Review of Stage Fright

The most famous thing about "Stage Fright" is without a doubt its final plot twist; having seen the film twice now, I can say that the twist almost holds up, but there is one scene, or more accurately one line, that cheats (Todd and Dietrich meet in her dressing room, alone, and she says the word "accident"). Two other characteristics of this movie are its brilliant camera work (especially at the start, when Todd goes into the house where the dead body is), and its well-written dialogue. Unfortunately, there is less of the former and more of the latter - the movie is overly talky. Jane Wyman appears to be bland at the start, but as the film goes on and she has to assume all these different identities, she gets better. Richard Todd is effective in his key scenes (the close-ups of his eyes at the finale). Michael Wilding is likable as the detective and Alastair Sim is delightfully dry as Wyman's father (at one point she says "I'll make her talk. It will be one woman to another". Sim's response: "Yes. An impressive situation at any time"). The one performance I didn't like was Marlene Dietrich's - it was old-fashioned even by 1950 standards. But maybe that's what Hitchcock had in mind. (**1/2)