What: Family Plot (1976) was Alfred Hitchcock's last film. Strictly speaking, it's not, you know, good. (Or at least, not the kind of good you expect from Hitchcock.) But, when approached with the right mindset, it is thoroughly enjoyable. The director pits two pairs of baddies against each other. The "good" bad guys are petty grifters, running small cons as a fake medium and a fake lawyer. The "bad" bad guys run their game on a much bigger scale: jewel theft, kidnapping, and murder. The search for a missing heir causes the somewhat hapless con artists to stumble into the path of the more dangerous pair.
Comparable to: Hitchcock said he wanted this film to feel like a mystery thriller as directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
Representative quote: "Smells fishy to me." "Well, even fish smells good when you're starving to death."
You might not like it if: You want to keep your Hitchcock pure.
How to get it: You can watch it instantly on Netflix and Amazon.
Connection to previous Wreckage: Family Plot is a nice mix of screwball and suspense, much like Charade (Rec. #97). Other, less screwy, Hitchcock films include Rope (Rec. #5) and Shadow of a Doubt (Rec. #78).
I originally saw this, in a movie theater, in 1976. It was the year I graduated from high school and I was a huge Hitchcock fan, having seriously begun to devour his films during my last couple of years in high school and throughout college. I was on my college film board and Hitchcock films were always part of each year's selection.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's not great but I've always had a fondness for it, although I'm now very curious to see how it's held up, 35 years later. I'll let you know.