Review by Sam Moffitt
After seeing the wonderful new movie Hitchcock in a theater and now seeing it again on Blu-Ray I thought it might be nice to revisit one of the Master of Suspense’s own films, preferably one I had not seen in some time. Family Plot was Sir Alfred’s last film and a pretty good finale to an amazing career that started in the silent era, an apprentice ship at UFA Studio’s in Germany, watching no less a master film maker than Fritz Lang and ended in the 70’s when all the rules of film making were being broken by a bunch of young mavericks who changed the language of film altogether.
When I was a kid I loved everything about Hitchcock. I read his mystery magazine avidly, often in high school study hall instead of reading from a text book. My Mother would let me stay up late on school nights to watch reruns of his television show on Channel 11. It was on Channel 11 that I first got to see Psycho. After the networks chickened out of broadcasting Hitchcock’s game breaker channel 11 got the rights to broadcast Psycho, and they showed it five nights in a row, in, if I remember correctly 1969 or 70. I got to see To Catch a Thief and Dial M for Murder at the Naro Theater in Norfolk, Virginia during my Navy days. And I made certain to watch the five restorations (Rear Window, Vertigo, Rope, Trouble With Harry and Dial M for Murder in 3-D at the Hi-Pointe and the Tivoli in the 1980s.
The last time I had seen Family Plot was when I ran my tv station on board the USS AMERICA, around 1977. I remember liking it and it having something to do with stolen jewels, kidnapping and two very different couples.
Madame Blanche, a bogus medium, played wonderfully by Barbara Harris, is asked to locate the heir to an estate with the promise of $10,000.00 as a reward, serious money in the 1970s. Blanche’s boyfriend, George, a cab driver no less, also played wonderfully by Bruce Dern , ends up acting as a private detective in order to locate the missing heir. Meanwhile William Devane and Karen black are kidnapping high profile people and holding them for ransom, to be paid in jewels. Both couples appear to have no relationship to each other but, in classic Hitchcock fashion all is revealed by the final curtain.
First, all of the actors are terrific. Family Plot features four very prominent actors who were busy during the 1970s. Bruce Dern is one of the more likeable actors to come to prominence in that decade. Likeable, but also, much like John Cassavettes, even when he plays a decent guy, as in Family Plot, he still looks like he’d rather punch your lights out as talk over the situation. Dern was in everything from some of Roger Corman’s biker films and the Two Headed Transplant to high profile big budget projects like Silent Running and The Great Gatsby. In the Cowboys he actually got to shoot and kill John Wayne!
Dern is excellent at playing a character who is too smart to be driving a cab, and he knows it, and shows how smart he is by doing a very thorough, and believable, investigation into the missing heir’s whereabouts. Who wouldn’t identify with such a character? Don’t we all think we’re too smart for the jobs we are doing?
Barbara Harris, who plays Blanche the phony psychic (and turns out to have some real ability in that area), was also featured in one of Disney’s best films from the 70s, Freaky Friday. Her ability to play a 13 year old tomboy in a grown woman’s body absolutely makes that film. Here she is wonderful goading George into helping her find the missing heir so they can collect the reward money and pestering him for sex. The double entendres between the two of them are priceless. It’s interesting to see Hitchcock feature characters who are working class. George has to keep reminding Blanch that he has to drive his cab or they won’t eat. In one delightful scene George fixes hamburgers for the two of them in her modest apartment. Blanche tears into her burger like she hasn’t eaten in days.
The opposite extreme to George and Blanche are played by William Devane as Arthur Adamson and Karen Black as Fran, who somehow manage to make a kidnapping for ransom scheme work, not once but apparently as a career. There are at least a dozen reasons why their scam would not work out, watch the movie and you’ll see what I mean.
Hitchcock’s direction is the real scam, his shell game with the characters doesn’t really give you much time to think about the implausibility of it.
Blanche and George are the light to Arthur and Fran’s dark. They work for a living while Arthur and Fran are living the good life with their ill gotten gains. They even have a hidden room in their luxury town house where they keep their kidnapped victims until it’s time to make the switch. A hidden room that looms large in the finale.
Devane did some seriously great work in the 70s. A strange actor whose voice sounds exactly like Jack Nicholson he looks way too much like John Kennedy. He even played Kennedy in a television production called the Missiles of October. He hit a high water mark in a seriously intense revenge action picture called Rolling Thunder.
But the top star in the cast of Family Plot has to be Karen Black. Here was another actor closely associated with the “New Hollywood” of the 1970s, who appeared in break out parts in Five Easy Pieces, Drive, He Said and Portnoy’s Complaint. She also appeared in high profile films like Day of the Locust and Airport 1975. And she appeared in memorable horror films like Burnt Offerings and the legendary Trilogy of Terror, as well as low budget weirdness like Killer Fish.
Her first scene in Family Plot has her looking absolutely killer dressed in all black with a blonde wig and brandishing a pistol. Throughout the film she looks terrific and is a great counterpoint to Devane’s toothy grin.
In true thriller fashion these two couples would seem to have no connection. But Hitchcock’s mastery of storytelling never falters. The final showdown is a text book example of the Hitchcock style of suspense.
Supporting characters include Ed Lauter as a flunky willing to do Devane’s dirty work and Katherine Helmond providing a valuable clue to the mystery.
Like all the Universal Hitchcock Masterpiece series there is a wonderful making of documentary where we get to hear from three out of the four major players. Bruce Dern, Karen Black and William Devane all tell their recollections of working with a master film maker .
Devane informs us that his part was originally played by Roy Thinnes, probably best known for the Quinn Martin television series The Invaders. For reasons he never made clear to anybody Hitchcock fired Thinnes, scrapped most of his footage and started over with Devane. Thinnes apparently never got over the firing and made a public scene with Hitchcock demanding an explanation, which he never received.
Hitchcock could be loyal to actors that he really liked. In a recent interview in Shock Cinema, Ed Lauter reveals that Hitchcock apparently loved him and wanted to use him as often as possible. Dern was also a favorite of Hitchcock’s, appearing several times on the television show and playing a small but key part in Marnie. Dern is proud of this, and justifiably so, I’d brag about it too if I were a pro of his caliber.
The really interesting points are brought up by Karen Black, who still looks terrific by the way. Having started her career in the Sixties and working in the “New Hollywood” of the Seventies she was used to improvisation, sloppy camera work, group dynamics, what have you, in the film making process. She soon realized working with the Master of Suspense was a whole new ball game. She still expresses amazement that Hitchcock would shoot and edit the film in his head before the camera would roll. He then would have his camera man shoot exactly the material he wanted, no more, no less. And the whole thing would come together in the editing room perfectly, shot after shot, sequence after sequence, picture after picture, for his entire career. From her vantage as a seasoned Hollywood professional Karen Black assures us that no other director she ever worked with or heard of worked that way. Most directors shoot way more footage than will ever be used, coverage they call it, shoot from every angle imaginable and let the editor figure it out. This is the kind of information I love to get from a DVD extra, priceless!
We also learn that Hitchcock felt personally responsible for all the craft people it takes to make a motion picture. He was independently wealthy from the box office receipts of Psycho alone and could have retired at any time. No, he kept working to keep the makeup people, electricians, ward robe, studio drivers, craft services, everybody, receiving a weekly paycheck.
The DVD also features the original theatrical trailer and some photos and press material.
Not a masterpiece by any means, this is certainly no Vertigo or Psycho, but then even Sir Alfred could only produce so many masterpieces. Family Plot is a solid work of craftsmanship from a director in the twilight of his career, ailing from numerous health problems, yet still at the top of his game, in full control of his craft, his art and most of all, his story telling ability and wit.
A fine valedictory and a fond farewell from one of the greatest directors of motion pictures in the history of the medium.
