Stage Fright
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- This article is about the movie. For an article about the sudden onset of fear while performing, see: stage fright.
Stage_Fright_(1950).jpg
Stage Fright is a 1950 Warner Bros. motion picture produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, and Richard Todd. Others in the cast include Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, and Patricia Hitchcock in her movie debut.
Though Hitchcock lived and worked in Hollywood since 1939, this mystery/thriller, which is mixed with humor, was filmed on location in London. The only members of the cast who are not English are the two top billed stars, Wyman and Dietrich.
Drama student Eve Gil (played by Wyman), receives a call from a friend, actor Jonathan Cooper (played by Richard Todd), and is asked to come over and pick him up. In her car, the frantic Jonathan, who is in the cast of a West End musical starring a flamboyant stage actress/singer, Charlotte Inwood (played by Dietrich), explains that he and Charlotte are secret lovers and that he is now wanted by the police who suspect him of murdering her husband. He recounts in a flashback that Charlotte was actually the murderer, that she was wearing a blood stained dress he helped her dispose of, that he was seen leaving the scene of the crime and is sure to be charged and convicted.
Eve has long had a crush on Jonathan, but accepts that he is not interested in her romantically. She offers to hide him, with the help of her (at first) reluctant father, Commodore Gil (played by Alastair Sim), and decides to investigate for herself. She bribes Charlotte's shrewd theatre maid and dresser, Nellie Goode (played by Kay Walsh), to pretend she is ill. She then utilizes her acting skills to affect the false identity and accent of a Cockney maid, claims to be Nellie's cousin, Doris, and takes the temporary job of replacing "her cousin" in order to prove Jonathan's innocence.
When she meets the policeman in charge of the case, Detective-Inspector Wilfred Smith (played by Michael Wilding), who does not know that she is working as Charlotte's maid, Doris, they gradually begin falling in love. While working for Charlotte and trying to find evidence showing she committed the crime and is framing Jonathan, she also attempts to get Smith to reveal information about the progress of the case at Scotland Yard. As Smith is also keeping an eye on Charlotte, there is a great chance that something will go wrong.
She is able to gain the confidence of Charlotte, who goes about business as usual. But the mystery surrounding the murder becomes more confusing and complex as she searches for some evidence. Her relationship with Smith becomes a little strained. She wants to tell him that she is doubling as Doris, but the timing never seems right.
There is a scene at a garden party where Charlotte is singing on stage in a large tent that ends with Commodore Gil getting a child to take a doll wearing a dress stained with blood, his own, up to her and she faints. Eve is there as herself and is hesitant to go and assist Charlotte, as Smith will learn of her deception. The movie ends at the closed theatre. The final scenes have Eve come out of character and confront the selfish and ruthless Charlotte in her dressing room as loudspeakers reveal all that is said to Detective-Inspector Smith and his men; Jonathan having "stage fright" when he comes in and sees the police then flees; Eve in breathless peril when she is with the real murderer alone.
To tell it all here would be a real "spoiler." Stage Fright is compelling and convoluted. It moves along at a crisp pace with a lot of twists and turns, keeping viewers guessing until the end.
Sybil Thorndike is hilarious as Eve's mother, Mrs. Gil, who cannot stand being around her estranged husband, Commodore Gil, and Alastair Sim is also quite good as Eve's droll father. Hitchcock's cameo appearance is as a man on the street turning to look at Eve in her disguise as the maid, Doris. Featured is an original Cole Porter song, "The Laziest Gal In Town," performed by Dietrich in a sultry fashion. Costumes were done by Christian Dior.
Stage Fright was adapted for the screen by Whitfield Cook from the novel Man Running by Selwyn Jepson.
Memorable quotes
- Charlotte Inwood: "He was an abominable man. Why do women marry abominable men?"
- Eve Gil: "I'm afraid the murderer might come here, Madam. Might get into the dressing room. Might even murder me, Madam. I'm surprised you're not a bit afraid yourself."
- Charlotte Inwood: "The theatre is the last place he would be seen. Now stop acting like a silly schoolgirl, the only murderer here is the orchestra leader!"