Hitchcoc
I first saw this when it opened in my home town movie theater. I had no appreciation of Hitchcock at the time, and have, over the years, put him at the top of my director's list. Finally, seeing it again, I realized my hesitation came from all the reviews that said Hitchcock's last film was a great disappointment. The thing is, when one has such a magnificent filmography, good or decent are seen as disappointments. This film has two plots working toward each other. Bruce Dern (a cab driver) and Barbara Harris (a flakey, phony psychic) are trying to bilk an old lady out of 10,000 dollars. Meanwhile, William Devane and Karen Black are deadly jewel thieves. Dern' discovery of a phony gravestone, accidentally puts him in danger (without his knowledge). Devane and his female partner decide to waste the couple, but this actually works to the advantage of the lightweights. While there wasn't the great suspense here and a bevy of unique scenes, it still kept my interest to the end.
PimpinAinttEasy
Dear Al Pacino,I read that you rejected the lead role in this Hitchcock film. You went and made Bobby Deerfield instead. It would have been cool to see you in a Hitchcock film. Even though this is nowhere close to Hitch's best.Two sets of criminal couples (one murderous and the other one just small time crooks) are at odds with each other in this mysterious comedy.The film is a bit of an oddity in Hitch's filmography. There are some great directorial flourishes. The séance scene at the beginning is very mysterious and funny, John Williams score was pretty good. The scene in the car with the fake background that followed the séance was also great. The car going crazy was a great action scene. But some of the scenes go on for too long, the background score was unremarkable in places. De Palma did say that Hitch breaking up with Herrmann affected his last few films.Karen Black and Barbara Harris are beautiful in their own right, but when you consider all the beautiful women filmed by Hitch, they are right at the bottom of the list. I've never been that big a fan of Bruce Dern. I would have loved to see you in his role, Al. William Devine looked menacing with his toothy sinister smile.Overall, I'm not surprised you rejected this.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)
Hot 888 Mama
. . . and his character, George Lumley, proves more durable than the drunken sailor he played in MARNIE. I thought it was TOTALLY an implausible plot point that jewel thieves would hold a poor church mouse for ransom when I viewed FAMILY PLOT, until I saw this week's headline about the "Bishop of Bling" over in Germany. That does not change the fact that when you see the highlight reel of the fourteen Hitchcock flicks offered for sale in Universal Studio's "Master of Suspense" collection, the scenes from FAMILY PLOT sort of stick out like sore thumbs (and that includes the sticking of the aforementioned bishop with a hypodermic needle during his mid-Mass kidnapping; common sense would suggest NO congregation anywhere would sit still for such an incident, but as this week's offering at the multiplex--JACKASS PRESENTS BAD GRANDPA--proves, the American public has little if any common sense, and pranksters or evil-doers can get away with pretty much ANYTHING in front of a crowd as long as they seem either self-assured and\or too much trouble to interfere with).
Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki
Another unusual experiment from Hitchcock, this is not a suspense thriller, but combination jewel heist/ kidnapping plot, with a pair of smalltime cons crossing paths with kidnappers (with a hidden room behind a brick wall in their basement, clearly inspired by Poe) It has its moments of effectiveness, particularly an out-of-control drive down a winding, mountainside road, and a daring kidnap in front of a congregation. Also benefits from a good cast: Bruce Dern is wonderful, Barbara Harris is good also, as his phony medium of a wife. William Devane does well also, but he looks like a 1970s porno version of Rod Serling, and Karen Black's character is just merely there, leaving little impact considering she is a main character.Hitchcock adapted well to the 1970s, he appears to be moving forward, rather than just go for nostalgia, and the film is all the more better for that, rather than resorting to more chases on Mount Rushmore. But I still prefer his penultimate, Frenzy, because overall, this looks like an extended episode of Columbo, minus the old guy in the raincoat.
AD
