Alfred Hitchcock's last film, 1976's FAMILY PLOT is a lighthearted thriller focusing on two couples.
Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris are Madam Blanche and her taxi driving boyfriend who fall into a big payday if they can find a very rich woman's lost nephew. William Devane and Karen Black are Arthur Adamson and Fran, a jewelry store owner and his girlfriend running a very profitable kidnap with diamond ransom racket. Half the fun is finding out how these two separate stories eventually merge. Hitchcock is obviously enjoying himself here and reveling in the clever if occasionally forced dialogue by Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest). The film is never in too much of a hurry to get anywhere, but spins an enjoyable web of deceit, suspense and fun where no one is ever quite who they seem. Great music score by John Williams, his first movie score after the HUGE success of Jaws in 1975. There's no body in the family plot, but there's lots of fun to be had in this late and lesser entry in the Hitchcock library. We'll throw Hitch a B.
Comments