365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 167 - Alfred Hitchcock's "Stage Fright"

I don't think there is a better title for an Alfred Hitchcock film than "Stage Fright". It includes the two things the master of suspense was most interested in; theatricality of life and fear.

Stage Fright opens with large theatre curtain lifting and instead of exposing a stage we are treated to a view of London. This tells the audience that every thing to come is pure theatre. The film cuts to a speeding car with Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) at the wheel. In the passenger seat is Johnathan Cooper (Richard Todd). They are speeding through London and Eve checks to see if they are being pursued by the police. Johnathan begins to recount to Eve how he became implicated in a murder by stage actress Charlotte Wood (Marlene Dietrich). As Johnathan relates his tale we see everything in flashback. How Charlene showed up at his door in a blood stained dress. She claims to have killed her husband. Johnathan returns to her apartment to obtain a new dress and make the murder look like a robbery, but he is seen by Charlotte's personal maid and must flee from the police. He realizes he is crazy to assist Charlotte, but he is madly in love with her and must help. Eve loves Richard and she is compelled to prove his innocence.

In trying to help the fugitive Richard, Eve meets Detective Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding) whom she must deceive in order to gain access to Charlotte Inwood's inner circle. Eve also enlists the aid of her father Commodore Gill (Alistair Sim).

The movie's primary suspense comes from Eve trying to maintain the charade of being a personal maid and dresser to Charlotte, while avoiding Detective Smith and keeping Johnathan hidden in his house. It's not till the final act do we learn that Eve could be in real danger. As in a play everyone puts on different roles, depending on who they are talking too. And in case we forget we are watching a piece of theatre Hitchcock includes little comic vignettes; the first is when Eve tries on her maid outfit, including glasses stolen from her mother. She can not see a thing but tries to continue her ruse. Later Commodore Gill has a brief interaction with a lady in a shooting gallery (Joyce Grenfell) who makes an indelible performance with her call "Shoot lovely ducks for the orphans." "We're all having a fine time shooting lovely ducks".

Stage Fright was met with a huge adverse reaction by the public when it was released. Hitchcock used a story telling technique that had not been done before and audiences did not like it. Today's audience would not find the technique so objectionable. To tell more would give parts of the story away.

Jane Wyman was at the peak of her career when Hitchcock cast her. It was also a refreshing role for Marlene Dietrich after a series of flops. The rest of the cast was British and this was the first film Hitchcock made in the England since Jamaica Inn in 1939. The film is filled with signature Hitchcock touches including a long crane shot across a street, over a car, up a flight of stairs, through a front door and then up and interior staircase. One wonders what Hitchcock would have done with today's steadi-cams and other modern technology.

Stage Fright is more humorous than most of Hitchcock's other pictures. He made it between the intensity of Rope and the thrilling Strangers On A Train. It has less frantic pace to it and does not offer the suspense of his other films. He was mostly concerned with his exploring his themes of theatre as life and roles within roles. Hitchcock always said life is like theatre, nothing is as it seems. The same can be said for Stage Fright.

At the Movie House rating *** stars