Notable cast/crew: Karen Black as Fran. Bruce Dern as George Lumley. Barbara Harris as Blanche Tyler. William Devane as Arthur Adamson. Ed Lauter as Joseph Maloney. Katherine Helmond as Mrs Maloney. Original Music by John Williams. Costume Design by Edith Head.
Running time: 121 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
MacGuffin: The diamonds
Hitchcock cameo: In silhouette behind the door at the registrar of births and deaths
Hitchcock themes:
- Sophisticated villain
- Blondes
- Stairs
Verdict: Lighthearted at times with a touch of menace describes both William Devane's performance and Family Plot. The movie balances four lead roles with what initially appear to be unrelated plots. It ties in nicely upon our finding out William Devane's crook is the missing heir. There's a bit of a twist here on Hitchcock's usual theme of a man wrongfully accused. This time, it's a man who doesn't want to be recognized because he is guilty trying to thwart the "heroes" who only want to tell him he's heir to a fortune. The couples are played off as opposites: Devane and Karen Black as well-to-do, cunning, cool, dark; Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris as scraping to get by, clever but not sharp, volatile, and sunnier.
Roy Thinnes was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson, but Hitchcock's first choice, William Devane, became available so Hitchcock fired Thinnes without a reason and hired Devane. Some key scenes had been shot prior to this. Everything that had been shot was re-shot except for long shots which to this day remain as Roy Thinnes and not William Devane like the bishop being carried out of the church.
This is Hitchcock's final film. Its final shot, the final ever shot in all of Hitchcock's 53 movies, is Barbara Harris breaking the fourth wall by looking straight into the camera and winking at the audience. Bruce Dern had almost convinced Hitchcock that Alfred should come down the stairs and do the wink, but they stuck with this instead. It's a sly acknowledgement that she's letting the audience in on the joke that Dern's character didn't get, but it also is unusual for a Hitchcock film where everything was normally so tightly controlled to never break the mood of the picture nor to take you out of the world the film had created. It was not a planned end to Hitchcock's career (he has working on another movie script, The Short Night, before he died), but it ended up being a fitting one. It's not his best film, but it's interesting and fun, and he hadn't really done a fun film since North By Northwest.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
Roy Thinnes was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson, but Hitchcock's first choice, William Devane, became available so Hitchcock fired Thinnes without a reason and hired Devane. Some key scenes had been shot prior to this. Everything that had been shot was re-shot except for long shots which to this day remain as Roy Thinnes and not William Devane like the bishop being carried out of the church.
This is Hitchcock's final film. Its final shot, the final ever shot in all of Hitchcock's 53 movies, is Barbara Harris breaking the fourth wall by looking straight into the camera and winking at the audience. Bruce Dern had almost convinced Hitchcock that Alfred should come down the stairs and do the wink, but they stuck with this instead. It's a sly acknowledgement that she's letting the audience in on the joke that Dern's character didn't get, but it also is unusual for a Hitchcock film where everything was normally so tightly controlled to never break the mood of the picture nor to take you out of the world the film had created. It was not a planned end to Hitchcock's career (he has working on another movie script, The Short Night, before he died), but it ended up being a fitting one. It's not his best film, but it's interesting and fun, and he hadn't really done a fun film since North By Northwest.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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