the cash. After getting arrested for clearing out one store’s entire inventory with a moving truck, Blanchard managed to drive off in the police patrol car while still handcuffed. His talent for this became something of a local legend around Omaha, Nebraska, and many of the people interviewed in the film are the local law enforcement who look back now in awe at his ability to not just evade capture but escape custody.

After pulling off a sophisticated heist where he ripped off all the cash inside a local bank’s ATMs, he grew richer, but he also married a European woman named Ramona whose family was wealthy, so he conveniently told his family that she was the source of his money. Ramona had no idea about Gerald’s criminal history (once she learned of it, they divorced), and while he was on a trip to Vienna with her and her family, Blanchard upped his game, somehow managing to steal one of Sisi’s Stars, a diamond and pearl encrusted hairpin worn by the Austrian Empress Elisabeth during the late 1800s. Not only did Blanchard somehow steal the highly secure jewel (replacing it with a gift shop replica), he also kept it concealed for years, never revealing its whereabouts until he needed it as a bargaining chip when he was later arrested for another heist.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Visually, the movie evokes an Oceans Eleven vibe, complete with Soderbergh-style split screens and transitions, but tonally, it reminds me of the documentary version of The Staircase, which featured interviews with its subject, Michael Peterson, that left you wondering if he could be trusted. The Jewel Thief‘s interviews with Gerald Blanchard make him seem surprisingly honest as he reveals the details about some of his crimes, but you can’t help but be wary of him, too.

Our Take: There’s no doubt that Blanchard has some impressive street smarts and skill, and the things he managed to pull off can seem unbelievable. While he does reveal some of his secrets in the film, he holds certain cards close to his chest, as he still runs the risk of incriminating himself in certain crimes if he reveals too much. What makes his story even more complex is the fact that he says that many of his bank heists were specifically targeted because he resented the fact that his family fell into financial trouble after the bank forced them into foreclosure. But his isn’t a Robin Hood tale of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, he stole purely for personal gain and for the thrill of it.

Much of the film has a breezy tone and jazzy soundtrack which evokes lighthearted fun, but there’s still a sense that Blanchard is not a great guy. When he is ultimately caught, after police were tipped off by a former accomplice known only as John Doe, Blanchard says, “One day he’ll have his day in… street court, shall we call it? I think he’ll be left in a field somewhere.” That doesn’t sound light and fun anymore. But Blanchard relishes the spotlight, which is why he happily divulges his secrets, and it makes for good TV. He thrives as much on an audience as he does on the thrill of his crimes, which is why it’s easy to be impressed and entertained by him.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Looking at the camera, Blanchard explains that when he finally got caught, he felt a sense of relief. “I knew I could go do my jail time and I would be free, some day, to start over,” he says, before giving a nervous laugh. Then, in the epilogue, we see that despite serving that jail time, he was arrested again in 2017 for stealing PlayStations from a Best Buy.

Sleeper Star: Blanchard’s biological father Richard Fedoruk is a real character, and though he didn’t spend a lot of time with his son, Gerald certainly inherited a sense of adventure and mischief from his father who seems proud to call his son a “criminal mastermind of the world.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “If you’d have told me that he was gonna be a mastermind international thief, I would have just blown it off and gone, yeah, sure you are,” Blanchard’s mother states at the beginning of the movie.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Jewel Thief spends a large portion of the film regaling us with stories of Blanchard’s small-time heists and it takes some time to get to the actual jewel thievery, as the title promises, but it’s hard not to be captivated by this film where the crook reveals his own secrets, and all the law enforcement officials who were tracking him seem genuinely impressed by his skill.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.