In London, aspiring actress Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) and her friend, fellow actor Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd), are fleeing from the police who suspect Jonathan of killing his lover's husband. They seek refuge at the coastal home of Commodore Gill (Alastair Sim), Eve’s eccentric father. Once there Jonathan explains to her that his lover, singer/actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich), is the real murderer and that he became implicated when he tried to help her destroy the evidence. Commodore Gill eventually agrees to hide Jonathan in his home while Eve attempts to prove his innocence. In order to do so, Eve takes a job as a temporary maid in order to get closer to Charlotte; but matters become complicated when Eve meets the Detective Inspector in charge of the case, Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding), and he begins falling for her.
Stage Fright is an underrated British crime film directed and produced by “The Master of Suspense” himself, Alfred Hitchcock. When it was first released, this movie was not a critical or box office hit. The main problem that people had (without giving too much away) was with the flashback at the beginning of the film and how it affected the end. The beginning may not be as controversial today as it was in the 50‘s; but then again audiences today have become more accustomed to not having their expectations met.
Hitchcock is known for different things, but one of his most popular was the technical challenges of film making. From the shower scene in Psycho (1960), and the key shot in Notorious (1946), to the entire action in Rear Window (1955) either taking place in or seen from a single apartment. With Stage Fright, that technical challenge comes the tracking shot of Jonathan entering Charlotte’s apartment. Much like Rope (1948), there are little to no cutaways--and it is astounding.
The plot may not be spectacular, but it is quicker to entertain than most; keeping the viewer engrossed in the complex situations and characters and wondering what will happen next. The characters, much like most Hitchcock characters are remarkably well developed, and the acting is superb. Jane Wyman gives a performance equal to that in Johnny Belinda (1948), look no further beyond the garden party scene. In over her head, the two lives she is living have converged into one area forcing her to switch from Dietrich's cockney maid to Smith's innocent date with every turn. The viewer watches the scene on the edge of their seat wondering if she will be found out, and by whom.
Though it is Marlene Dietrich, as the flamboyant theater star, who truly steals the show. Watching her performance, one gets the impression that she was having a fabulous time making the film, and her character is hilariously catty. The scene where she is trying on her funeral gown and the comments she makes while doing so add to some of the films black humor. Giving Dietrich a run for her money is the consummate Alastair Sim; who only a year later would be best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge. As Wyman's eccentric yet doting father, he provides the film with a much-needed warmth and light heartedness, bleeding coolness with every move.
While it may have gotten trampled by more popular as Psycho or The Birds (1963), Stage Fright is still a first-rate thriller and thoroughly Hitchcockian. A truly satisfying film, and probably one of Hitchcock's most forgotten and most underappreciated movies; it is suspenseful, humorous and touching, a small gem which deserves to be rediscovered and respected by more people.
- Directed by--Alfred Hitchcock
- Produced by--Alfred Hitchcock
- Written by--Whitfield Cook and Ranald MacDougall, Selwyn Jepson (Story by) Alma Reville (Story by)
- Starring--Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Alastair Sim
- Music by--Leighton Lucas
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