Hitchcock Month - Stage Fright

Stage Fright (1950)

Starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, and Richard Todd

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

***Available streaming on Netflix***

The less said about this Hitchcock flick the better, I think.  Stage Fright is one of the few Hitchcock flicks to employ a surprise "twist" ending, but that's the only thing that's the least bit interesting about the movie.  [And it was highly criticized upon its release.  In fact, Hitch himself says that the event that leads to the twist was one of his most disappointing directorial choices.  I, for one, thought it was rather ingenious.]

The biggest problem with the flick is that the plot is nonexistent...and it continues on and on for nearly two hours.  We're let in on the major conflict of the movie in the very opening scene.  A young man named Jonathon (Richard Todd) is having an affair with the well-known theater actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) who arrives on his doorstep one afternoon stating that she has killed her husband.  Jonathon helps her cover up the murder, but he is soon forced to go on the run when the police begin to suspect him for the crime.  He meets up with his friend Eve (Jane Wyman), an aspiring actress, who agrees to help him hide from the authorities.  While Jonathon is hiding, Eve decides to try and trick Charlotte into revealing that she is the killer.

All that plot occurs in the first thirty minutes.  After that, the film is filled with fluff and conversations that go nowhere to advance the story.  There is never a moment of suspense -- Eve and Jonathon are never put into any kind of dangerous situation to make us fear for their safety.  It's just all so blah...something that Hitchcock rarely is.

Unfortunately, the acting is bland as well, with Jane Wyman not being the least bit captivating as the main character and her co-star Marlene Dietrich overacting as if her life depended on it.  Things certainly aren't helped by the fact that Hitch shoots Dietrich as if she were a "STAR" with soft lighting and odd, awkward camera angles that simply take the viewer out of the movie rather than make them feel connected to it.

Of course out of all of the wonderful films I've looked at thus far, Stage Fright is one of the few streaming on Netflix and while I'd love to recommend it so folks can join in a discussion, I can't see anyone really wanting to waste their time with this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  D