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Stage FrightRating:
Release Date: 07 September, 2004 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: |
Stage Fright Reviews
Fun but Flawed Early `50s Hitchcock
(Note. It's impossible to say anything about this movie without giving the plot away a bit. So if you've not seen it, don't read this.)
This is a bit of an oddity in Hitchcock's oeuvre. We start out with a young couple in a car, the guy (Richard Todd) telling the girl (Jane Wyman) a story that is relayed to us in flashback of how his lover (Marlene Dietrich) turned up at his house with a tale of a quarrel with her husband that ended in his death; how he went back to her house for her to fetch a clean dress to replace the bloodstained one she wore; how he was seen there and is now being pursued by the police, how he picked her (Wyman) up from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where she was a student. Trusting him she whisks him away to the country to the surreal seaside cottage where her fey old sea dog father (Alastair Sim) agrees to help her hide him from the cops. But then she sneaks back to London to figure out what the cops are thinking only to lose interest in her fugitive paramour by falling in love with Michael Wilding's dashing Inspector Smith. And so we move on, through encounters with Sybil Thorndike's dotty patrician mother and Joyce Grenfell's infinitely dottier fairground attendant inviting Sim to shoot "lovely ducks" to obtain the doll he will use to try to trick Dietrich into betraying her guilt, to the climactic scenes where we learn the opening flashback was entirely fraudulent. (At the time this seemed a serious weakness but this film came out in the same year as `Rashomon' which would begin to educate film audiences not to take flashbacks at face value...)
The whole thing rather recalls Hitchcock's earlier English movies like "Lady Vanishes" in seeking to mix a dark tale of suspense with elements of quirky humour. But here it must be said the concoction is somewhat less deftly blended than it is elsewhere. Sim, Grenfell and Thorndike are certainly amusing and are perhaps the main things to remember about the film. But as a suspense movie it never really floats. It's funny but never manages to be scary: there's never any real sustained sense that Wyman's heroine is seriously imperilled. The result is less a thriller than a light romantic comedy between Wyman and Wilding with a slightly halfhearted murder story as a backdrop.
As this movie clearly reminds us, not all Hitchcock's movies are great. But as his reminds us no less clearly, none of them are dull.
Great film, questionable DVD release
Hitchcock's STAGE FRIGHT is, indeed, one of his most underappreciated films, which is surprising considering how entertaining it is on all of its levels. The music is exciting, the acting of all is first-class, the cinematography of Wilkie Cooper is marvelous and the movie is bright, fast and amusing throughout. As a film, it is not to be missed.
As a DVD, on the other hand, it leaves much to be desired. Much can be forgiven in this release, which was not given too much care in the transfer from film to video, but what cannot be forgiven is the fact that the picture and sound are out of synchronization. And this is appalling for a major studio like Warner Brothers. It is unacceptable, in fact. Warners seems to be the worst in this regard. Their DVDs of BLOOD ALLEY, MAVERICK (the TV series) and about three dozen other titles that I am personally aware of are out of sync. It is fofr this reason that I cannot recommend this disc to fans - unless Warner Brothers remasters it with the sound and picture correctly in sync with each other.
The picture quality is only OK. There is a theatrical print of this film circulating in the classics movie houses which is vastly superior to the print used for this DVD.
All in all, a great film, but an unacceptable DVD
Dan Guenzel
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