Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Stage Fright

After a few days away, the blog is back and it's time for another edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post.

April begins with "A" and so does Alfred Hitchcock so I will continue with my series of posts about Alfred Hitchcock movies I have seen.

Today's film is a 1950 British film noir called Stage Fright.

Our cast of characters include:

Eve Gill, an aspiring actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. 

Jonathan Cooper, actor, Eve's friend (but Eve is crushing hard on him). 

Charlotte Inwood, a flamboyant stage actress and singer. Charlotte and Jonathan are having an affair.  

Via a very extensive flashback sequence, Jonathan tells Eve that Charlotte came to him wearing a blood stained dress and confessed to killing her husband.  Jonathan went to Charlotte's home to get her another dress but was seen by the maid and now the police suspect Jonathan of the murder.  He needs help.  

Suspecting Charlotte set up Jonathan to frame him, Eve begins her own investigation.  She crosses paths with Detective William Smith who of course doesn't need this amateur interloping into his work but she's quite persistent and he takes a liking to her.

Eve moves her crush from Jonathan to William. 

But she's still determined to prove Jonathan's innocence.   

Eve discovers Charlotte is having an affair with her manager Freddie Williams. Although allegedly in mourning for her dead husband, Charlotte continues to perform in her West End musical show.  

William and Eve collaborate on a sting operation to get Charlotte to confess. 

And she does....

Except...

She admits she planned her husband's murder.  

But guess who she suckered into actually doing to deed?

I know, I know,you figured out it was Jonathan several sentences back. 

It turns out Jonathan has killed before and now has Eve in his sights.  

Well, that ain't good. 

Don't worry, Eve will be OK. 

As for Jonathan, eh, not so much.  

Stage Fright is not regarded as one of Alfred Hitchcock's great films but it is a taut and intriguing murder mystery. 

At the time of it's first release, the film did get some negative pushback for the extended flashback sequence when Jonathan tells Eve what's been going on. It bothered people that Hitchcock put that much time and detail into a sequence where basically it's all a lie. 

Another thing working against the movie is the title, Stage Fright which suggests a more suspense thriller oriented film than the murder mystery Alfred Hitchcock delivered. 

Hitchcock cast his daugher Patricia who was enrolled as a drama student at the Royal Academy. She was cast as a friend of Eve with the unflattering name of Chubby Bannister. Gee, thanks, Dad! 

With the exception of American Jane Wyman (Eve) and  German-born Marlene Dietrich (Charlotte), the cast is derived from British stage and screen.  It was the last film Alfie made in England until 1971. 

Next week, I'm back with another Hitchcock film about a man who might be trying to kill his wife.

Surely Cary Grant is up to no such thing! 

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Tomorrow....   Doctor Who!