Hitchcock's last film: 1976

FAMILY PLOT (1976) - 120 min - Color
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PLOT SYNOPSIS by Hal Erickson

Alfred Hitchcock's final film was adapted from Victor Canning's novel
The Rainbird Pattern by Ernest Lehman, who previously wrote the
screenplay for Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Barbara Harris plays
Blanche, a phony psychic, hired by wealthy Julia Rainbird (Cathleen
Nesbitt) to trace the whereabouts of her nephew, who'd been given up for
adoption years earlier and who is now heir to a fortune. Blanche's
cohort is "investigator" Lumley (Bruce Dern, who is fully prepared to
milk the last dollar out of Julia before locating the long-lost nephew.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to elegant kidnappers Adamson and Fran
(William Devane and Karen Black). The fates of the two couples are
inextricably intertwined by the search for the missing heir.
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REVIEW by Patrick Legare

Working from an amusing script by acclaimed scribe Ernest Lehman (The
King and I, North by Northwest), Alfred Hitchcock pieced together this
entertaining fluff that mainly serves as a reminder of his better films.
Family Plot certainly contains a decent share of thrills and laughs, but
the end result is barely above average. There are no instantly memorable
comedy sequences or any of the breathtaking, edge-of-your-seat thrills
that seem to define a great Hitchcock film. In fact, there's never much
tension of any kind, even during a careening, drunken ride by Bruce Dern
and Barbara Harris down a mountain road in a car with no brakes. The
scene is obviously a playful take on Cary Grant's similar ride in North
by Northwest, but in Family Plot, the concept seems dated and
phony-looking. Other similar scenes that are supposed to be thrilling
instead seem to conclude too quickly before the tension has a chance to
build, particularly the ending which climaxes with a total lack of
excitement. Dern and Harris make an okay team as do William Devane and
Karen Black as the villains, but neither pairing has any romantic
electricity to it. Harris, who received a Golden Globe nomination for
Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, has a few lines that reveal her
smoldering sexuality, but Dern's nerdy cab driver only serves to quash
such heat. Hitchcock's cameo comes in silhouette behind an office door
at the film's 40-minute mark.
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CAST:

Karen Black - Fran

Bruce Dern - Lumley

Barbara Harris - Blanche

William Devane - Adamson

Ed Lauter - Maloney

"Alfred Hitchcock pieced together this
entertaining fluff that mainly serves as a reminder of his better
films."

The reviewer said it all with this one line. What surprised me most
was with all of the talent available (Bruce Dern & Karen Black), was
this was the best they could do?

Rich Wagner