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Overview

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Stage Fright, 1950

Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Written by: Alma Reville

Language: English

Country: UK

Runtime: 110 min

MPAA Rating:

Rating:7.0

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Profile of Stage Fright

The mood of Stage Fright is gloomy, suspenseful, and tense. The plot centers around a false accusation, an investigation, and psychological motives. It is a thriller, drama, and mystery movie. In approach, Stage Fright is serious and realistic. It takes place, at least partly, in a theater. The setting is London. Stage Fright happens in the 20th century. It is based on a book. The movie is known for being an award winner.

Summary of Stage Fright

STAGE FRIGHT, based on Selwyn Jepson's novel, was adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock's wife and frequent collaborator, Alma Reville. Hitchcock uses London itself as the stage for this story of an acting student forced to solve a murder. Young Eve Gil (Jane Wyman) is studying drama at the Royal Academy when she runs into an old friend, John Cooper (Richard Todd), who explains that he has been implicated in a murder he didn't commit. Cooper's affair with stage icon Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) has made him a suspect in the death of Inwood's husband. Hitchcock used an actress as the protagonist in his 1930 film MURDER, but here, as a student forced by circumstance to truly learn the acting craft through real-life deception, the character of Eve can also be compared to Hitchcock's other accidental heroes, such as Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Eve must pose in many guises to get to the truth, and her nimble, multifaceted performance is commendable. But as the smoldering older diva, Marlene Dietrich's supporting role takes center stage.

Details

Language:	English
Country:	UK
Release date:	23 February 1950
Runtime:	110 min

Cast and Crew See all

Jane Wyman

as Eve Gill

Marlene Dietrich

as Charlotte Inwood

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Stage Fright (1950)

Users Reviews See all

29.March.2010
|
by: Democritus
Democritus rated this movie0/10

NO SPOILER HERE (unlike some reviews of it). Thought I'd seen just about every Hitchcock movie--crazy about many of them--but somehow missed this one. Maybe the thought of a thriller about stage actors seemed less than intriguing; one of Hitch's rare mistakes in formula drama. I was unfairly prejudiced in that regard. After many years in the US, he returned to Britain for his story setting/filming location, but imported an American star (Jane Wyman) to broaden its appeal. It also has his daughter Patricia. There are swiftly introduced complicated accusations involving a murder and lust-extorted demands for protection by Marlene Dietrich. A sort of mystery to be sure, but as always with a mature Hitchcock, a comedy of manners as well in numerous small ways. The actors are all very good, including a fine Alistair Sim, Richard Todd, even nice-girl Wyman who had left me mostly uninterested, but may pleasantly surprise you in disguise. Also Dietrich, although for my taste he is too routinely reverential toward her as a glam figure: remote, merely iconic. Far more interesting for Dietrich fans who like this part of her mid-late career is her work in the strange Orson Welles film "Touch of Evil" with its sly insinuations of humor, or the more celebrated "Witness for the Prosecution" (which is clearly prefigured in its plot devices by "Stage Fright") where she is less a figurehead. Overall, the story sags only a little now and then -- and there is a terrific twist in the story-telling that I won't spoil for you here. At the time, Hitchcock apparently regretted doing it that way (the added materials touch on this and other topics), thinking he had cheated the audience. But maybe he was just ahead of his time in the audacity of his narrative unfolding---not that you want to encounter that trick routinely when going to the movies. It isn't among the director's top five, but certainly inching its way somewhere into the respectable second tier. 11.08

29.March.2010
|
by: Democritus

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