Not even bad in a good way

From my favorite movies..

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There is a recurring plot in crime dramas: an innocent man is suspected of committing a murder, and he tries to evade the police long enough to prove his own innocence. Hitchcock often used it, as in "The 39 Steps." This plot requires us to suspend disbelief, because no one has ever proved his innocence in real life by avoiding the police long enough to find out who really did it and getting evidence to prove it. "Stage Fright" is a slight variation on this plot. In this case, the suspect's friend tries to hide him from the police long enough to prove the murder was committed by someone else. Once again, no one in real life has ever managed to do that.In a really good movie, like "The 39 Steps," suspending disbelief is easy, and we are well rewarded for doing so. But in a mediocre film like "Stage Fright," we are only partially engaged in the movie, and thus find ourselves comparing what happens with reality, and being a little put off by the difference. Instead of suspending disbelief, we find ourselves simply disbelieving.Maybe it is just me, but if I were suspected of a crime I did not commit, I would get myself a lawyer and turn myself in to the police. The movie begins with Jonathan telling Eve that Charlotte came over to his apartment with blood on her dress, saying she killed her husband in self-defense during an argument. He says he agreed to help her establish an alibi, and he goes back to her place to get another dress, and while he is there, tries to make it look like a burglary. However, Charlotte's maid shows up, sees him, and is able to identify him to the police. Now, we later find out that this story is a lie. But while I was watching it, taking this story seriously, I thought to myself that I would have simply advised Charlotte to get a lawyer and turn herself in to the police. And if she refused, I would have notified the police anyway.Furthermore, when Jonathan shows up at the theater where Eve, an actress, is in rehearsal, he tells her that the police want him for something he didn't do, and she agrees to help him escape. She should have told Jonathan to get a lawyer and turn himself in to the police. If he refused to do so, she should have notified the police herself.She takes Jonathan to her father's place, where the father agrees to help Eve hide Jonathan. By this time, it will come as no surprise when I say that if I had been Eve's father, I would have told Jonathan to get a lawyer and turn himself in to the police. If Jonathan and Eve refused to go along with this idea, I would have notified the police anyway.Later, we find out that it was Jonathan who killed Charlotte's husband. But that only allows for one more iteration of my general advice. In that case, Charlotte should have gotten a lawyer and gone to the police. Even if she did instigate the murder, as Jonathan claims, she could have denied involvement, and Jonathan would have been the one to go to prison.Now, it might be argued that if any one of these characters had gone to the police, as I say they should have, there would have been no movie. But any movie that is lackluster enough to allow for disbelief, rather than the suspension thereof, is a movie we would have been better off without.

My title may seem a little off-base since "Stage Fright" comes about in the middle of the nearly five decades that Alfred Hitchcock thrilled audiences with his films. But, whenever it was that one saw a Hitchcock film, we always had a sense of "Wow, he did it again." The again, of course, was his clever shooting, scripting, and direction that entertained and beguiled us while keeping us in the dark about many parts of the film and its outcome.One could have fun with lots of "m's" – as in mayhem and murder -- to describe Hitchcock movies. But we should remember that Hitch also did some comedies and romance. While he wasn't known for those, I think they give us a little hint about the subtle humor that he likes to weave into some of his stories. Not all, but some. Including his cameo shots in almost all of his mystery films. "Stage Fright" has a touch of comedy in the dialogue, and more in the mannerisms of one of the main characters – Commodore Gill, played by Alastair Sim (as the credits note, billed as "Alistair" Sim). Sim will forever be known to movie fans as Ebenezer Scrooge from the 1951 filming of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." And although he did have some serious roles in earlier mysteries and dramas, Sim was very successful the last half of his career with comedies. In "Stage Fright," Commodore Gill's wit and light-hearted manner gives a sense of calm to contrast the high tension of Jane Wyman's Eve Gill. Wyman excels in her role, and the other main characters are all very good. Marlene Dietrich is not the star of this film, but she has a main role of suspicion that she carries us along with very nicely. Richard Todd's Jonathan Cooper is very good, and Michael Wilding, Sybil Thorndike and Kay Walsh are excellent as Ordinary Smith, Mrs. Gill and Nellie Goode, respectively.I won't discuss the plot, because I think that reveals too much and the suspense is a big part of the enjoyment of these films. Suffice it to say that "Hitch has done it again." He dazzled movie goers for more than four decades with many of the best crime mysteries ever put on film. No one could do them better. And, while he did receive five Academy Award nominations, he never did win an Oscar. This is one of those uncanny things about Hollywood, the movie industry and the Oscars. Films that Hitch directed received nearly 50 Academy Award nominations. They won six Oscars and two Golden Globes – for others. And, if nothing else, Hitchcock was one of the most successful movie directors in the U.S. and England. Most of his films from the 1930s through 1960s were huge box-office successes. Many big name stars appeared in Hitch films – some in more than one. Cary Grant, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, Peter Lorre, Charles Laughton, Claude Rains, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Rod Taylor, James Mason, Raymond Burr, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, Montgomery Clift, Joel McCrea, Karl Malden, Joseph Cotton, George Sanders, and Robert Donat had some of the male leads. Ingrid Bergman, Julie Andrews, Janet Leigh, Carole Lombard, Maureen O'Hara, Joan Fontaine, Diane Baker, Doris Day, Anne Baxter, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, Shirley MacLaine, Grace Kelly, and Laraine Day were among the female leads.At the time of my writing this review in January, 2014, nine of Alfred Hitchcock's films are among the top 250 rated movies on the IMDb list. "Rear Window" from 1954 is IMDb number 30, followed by "Psycho" from 1960 at number 31. "North by Northwest" from 1959 is ranked 57; "Vertigo" from 1958 is 67; "Rebecca" from 1940 is 134; and "Dial M for Murder" from 1954 is 168. The last three are "Strangers on a Train," 1950, at number 186; "Notorious," 1946, at 191; and "Rope" from 1948 at number 240. Is there another director who has more than nine films in the top 250 IMDb list in early January, 2014?Viewers may note that "Birds" from 1963 isn't on the IMDb top-250 list. Nor is "Lifeboat," long-considered one of the great movies of all time since it came out in 1944, smack dab at the height of World War II. Or, how about "Spellbound" from 1945? Or, "The 39 Steps" from 1935? Or, "Marnie" from 1964? Indeed, the list of great films by Hitchcock goes on and on. Most are mysteries, but some are romance and comedies. I recommend the above films to younger viewers who may want to see more of Hitchcock. And, the following list is sure to provide many more hours of movie enjoyment. "The Man Who Knew Too Much," 1934; "Secret Agent," 1936; "Sabotage," 1936; "The Girl Was Young," 1937; "The Lady Vanishes," 1938; "Jamaica Inn," 1939; "Foreign Correspondent," 1930; "Suspicion," 1941; "Saboteur," 1942; "Shadow of a Doubt," 1943; "I Confess," 1953; "To Catch a Thief," 1955; "The Troubles with Harry," 1955; "The Wrong Man," 1956; "Torn Curtain," 1966; and "Frenzy," 1972.

I regard Stage Fright as one of Hitchcock's most undervalued films. It contains certain conventions of his film craft, yet introduces a unique twist--a twist that is misunderstood.As is always the case in a Hitchcock film, blood is the element of murder. Here, the blood stain on a dress is what links the characters together. Like a deadly game of tag, the dress goes from person to person, pulling them into the story, tainting them. First, the framed boyfriend, then the girl who loves him, then her father.Hitchcock likes to play with the difference between what the characters know and what the viewers know. When the audience knows more, it can add suspense (e.g. when Raymond Burr sees Grace Kelly point to the ring in Rear Window). Here he toys with us, giving us a flashback that misleads, but it is not really a "false flashback" as it has so often been called. Remember that this is not a case of the director showing what happened prior; it is an illustration of the story being told to Jane Wyman by Richard Todd. He is manipulating her with a false story. So the misunderstanding is caused by a false telling, not a false flashback. But, yes, Hitchcock does use it to mislead us. He is challenging the rules (but in a fair way) just as he fooled everyone by killing off the "star" of his movie Psycho.Personally, I enjoyed all the acting, especially Alastair Sims as Jane Wyman's father. I found the dialogue of this movie very enjoyable--clever and full of nuance and illusion. Sims really took advantage of his role and delivered some delicious lines.It was nice to Patricia Hitchcock in the minor role of Chubby. In Strangers on a Train, she gets to better display her talents.Wyman's character, an acting student, takes on the various roles as the lies pile up. Eventually, she becomes the assistant/dresser for the star actress played by Marlene Dietrich. Her father becomes her assistant/dresser in that role, as she is drawn deeper and deeper into her own fiction.At the beginning of the film, we see the curtain rise on the proceedings (something Baz Luhrmann used later). Until the final curtain falls, we are drawn into a suspenseful story of an amateur sleuth. Time is an important element in suspense, and Hitchcock does not need to put a clock on screen to remind us of the impending problems that threaten his characters here. And he sometimes seems to drag out the time with inconsequentials, knowing he is drawing us further into the anxiety of his protagonists.I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I hope others discover it.

Surely not one among Hitchock's most discussed films, STAGE FRIGHT stands out as a "wild accumulation of clever or colorful episodes" rather than "wild accumulation of tension" (Bosley Crowther, New York Times, February 1950). Indeed, STAGE FRIGHT does not occur to display any striking resemblance to more popular fantasy products by the Master of Suspense and, strangely enough, his famous hallmark, the MacGuffin, actually remains offstage. Carter B. Horsley rightly observed once that "Hitchcock had a wickedly delicious sense of humor and was a master manipulator of his audiences with unexpected dramatics in spectacular locations." It seems that this line finds its clearest resemblance in this film which proves to balance the real with the stylized, occurs to transmute a melodrama into real life where, specifically, Hitchcock and old England are doing darn well...and...lots of our assumptions give way to the unique fantasy of linguistic and cinematic 'manipulation.' With the lovely camera ankle of 'entrance into apartment' viewers enter a slightly different world by Hitchock, yet equally entertaining and memorable. Flashbacks are there to tell lies, the images of ruined London serve to correspond to specific period challenges, the English characters spy or are accused while the German ones sing, the psychology of characters seem to deceive us all the way through but one thing is certain: the show goes on with a very specific aspect where 'some fear' is placed: the stage. Terribly theatrical context but isn't that so much British? Traditionally British? Therefore, I would like to focus on three points of this "helter-skelter" movie, as Bosley Crowther names it in his review: the cast, old England and humor.THE CAST: One of the film's major strengths is its delightful bunch of British cast. As a relatively newcomer at Hitchcock, JANE WYMAN, is the director's unique female discovery. From the start of the film, she somehow manages to call our attention, we empathize with her and, in the long run, she constitutes, for us, a perfect model of 'make-belive.' There is innocence and inexperience blended in her. One of the most powerful scenes that she handles is the bar moment where she leads audiences to certain tension but does not let us be absorbed by it completely. She looks desperate, as humorous Mr Fortesque notes, but surprises us with later reactions. That anticipates, and rightly so, her major skill in this performance, to evoke emotions constantly keeping the borderline, the limit to what place it is safe to go and which point we actually cannot cross. Also great job as one Doris Tinsdale and a dresser of extravagant Charlotte.MICHAEL WILDING, a very eminent actor of the times, with his role does not only serve to portray an 'Agatha-Christie' like detective but beautifully combines the wits, charm, and determination creating a unique, non-verbal interaction with various audiences. Finally, he is the one who falls in love. His moment is the car scene with Eve. The performance of RICHARD TODD, the actor of Irish origin does occur a bit shadowed by others. STAGE FRIGHT does not ignore, among the supporting performers, the elderly couple (who are usually the parents of a protagonist) and so they are here: ALISTAIR SIM as calm and peaceful Mr Gill and SYBIL THORNDYKE as his rigid, demanding wife.As she is a strict mother of more or less Victorian style, he is a very sympathetic, hilarious (at moments) daddy who is afraid for his daughter knowing that 'in real life you have to face situations with all its bearings.' He is a very likable old gentleman, at the same time, resorting to more peaceful way of life and one of the most frank of all Hitchcock's supporting characters. Crowther nicely refers to Sim's performance saying that: "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." Sim and Thorndyke paired together, they powerfully manifest the director's own believes about elderly couples within traditional conventions of a family life. And, obviously, Hitchock's daughter Patricia in the supporting role.Of course, among the cast, there is one exception from 'the British' yet, the one loved by the British public: MARLENE DIETRICH. It simply takes her that way and some people see the film solely for the sake of her presence. Yes, as 'the Laziest Gal in Town' with specific sexy laziness that only Marlene was capable of handling on the screen, she reveals the flamboyant and yet predictable aspect of her character, Charlotte. Her glamor goes with her terrific impact on characters around and audiences alike with, indeed, some other unforgettable climaxes than the song she sang for Hitchcock (and sang once more in Denver). She embodies sex with power, extravagance with manipulation, beauty with price.OLD ENGLAND: Along with the title and the locations, Hitchcock highlights something significant that may but does not necessarily remain in the background: peaceful, idyllic England that is forever gone with the old generation. We don't have haunting castles, some ghastly removed spots, foggy atmosphere and other clichés of the sort but a garden party, old cafés, theater basically ruled by classical approach, gentlemen of the old style and the post-war London where ruins also stand for social situation of the time. In this way, the film is 'dazzlingly stagy...far from frightening' (Crowther) but very pleasant to watch. And the last aspect:HUMOR is ever-present from the lovely scene of Doris Tinsdale in glasses through Hitchcock's cameo presence, Mr and Mrs Gill's tense interactions, some of Ordinary Smith's lines to the dark wit (for the time) expressed in Charlotte's line "I hate rainy funerals." Many clever lines make the film witty in an intelligent manner.STAGE FRIGHT is undeniably a movie worth seeing, another of Hitchock's powerful productions though it might not look like one. Worth seeing!