Stage Fright (1950)

Murder Makes a Curtain Call

Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is in trouble. The police think he murdered the husband of famous actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). And so he does the only thing he can think to do, run to Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) for help. Eve has a bit of a crush on Jonathan, so she quickly spirits him out of town and puts him in hiding.

Befriending Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding), Eve learns that the police aren't even looking for another suspect, so she goes undercover as Charlotte's new maid to try to prove the actress killed her own husband. Can she keep up her undercover identity without being discovered? Can she prove that Charlotte really killed her husband?

This lesser known Hitchcock film is still quite good. The pacing is off, and some scenes seem rather pointless and slow to me. But that's my only complaint. The story kept me guessing until the end. I was never on the edge of my seat, but I was certainly engaged. The acting was good. The characters are there to tell the story, but the actors did a good job of bringing them to life with the material they had.

I was a little surprised the film is in Black and White. Shows how little I know about when films became color, I guess. Still, I was engrossed within five minutes, and never noticed again. The film is set in London, so getting to see bits and pieces of that city from the late 40's is interesting as well.

Like many older films, this isn't as slick and dazzling as today's movies. But don't let that stop you. This is a good mystery that will entertain you for a couple hours. June 3, 2008

Interesting But Extremely Uneven

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Alfred Hichcock went through what his supporters refer to as "a transitional stage" and what his critics call "a few years when he turned out one stinker after another." 1950 he released the film STAGE FRIGHT--and both audiences and critics of the day were greatly ticked off about it.

STAGE FRIGHT is often described as "significant" because it was the first mainstream film to break the screen convention that neither director nor camera could actively lie to the audience--mislead, certainly, but not flatly lie, and not only does this occur in STAGE FRIGHT, the lie in question is the pivot on which the entire film rests. Over the years this convention has been thrown out the window by a number of notable films; as such, modern audiences are likely to think twice about the thing but instead simply kick themselves for being so silly.

They might also want to kick themselves for bothering with the film in the first place, for STAGE FRIGHT tends to divide Hitchcock fans. You either like it a lot or not at all, and while I see much to admire in isolation, I fall among those who don't.

The story concerns London drama student Eve Gill (Jane Wyman), a young woman who is hopelessly in love with Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd)--who is too preoccupied with stage star Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) to care much about Eve one way or another. At least, not until Inwood's husband is murdered and the police focus their attention on Jonathan, who knows who the killer is Charlotte herself but can't prove it and can't get the police to believe him. Eve agrees to exercise her acting talent: she will pretend to be a maid and will go to work for Charlotte in order to get the proof to clear Jonathan's name.

This all sounds very good in theory, but there are some big problems in actual fact. The cast is somewhat less than one could wish: Dietrich comes off very well playing what is essentially a riff on her own screen image, but both Jane Wyman and Richard Todd seem fundamentally miscast. But the real stumbling block is the film's uneven pace. Hitchcock was a master at building tension through a juxtaposition of long takes and flash cuts, but something has gone astray in his work on this film, and STAGE FRIGHT seems slightly clunky and unduly slow; I kept wanting to tell the actors to "get on with it!"

The DVD transfer is what you might call very good instead of excellent, and the DVD comes with a number of bells and whistles, mostly focusing on the "the director and camera lie to you!" issue--which is, as I've said, largely a non-issue from a modern point of view. If you are a Hitchcock fan, you'll want to see STAGE FRIGHT, but bear in mind that you'll probably fall hard on one side of the fence or the other in response.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer December 15, 2007

All The World Is A Stage

I truly think this is one of Hitchcock's great over-looked films. Many fine performances lift this film up over the false turn taken early in the movie. Hitchcock himself wasn't too sure if he did the right thing with his plot twist, or if he made all the characters too afraid of what may happen to themselves to make the suspense, well, suspenseful enough. That said, I think he really needn't have worried. With a perfect cast, the film has survived well, and is getting new attention today as a well-done "whoREALLYdunit?" I know Jane Wyman is billed as the star of the show, but really Marlene Dietrich is the heart and soul of the picture. Her allegiances are vague, her guilt or innocence is never really clear, but she is just totally mesmerizing. All the characters involved are examples of role-playing, and how well those roles can cover a multitude of sins. The print shows effects of age, especially at the beginning and end, and the sound isn't the best, but for the most part the picture is clear and fairly sharp, and the making-of feature is welcome. For Hitchcock fans, they know already the virtues of this fine film, and for Dietrich fans, this disc is a must. Get this DVD and see if you can figure out the truth before the final curtain drops! November 12, 2007

Fun and suspenseful--but is it fair?

Jane Wyman and Marlene Dietrich and Alfred Hitchcock?! Who can resist?? I certainly couldn't when I stumbled upon this movie at the library and checked it out based on star power alone.

I certainly wouldn't have chosen it based on its tag line: "Hands that applaud can also kill!" That certainly set me up to expect a cheesy, B-grade thriller.

Fortunately, the movie was much better than the publicity department's promo writing!

The cast is superior, the story alternately humorous and suspenseful...all with HItchcock's trademark cinematographic touches. Wyman is both brave and vulnerable as the ingenue, Eve, caught up in a murder investigation and trying to prove her sometime-boyfriend innocent.

Dietrich is marvy as the self-absorbed stage star (as a side note: There are many famous singers who make me wonder how they ever thought they could get into that line, much less succeed at it. Cindy Lauper comes to mind as does the Doobie Brother's Michael McDonald...people with voices that tend to be screechy or off-key or thin...and yet somehow they make it big. Dietrich's voice is low and sultry, but certainly not full or true...and yet, somehow when she sings in this film, it works terrifically. Style over substance, I guess).

Anyway, the supporting cast is marvelous, too, esp. Alistair Sim and Sybil Throndike in the roles of Wyman's gadabout father and her humorously repressed mother. There are other good minor characters, too, esp. the woman at the carnival inviting people to "shoot the lovely duckies" in order to win a doll.

The trick Hitchcock used in the film has been much discussed in these reviews. Suffice it to say that, like Agatha Christie's "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" which made her famous because of a similar deception, you'll either laugh along at it or be annoyed by it (or maybe both alternately).

Either way it's a fun and suspenseful movie that keeps moving along at an excellent clip, that keeps you guessing, and that keeps you entertained with the superb job done by the cast...and the director. October 13, 2007

Jane Wyman was an Actress, Capital A

Watching Jane Wyman, who didn't fit the usual Hitchcock profile, work her way through this movie is great. Alongside Marlena Dietrich who had no bad profile and playing it sometimes as low born, it's a performance worth watching. There's a twist in a twist and controversy over Hitch's ideas regarding "seen through the eyes of...". Well, you have to see it to understand I won't give the twists and turns of plot away. It's a great little film. Buy it! October 12, 2007

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