Stage Fright Reviews

Hithc amuses with ductil Wyman, sexy lazy Marlene, handsome Todd and naif police Wilding. The tell a lie flahsback stand as natural and disruptive.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I'm a huge fan of Alfred Hitchock's work, I was really eager to check it this one out. Eventually, it is not among his most famous work (a year later, he would release the much more impressive 'Strangers on a train', a movie that can be really considered as a classic). An interesting aspect of this film wad the fact that it seemed to be one of his older movies because after making many movies in the US (at the time, he had been living and working in America for already a decade), Hitchcok was back in England and the fact that the scale was also rather small made me believed that this movie was much older than it actually was. Anyway, even though we could have expected a little more fireworks between two monsters like Alfred Hitchcock and Marlene Dietrich, the story was still quite entertaining and, as expected with Alfred Hitchcock, the directing was top notch. To conclude, even though it is far from being a a masterpiece, it is still a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look especially if you're interested in Hitchcock's work.

Stage Fright is one of the less memorable Hitchcock films, and for good reason. Much of Stage Fright is fitfully dull, lacking in droll humor and never quite becoming the sum of its parts. There might have been a good thriller in here somewhere, but the film is given a disservice by numerous problems including the false flashback. While an interesting concept, it leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth for having been so strongly deceived from the start and given a false impression. It’s been built around a shoddy excuse for a filmic device, one more intriguing to film school academia than anything else.

The plot mechanics are retold endlessly instead of anything new or interesting happening in way of the plot. We’re told and retold endlessly who probably killed who, and a probable motive, and that our intrepid heroine is going undercover to try and get information to clear her crush’s name, etc. It operates in fits and starts and is a frightful bore for much of the film. There’s never an instant where we feel that Eve is in any real danger, that any real threat could possibly befall her.

Another problem is the stiff and wooden acting from all of the male leads. None of them do any interesting or exciting work. They all pale in comparison to James Stewart in Vertigo or Laurence Olivier in Rebecca or Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train. But his two female leads deliver fine work. Jane Wyman has the trickier role as Eve than Marlene Dietrich does as the femme fatale. Wyman must portray several different kinds of women: a reporter, a struggling actress, a detective, and a cockney maid. She does fine work in each and every incarnation and has some surprisingly funny and memorable moments. I personally loved when she was trying to design a look for her cockney maid and try it out on her mother, but her mother sees right through it instantly. Wyman’s face is priceless. Dietrich though is the real treasure, which has to do with a combination of her droll bitchery and incredible star magnetism. Her performance of “The Laziest Gal in Town” seems beamed in from another movie, but she nails one of the film’s few intense sequences when a little boy is walking up to her performing “La Vie en Rose” with a doll containing a stain identical to her blood stained dress from earlier. It’s a wonder that Hitchcock didn’t work with her more since she so clearly possessed the kind of ice-queen blonde looks he loved so much.

Great film that unfortunately starts rather slowly but it soon picks up and I was utterly absorbed in the story. Stellar cast including Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim and Sybil Thorndike (who is terrific), along with Joyce Grenfell in a small part. But this is really Jane Wyman's film and she's absolutely lovely. Best scene? For me it's got to be the romance between Wyman and Wilding in the taxi. But the final scenes with Wyman and Todd are also superb. The opening shot of London's St Paul's Cathedral is also stunning. Its refreshing to see a Hitchcock murder mystery that's completely different from his usual formula.
Excellent film - would be 5 stars if it wasn't for the slow start. Although I'll probably change my mind sometime.

4/5