Family Plot (1976)

Family Plot is Alfred Hitchcock's last film, and what a way to end an extremely successful career. While competing with Jaws and The Exorcist, you can say that suspense was changing, yet Hitch decided to stick with what made him famous - CLASSIC suspense, that is, innocent people in dangerous situations, misfires, MacGuffins, and iconic ICONIC villains. You wonder why some people don't care for it, or even never heard of it. Family Plot includes all that makes a great motion picture. An all-star cast that all did outstanding, an humorous, engrossing screenplay by Ernest Lehman, an unknown, yet great score by John Williams, and classic Classic CLASSIC Alfred Hitchcock.

Fmovies: I think if you approach this movie beforehand knowing it's not going to be a "Vertigo" or "Rear Window," you'll have some fun. Sure it's fluff, but it is entertaining nonetheless. Even kooky, vegetable-like Karen Black aka "The World's Worst Actress" seems to have benefited from working with Hitch and pulls off an adequate performance. Never cared for Bruce Dern and here he's his usual Willard looking self. Barbara Harris was a true delight, "Don't blaspheme, George." and found her character of Madam Blanche quite amusing. I even found the run away car scene entertaining, if not a bit over the top. All in all, I liked the story and liked the way it wrapped up in the end. Hitchcock's last gift to us all.

This last Hitchcock film may seem out of step with all of the others, but then it has to be. The sexual/cultural revolution is over. The cynical 70s are in full swing. You can't just insinuate "the act" anymore and cut to the seashore.

Into this environment comes "Family Plot". It is basically two sets of crimes, one minor and one major, hitting an intersection with one group of criminals having no idea what the other group is up to.

Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris) is a fake psychic. She has her cabbie boyfriend get information for her based on the hints she gets from the séances. In this case a wealthy woman, Julia Rainbird, claims her sister's spirit and her own conscience torment her because in 1933 she made her sister put her illegitimate child up for adoption because of the scandal that would have occurred given the conventions of the times. Nobody knows what happened to him since the adoption was closed. Now Julia Rainbird, in her old age, wants to accept her nephew into the family and leave the entire estate to him. There is 10K in it for Blanche if she can find him.

What Blanche and cabbie lover George (Bruce Dern) don't know is that the long lost heir is basically Lex Luther with hair - William Devane as Arthur Adamson, a true sociopath who loves thumbing his nose at conventions and loves crime. Together he and his girlfriend, Fran (Karen Black) kidnap wealthy people in exchange for jewels. Adamson has a legitimate business as a jeweler as a front.

The misunderstandings come in when Adamson discovers that somebody is digging into his past, specifically his faked death which was a cover for the murder of his adoptive parents back in 1950. Blanche and George can't figure out why they would be getting attempts on their life. Adamson has no idea of his true identity and has no idea why these two amateurs are trying to find him, figuring it has either to do with his current kidnappings or the past murder of his parents.

It all comes together in a suspenseful and comical way. I'll let you watch and find out how.

Blanche and George are a hilarious couple just perfect for 1975. In one scene, at the end of the day, she is basically ordering him to come inside the house and sexually service her. George replies she is wearing him out and he has to work tomorrow. She asks "what are you saving it for?". This is a long way from the stolen glances, passionate kisses, and hand holding in "Dial M For Murder", but this is a different time and they are just right for it.

Even at the end Hitchcock did know how to change with the times. I'd recommend it.

Family Plot fmovies. I was with low expectations before watching this because I read a lot of negative reviews that said this was a not a good movie. I only bought it because this was the only missing film in "The Hitchcock Collection". Well, I saw it and I think it is great!It is a light movie, that mixes comedy with suspense and it's an enjoyable surprise. All of the comedy/light movies that Hitchcock made are underrated (see the example of "The trouble with Harry"(1955)) and I can't understand why.This has some scenes that demonstrate the mastery of Alfred Hitchcock, notably the car scene where one couple is inside a moving car with the brakes sabotaged.That scene is so well constructed that you actually can feel like you are in the car... Amazing!I watched in the "Making of" this picture someone saying that, at that time, people knew this would be the last Hitchcock movie it would have been received way better by the audience. I give it 8 of 10 because it's a joyful and great movie.

This is one of my favorite Hitchcock films, alongside things like Notorious, Psycho, North By Northwest, Frenzy, and Foreign Correspondent. Though Hitchcock applied the magic directorial touch to many of the sequences, I can't help but feel it is a small team of performers who make this a fun film to watch over and over again: William Devane, Barbara Harris, Karen Black, throw in Ed Lauter too--and most of all, of course, the marvellous Bruce Dern. I know that some of them were not first choices in the casting process, but what you end up with here are two teams of schemers who collide in splendid ways, all because one man's horrid past starts to intrude on his equally despicable present. You can hide, but you can't run.

I love the strong element of coincidence in the film, normally the mark of a tacky film. And how many of these serpentine machinations on display really do stem from coincidence? The first coincidence is a real one: Bruce Dern almost hits strolling stranger Karen Black with his car--and of course these two are destined to cross paths several times throughout the film. But Dern and Harris, as this wonderful contrast to the other sneaky pair of the film, Devane and Black, appear as ditherers, scatterbrains, goofs, even. We have the precise, cleanly- executed super-calm approach of Devane and Black versus what looks like a losing side in the bumbling obliviousness of the admittedly lovable Dern & Harris dysfunctional combo.

Or not dysfunctional, after all! Under all the histrionics, bickering and clowning around, Dern and Harris manage to function as plodding yet determined detectives--and they have an advantage over Devane's superior intellect: they are coming at him, slowly, from an angle he does not expect...his past. The few scenes with cops--wonderful scenes, playful scenes-- just indicate that if George (Bruce Dern) and Blanche (Barbara Harris) don't succeed in tracking a criminal (and his reluctant female accomplice) to his lair the hard way, no one will. The kidnapping-for-swag will go on and on because the villains are too perfect. Enter successful dysfunction, in just the most wonderful way shown in any movie.

I love all the intertwining, and I love Ed Lauter coming in from the sidelines and being that cool fifth-guy-in--and I love a last Hitchcock movie that has, of all things, self-absorbed faceless teenagers in a car, who--after accidentally forcing an oncoming car off a cliff, just sort of drive off to continue their partying. After all, who cares? Whimsy in death. And I do cherish the little wink at the end--as if it's Hitchcock himself taking the first brick out of the "Fourth Wall" and saying 'I'm just about done pretending". I love Frenzy, but I prefer a charming, breezy exit. With just a hint of menace. Vastly under-appreciated movie.

Having seen "Torn Curtain" about a year ago, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about seeing another of Hitchcock's "late" works (indeed, his final film). "TC" was absolutely abysmal, as reflected in my comments there, so I had no great expectations for "Family Plot." I was pleasantly surprised, however. Although true Hitchcock buffs may not rank "FP" alongside the "classics" like "Psycho" and "NxNW," "FP" is an evenly-paced film with strong central characters, an interesting supporting cast, good acting, humor, innuendo, mystery and, of course, suspense. A good all-around film by the master in his final effort. It won't leave your palms sweating and your blood running cold, and there are a couple of flaws that a younger Hitch might have caught (I, for one, wonder how Blanche's car got fixed so quickly -- hard to believe it wasn't totaled in the first place).

Nonetheless, Family Plot will hold your attention and keep you guessing until the very end. I'm glad I took the time to seek it out and watch it.