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Alastair Sim, Ballard Berkeley, Jane Wyman

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61% liked it

4,807 ratings

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88% liked it

16 critics

Unrated, 110 min.

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Release Date: April 15, 1950

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DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (168)

  • flixsterman
    October 17, 2009
    flixsterman
    Hitchcock considered the film's 'false flashback' sequence to be one of his greatest mistakes, citing that it made audiences feel betrayed. I'm not sure if it's quite as bad as all that but, in hindsight, it does seem to be an underhanded trick. Perhaps I'm more forgiving becau...( read more)se the cast here, notably Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich and Alastair Sim, are just so damn good. As it is, Stage Fright is a second tier Hitchcock production but only because others like Vertigo and Strangers on a Train set the bar so high.
  • stopitgoaway
    December 14, 2008
    stopitgoaway
    With such an unusual set of components, it was probably inevitable that "Stage Fright" would be a little uneven, but most of it works well enough. By Hitchcock's standards, it's average at best, but it is still an entertaining movie with an interesting story and a number of good ...( read more)sequences.

    Simply seeing the distinctive persona of Marlene Dietrich and the enjoyably unique style of Alastair Sim in an Alfred Hitchcock film would make for an interesting combination in itself. They are joined by a generally solid group of performers, with their own individual styles, and there are several characters who all get fairly sizable roles.

    Hitchcock's own approach here is a somewhat surprising contrast from his usual style of story-telling, and some of the developments must have seemed even more unexpected to the movie's original viewers. Another aspect of this is that for much of the movie none of the characters really takes and holds the focus, and as a result there are times when it seems to lack some flow.

    Yet there are a number of good points to it as well. There are plenty of the usual Hitchcock details that make things more interesting, and most of the cast members give good performances in themselves. Most of Hitchcock's movies are rather better than this one, but watching "Stage Fright" is still a better use of one's time than watching the weak present-day efforts in the genre
  • 76Majikat
    August 17, 2008
    76Majikat
    My least favourite Hitchcock, so far, I was a little bored of this one and didn?t think the storyline measured up to some of the others. Maybe there was too much love in this one for me?
  • groaningbitch
    March 2, 2008
    groaningbitch
    "stage fright" is one of lesser classic hitchcockian flicks. first of all, it lacks a fatally insidious villain to impress the audience. second of all, the righteous justice-fighter doesn't seem to be fiercely affective, either. besides at most of the time, our hero is too busy f...( read more)alling in love that makes the crime exposure appear like a sudden blessed discovery. third of all, our heroine sinks into the hitchcockian misogyny pattern: women are meek stupified puppet of man as long as she's lovestruck, and that notion is enunciated in another hitchcock's lesser piece "spellbound" and his groundbreaking "vertigo"

    eve(jane wyman) is a theatre student who falls unfortunately for a murder suspect jonathan who loves the stage diva charlotte inwood(fashion icon marlene dietrich) who utilizes jonathan to dispose of her abrasive husband so she could ease at the bosom of her manager freddy whom charlotte truly cares. so the story is basically about how eve tries to reclaim jonathan's innocence by pretending to be charlotte's maid...and here comes a twist, she also falls head over heels in love again with the detective(michael wilding) who is in charge of the murder inspection.

    the dual impersonation of jane wyman as the fair lady and the clumsy maid is hitchcock's primary gimmick to tease the audience, but wyman refuses to uglify herself just because she doesn't want to be outshined terribly by her beautiful co-star marlene dietrich who utters the maxium of her allure with the christian dior constumes. so wyman chooses eclectism by downplaying the maid part. hitchcock reveals that in the conversations with trauffet that wyman literarily cried for this plea.

    marlene dietrich has led a long-term career of typecasting as the shrewd femme fatale with luring voice of siren and disciplined sense of fashion, so dietrich embraces her iconic status unfallingly well in various categories of cinema as savoring embellishment. she never takes her acting too seriously and she just wanna have fun with her glamour image which is her stockmarket asset in her own words. so dietrich's part in "stage fright" seems quite uneven in hitchcock flick since she deprives the riveting attention of jane wyman and other co-stars, and at some crucial points of plot developments, audience would rather listen to her singing "lazies girl in town" and "la vie de rose" than observe the happenings of the main scenes that is very distracting.

    hollywood villains always glitter with more refined sophistication than the naive heros, so are the female counterparts. dietrich's ultimate womanhood lacklusters jane wyman as adolescent cheerleader who bluntly just dives for whoever man she has a crush upon without consistancy. wyman's eve also doublecross dietrich's diva by entrapping her to the police evasdroping. thus audience may sympathesize with the schemefully crooked dietrich who is backstabbed by moralistic goodie-goodie wyman, and dietrich's contempt is subtly put as "i once had a dog, it bites me..so i shot it....when i give all my love, i always get trechery and hatred, just like my mother used to hit me on the face."...she spitefully metaphorizes wyman's betrayal as her dog biting her, then a circle of smoke surrounds over her complexion like mysterious fog as she stares up to the camera.

    without dietrich, "stage fright" would be more symmetrical but also more dull, so the cameos of dietrich are the visual feast to keep up audience's interests...but "stage fright" is neither marlene dietrich's glamorous mercenery entertainment or hitchcockian suspense thriller but a hybridized oddball.
  • 339z
    September 5, 2009
    339z
    wow umn just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is a good movie 2 watch....its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie....i think that richard todd, miles malleson, michael wilding, marlene dietrich, kay walsh, alastair sim, jane wyman, ballard be...( read more)rkeley play good roles/parts throughout this movie.....i think that the director of this thriller/drama/classics movie had done a good job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie...i think that this is a good movie 2 watch n its a really enjoyable thriller movie 2 watch..
  • vertigoo
    August 27, 2009
    vertigoo
    ...( read more)http://www.flixster.com">Flixster - Share Movies
  • brendanprost
    March 22, 2009
    brendanprost
    An intriguing but not overly exciting Hitchcock thriller.
  • xxxcli213xxx
    December 8, 2008
    xxxcli213xxx
    no thanks not my thing
  • thirdmanphilip
    October 27, 2008
    thirdmanphilip
    One of the least well known is one of his best
  • holmennnguy
    August 19, 2008
    holmennnguy
    Definitely not one of Hitchcock's strongest thrillers, but still a very good thriller. Stage Fright's first 30 minutes are wonderfully crafted, but after that it almost gets too twisty-turny and becomes confusing. But the ending makes up for it.

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Stage Fright Trivia

  • Daryl Hannah suffers from stage fright - True or False?  Answer »
  • What happens at the end of Coyote Ugly to help Violet get over her stage fright  Answer »
  • Violet doesnt sing her songs even though she has a good voice because of stage fright ?  Answer »
  • In which Alfred Hitchcock movie did Marlene Dietrich sing The Laziest Gal in Town?  Answer »
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