Product Details

• Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, Michael Wilding, Alastair Sim
• Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
• Writers: Alma Reville, James Bridie, Ranald MacDougall, Selwyn Jepson, Whitfield Cook
• Producers: Alfred Hitchcock
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 28, 1995
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300270386
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,002 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In suspense films characters frequently deceive one another. But can the camera tell a lie? This is one of the questions that Hitchcock takes up in Stage Fright (1950), and his answer has puzzled, infuriated, and delighted audiences ever since its initial release. Stage Fright is one of only two films Hitchcock made in Great Britain after he moved to America in 1940 (the other is Frenzy, his late masterpiece). It is also his only picture to star Marlene Dietrich, whose character's allegiances are even more ambiguous than usual.

Years after making Stage Fright, Hitchcock claimed that because the villains were just as frightened as the heroes, the film did not carry the requisite quota of menace. But it has received a good deal of attention in recent years and is worth a fresh look. The director did admit that he was proud of the movie's most astounding plot twist, though no commercial filmmaker since has been bold enough to let the camera lie so eloquently. --Raphael Shargel

Review

The world of the London theatre is the fascinating milieu in which Alfred Hitchcock has chosen to pull off the conjurer's tricks of his latest thriller, "Stage Fright," which came to the Music Hall yesterday. And in this intriguing environment, he and his writers have contrived to give a fine cast of actors some slick and entertaining things to do.

But we feel we must quietly advise you that these things, while amusing separately, build up to very little sustained excitement or suspense. They are simply a wild accumulation of clever or colorful espisodes, tending for the most part toward the comic, without any real anxiety. And, for this reason, that which one most usually expects in a Hitchcock film namely, accumulated tension should not be expected here.

Rather we get a rambling story it runs for almost two hours about the ways in which a student actress tries to shield her sweetheart from a murder charge. We get a long and involved presentation of what might technically be termed a counter-chase, with the young lady trying to get evidence and muddy the scent at the same time. And we also get a casual look-see at a developing romance, when the young lady switches her affections to the nice young detective on the case.

In the course of these scattered proceedings, we watch Marlene Dietrich give a show of silken and slumberous vampiratics in the role of a treacherous musical star. We watch her slyly and sleekly deceive the accused man, Richard Todd, and we witness the latter's panting efforts, in wide-eyed frenzy, to avoid being caught.

We are also allowed to witness Jane Wyman's assorted stratagems to save Mr. Todd from detection and eventually to put the finger on him. We watch her use her histrionics to inject herself as Miss Dietrich's maid, with several close encounters at being caught herself as a result. We see her beguile Michael Wilding, who plays the detective breezily, and we finally have the privilege of watching her make some cozy love.

But most particularly, in the course of this picture, we are brought into contact with Alistair Sim, the long-faced and sad-eyed English comic, who plays Miss Wyman's dad. And the privilege of watching him muster his wits and resources to assist his daughter in her endeavors is one of the genuine pleasures of the film. He and Dame Sybil Thorndike, who plays his acerbic wife, and a toothy lady named Joyce Grenfell, who does a hilarious bit as an attendant of a shooting-gallery at a theatrical fair, are the standouts in the show and that should give you some idea of how the emphasis has been placed.

Indeed, one is strongly suspicious, after watching this helter-skelter film, that Mr. Hitchcock was much less interested in his over-all story than in individual scenes. One has the uncomfortable feeling that he so much enjoyed the episodes that he lost or didn't even bother about strong and consistent development. No doubt his audiences will follow in their enjoyment of the episodes, but whether they will be quite as casual about the lack of form is something else again. "Stage Fright" is dazzlingly stagy but it is far from frightening.

On the stage at the Music Hall is a revue featuring Jessica Heist, Frank Gamboni, Vic and Adio, Roy Raymond, Walter Graff, Lee Marx, Patricia Drylie, the Choral Ensemble, Corp de Ballet and Rockettes. --The New York Times

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily the most Underrated of all Hitch's..., July 27, 2004

By 

M. DALTON (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stage Fright (DVD)

Like I said, STAGEFRIGHT is easily the most underrated of all Mr. Hitchcock's films. With first rate performances by all concerned(Alistair Sim is a riot), this was Hitch's first time back in England filming after many years abroad & it shows. Filmed in glorious black & white with the theatre as it's background, it's fuelled by almost every character playing a role other than their own & obviously having the time of their lives while doing it. Taking centre stage are Jane Wyman(a drama student who dangerously takes on her most important role in an effort to trap a murderer), Alistair Sim(as her father only too delighted to be caught up in the adventure)& Marlene Dietrich(delivering a deliriously over-the-top performance as a selfish actress). Filled with Hitch's trademark touches, the cinematography is magnificent(the garden party sequence is pure magic..watch for the sea of umbrellas)& hey! even Joyce Grenfell drops by for some great comic relief. Not that it needs it. This is the Master's great comedy murder mystery. 10/10 Bravo!!!!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the World's A Stage, August 23, 2000

By 

Stephen Reginald (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stage Fright [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Why Stage Fright doesn't rank amongst the top Hitchcock films is one of the great mysteries of the twentieth century. It has all the things that the best Hitchcock films have: great stars, Jane Wyman and Marlene Dietrich, both at the top of their game, a compelling storyline, a blossoming romance, and wonderful characterizations from the supporting players. The story begins with Eve Gill (Wyman), a student actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and her attempts to shield her boyfriend Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) from being framed for the murder of the husband of stage actress Charlotte Inwood (Dietrich). Jonathan and Charlotte were lovers and he fears that this relationship will be exposed (it was a secret) and thus establish his guilt. Eve who has had a crush on Jonathan for years believes he is telling the truth and tries to expose Charlotte as the real murderer. To do this she pretends to be the cousin of Charlotte's maid Nellie Good (Kay Walsh) who ostensibly is ill. In the guise of Doris, Nellie's "cousin," Eve is able to gain Charlotte's confidence. As Eve gets closer and closer to Charlotte, the mystery surrounding the death of her husband becomes more confusing and complex. Along the way, Eve is attracted to Inspector Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding) who is investigating the case. As Eve's character tries to solve the murder, her relationship with the inspector gets a little strained. She wants to tell Wilfred that she's Doris, Charlotte's maid, but the timing never seems right. With more twists and turns than the average Hitchcock film, Stage Fright moves along at a crisp pace, keeping viewers guessing right until the end. To reveal more would spoil the fun. Wyman is great as Eve and absolutely charming as the maid, Doris. And Dietrich is at her best playing a woman who isn't at all what she appears to be. And that's a big part of what makes this film so compelling. No one is who they appear to be! Everyone seems to be acting a part or role for one reason or another. There is great support from Todd, Wilding, Sybil Thorndike and Alastair Sim (as Eve's parents). Thorndike is simply hilarious as Wyman's mother, as is Sim as her father. If you're a Hitchcock fan, I don't think you'll be disappointed in this one, and if you're new to Hitchcock, by all means give it a try.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Kind of Battle of Angels, October 1, 2001

By 

Josef Bush (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stage Fright [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've watched this movie countless times. It is one of my very favorites. It combines all of the hallmarks of Hitchcock mystery thrillers, with the unusual device of a combative pairing of two American film stars, Jane Wyman and German-born Marlene Dietrich. This dark against light struggle between women is not altogether foreign in Hitchcock films; one thinks of the pairing of Suzanne Plechette and Tipi Hedrin in THE BIRDS, but in that film the Plechette character is killed off early. Here, the dark-haired Wyman character who dominates the very first scene, survives until the very last scene. However, the fair-haired Dietrich character has equal screen time, and though they often appear separately, they do sometimes play together in the most unusual way and to the most peculiar effect.

Stage Fright is a murder mystery based on the Selwyn Jepson novel, and I would do the new viewer the greatest injustice by beraying even a little of the plot. Outside of the particulars of the homicide in question, this is a movie about deception and betrayal within the context of the Theatre and its tradition; of theatrical people and their lives which, to an outsider, seem to be little more than imposture and artifice. The film then, is an elaborate structure of mirrors, smoke and lies.

Among the aspects of STAGE FRIGHT which set it apart from other films of the period, is the exceptional musical score by an obscure composer, Leighton Lucas. So sophisticated and expressive is it at working to enhance the story, one is reminded of later Hitchcock films like VERTIGO. First class work.

The costuming is superbe. Dietrich as Musical Star and Comedienne, Charlotte Indood, wears Dior throughout, and the coutourier created for her two dresses which play a key part in the articulation of the crime. Both dresses are made of some ineffably gauzy silken stuff, so insubstantial and smoke-like, that one of them -- a pale, probably blue dress and absolutely plain -- can be balled up with one hand by Dietrich's lover, Richard Todd, and stuffed into his sportscoat at the armhole without beraying even the slightest bulge. That dress' twin is dark, and probably a navy blue.

I mention this incidence of the two dresses because although dresses have important messages to deliveer about the women who wear them in Hitchcock movies, in no other film of his does costume, wardrobe and dressmaking play so crucial a part in defining the roles of the actresses, as they go back and forth within the story, altering their appearances and changing their identities to suit their frequently devious purposes.

The dark-haired Jane Wyman, who often played in American films with her hair bleached and permed, here plays with a very simple bob. Her makeup is quiet, but not austere. Her clothing is classic, in that it is anglo-saxon clothing as we've seen it for half a centrury or more. It is conservative in cut, modest and discreet. She wears, for example, in the scene where she lures a detective into a confidential chat, what appears to be a double-breasted camel's hair coat which, to the casual observer appears to be nothing out of the ordinary, but upon closer inspection appears to be of the finest goods, and could be worn today, some fifty-two years later, without apology, anywhere.

One could go on and on about the clothes the actresses wear, and use all available time and space without mentioning the supporting actors in the piece, from Kay Walsh, Alister Sim, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd, to Dame Sybil Thorndike, Charlotte Greenwood, and the incomparable Miles Malleson. If any movie depended on perfect character work, and demonstrated it well, this movie does just that. The secondary characters alone are worth the price of admission; even Hitchcock's daughter. In fact, the English cast is so fine, one is often tempted to wonder what this movie might have been like if Hitchcock had cast instead of Dierich, Googie Withers, or Gertrude Lawrence, Vivian Leigh or Valerie Hobson in the Charlotte Inwood role. Certainly it would have been different, and there was no shortage of talented, beautiful actresses in London, then, as there is no shortage today. But, however she got the role, Dietrich brought with her one invisible ally none of the others possessed, and perhaps one which even Hitchcock did not expect. She brought her voice, and with it, just occasionally, she managess to tie together what might have seemed to her to be a somewhat too flabby, too comfy assemblage of little gray people, by displaying unexpectedly and to great effect, a shining thread of ironic sarcasm like a skien of stainless steel, holding the project together, and reminding all of us with the crack of a whip, that this is, after all, a story about a calculated murder.

This film is rather like one of Goya's etchings; a study in lights and darks, an intimate entertainment, meant to be looked at closely and quietly, and savored. Stage Fright is adult entertainment, in the very best sense of the term.