SPOILERS: Like any good film enthusiast, I consider Hitchcock one of the best directors who ever lived, right along with the likes of Fellini, Bergman, and Welles. Hitch consistently made films that were not only as entertaining as a film can possibly get, but also films that were extraordinarily intellectual and human. Films such as Lifeboat, Rear Window, and Vertigo work as art as much as any other films ever made, studying the human condition and utilizing the tools of cinema to the utmost.

Hitch was also the most prolific film artist of all time. He made over 50 films. He made more masterpieces than any other filmmaker, too. Several, such as Vertigo, Psycho, and Rear Window, are bona fide masterpieces. No one in their right mind would disagree with their status as some of the best films ever made. But everyone has that one Hitchcock film that they feel that they understand better than anyone else, and always claim that it deserves to belong in the same status as the more accepted masterpieces. I seem to have discovered several. In fact, every time I see one of his less popular films, I think that it has gotten a bum rap. Rope is my favorite underrated Hitchcock film, but I think that it is starting to be accepted by the masses more. Two other great ones that are less popular are Lifeboat and I Confess; Lifeboat is well respected by Hitchcock fanatics, but I Confess is usually dismissed. This sort of dismissal happens because of financial failure upon first release. Hitch certainly was an artist, but, if you've read the Truffaut interview book, you realize that he took a film's financial success or failure very personally.

Now we come to Stage Fright. I don't think that it was an enormous failure, but it was also not an enormous success. Truffaut says something like: "this film neither added to nor took away from your reputation." The main complaint is that the opening flashback is a lie, and that audiences could never accept that. I think that that technique works better now than it may have in 1950. It was sort of daring, but it failed at the time. Although most people still don't want to ever think that the characters in a film are lying, you still see it, especially in neo-noir (think Chinatown, Body Heat, etc, although those aren't flashbacks, per se). Truffaut also derides it for being a whodunit, which Hitch did not like. I don't think that Stage Fright is at all a whodunit. We assume through the entire film that Marlene Dietrich is unquestionably guilty in the crime.

There are just a few very minor problems in the film, most of them stemming from the trick ending: trick endings are in style right now, but they hardly ever work. This one does, mostly, but as soon as we realize we've been tricked, just as happens at the end of The Sixth Sense, a very good film otherwise, we begin to go over the earlier events to see if there was any cheating. There is in Stage Fright, and it loses a tiny bit of credibility from this. The other main problem is just how the police deal with the criminals at the end. It's hardly believable, and they kill the main criminal in a very gruesome way that I would think would get them reprimanded by their superiors (although it was cool). Anyway, it's nowhere near as bad as the way the police act at the end of Hitch's next film, Strangers on a Train, where a cop shoots randomly at a crowd (with the criminal in it) and accidentally kills an innocent man!

The gold of this film comes in the complex situations and characters. One reason why Hitch's films stand so far beyond the run-of-the-mill thriller is that his characters are so well developed. The actors in Stage Fright are also superb. Jane Wyman, the main character, has an extraordinarily complicated role, where she has to act at several different levels (she plays an actress who believes that her skills can help her learn more about a murder); she pretends that she's someone else, and as she meets more people, the more difficult it becomes to handle the situation. She also "switches horses in midstream," where she begins to doubt her relationship with the man whom she is helping and to fall for a detective on the murder case simultaneously. Richard Todd plays a man framed for murder. One excellent twist in the script is that his character is not intelligent. We're so used to characters being as astute as Sherlock Holmes in mystery films, but he's an illogical hothead who takes very stupid risks. Marlene Dietrich has a lot of fun here playing a demon-goddess. She's just hilarious, trying really hard to act depressed over her husband's death (and she's one of the most terrible singers you'll ever hear!). I love how she controls everyone in the film, even those who are trying to be her enemies. You just can't refuse Marlene! Possibly the most memorable and amusing performance in the film is that of Alastair Sim, most famous for playing Ebenezer Scrooge a year later. He's hilarious as Wyman's father. Micheal Wilding, playing the detective who is falling for Wyman, is also great, especially when he finds that she is betraying him and may have only been using him. There are a few very memorable cameos, too, including the "bibulous gent," a turtle-like man who offers Wyman comfort, and the shooting gallery matron (the whole shooting gallery scene is great).

Stage Fright has been trampled by the more outstanding Hitchcock pictures. It is a small gem, not boring in any way. It deserves to be rediscovered by more people.

I think this film has a lot against it that you can't necessarily blame entirely on the production--though it has problems. With such amazing films from the 1950s as "Vertigo", "Dial M For Murder", "Strangers on a Train", "North By Northwest", "The Rear Window" and "To Catch a Thief" (among others) all coming from Alfred Hitchcock during this decade, it makes "Stage Fright" seem poor by comparison. Had it not been natural to compare these films, it sure would have made "Stage Fright" look a lot stronger.

Unfortunately, this is not the only problem the film has against it. The plot is very slow and complicated, there is a very atypical sort of appearance by Marlene Dietrich (you don't expect song and dance numbers in a Hitchcock film) and the film used a FALSE flashback scene--something that infuriated a lot of patrons at the time. I knew it was coming and still thought it harmed the film. In addition, the story seemed to drag and just never seemed all that interesting. Now it's not a bad film--just not one that is much more than a time-passer. Perhaps you'll like it more than I did...and I hope you do.

Before sitting down to write this review I took a look at the Films of Alfred Hitchcock Citadel book. One of the reviewers was quoted as saying that the frumpy character that Jane Wyman played when she was pretending to be Marlene Dietrich's maid came off like an adult's version of Nancy Drew. I remember Ms. Drew whether played by Bonita Granville or Pamela Sue Martin had a better sense of style than Wyman's character. But I really thought it said everything about the film.

I'm still trying to figure out why she is going to all that trouble to help two timing Richard Todd. That's how the film opens, a fleeing Todd comes to girl friend Wyman and says he's about to be implicated in the murder of Dietrich's husband. And of course he confesses to Wyman that he's been unfaithful.

Well instead of giving Todd the heave ho, she agrees to help and gets herself involved in the Scotland Yard investigation. Good thing that police inspector Michael Wilding falls for Wyman otherwise he'd be arresting her for tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. Presumably those are criminal offenses in the United Kingdom as well as America.

What saves Stage Fright from being a total disaster is Marlene Dietrich. She essentially plays herself as musical comedy star Charlotte Inwood and gets to sing La Vie En Rose and Cole Porter's The Laziest Gal in Town.

According to a recent biography of Dietrich she and Alfred Hitchcock had an unbelievable time trying to agree on what she should sing. She rejected The Laziest Gal In Town among dozens of others and she finally agreed at the last minute to sing that song. Of course it became a big hit and a staple in her nightclub act for decades.

Another thing I can't understand is why Wyman was identified in the script as having been born in South Africa. She certainly doesn't sound like any South African I've met. Why they couldn't use the old standby of Canadian origin for American players in British based films is beyond me.

Alfred Hitchcock definitely hit a creative snag in Stage Fright. I'm not sure devotees of the master of suspense will like this one.

But Dietrich fans will love it.