Lighthearted suspense film about a phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend who encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Stars:
Frederick Stafford,
Dany Robin,
John Vernon
An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and then figuring out a plan to escape back to the West.
The trickster Madam Blanche Tyler lures the elder millionaire Julia Rainbird that believes she is a spiritualist. After a séance, she discovers that Julia is tormented by her past, when she forced her sister and single mother Harriet to deliver her baby for adoption to avoid a family scandal. Julia promises the small fortune of ten thousand-dollar to Blanche if she finds her nephew and heir of her fortune using her phony powers. Blanche asks her boyfriend George Lumley, who is an unemployed actor working as cab driver, to investigate the whereabouts of Julia's nephew. Meanwhile, the greedy jeweler and collector Arthur Adamson kidnaps wealthy people with his girlfriend Fran to increase his collection of diamonds with the ransom. When George concludes that Arthur Adamson might be the heir of Julia Rainbird, the reckless Blanche gets in trouble with the kidnappers. Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
As a publicity stunt to promote this movie, Alfred Hitchcock held a press conference junket in a mocked-up fake cemetery. Journalists had their names embossed on mock gravestones and the whole event was a reference to this movie's Family Plot (1976) cemeterial title. See more »
Goofs
Towards the end when George is in the basement, he passes a window that shows it is day outside, though the scene takes place at night. See more »
Quotes
Blanche:
You're a fink!
George:
If I'm a fink then you're an ungrateful bitch.
See more »
Crazy Credits
The Universal logo does not appear anywhere on this film. See more »
Hitchcock was a better director of suspense than comedy.
This is a not altogether successful attempt at a send-up of Hitchcock's classic thrillers. The plot is as convoluted as ever, except that it borders on the silly.
As a stand-alone movie, it's beautifully shot, but too ridiculous to take seriously, without managing to be actually funny.
But if you take the plot as simply a line to hang the parody on, it's nicely amusing. It's a kaleidoscope of scenes from other Hitchcock movies which were scary the first time round, but this time they're caricatures. Relive bits from North By Northwest, Psycho, To Catch A Thief, and many more, grinning as you recognise where they came from.
23 of 41 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
Hitchcock was a better director of suspense than comedy.
This is a not altogether successful attempt at a send-up of Hitchcock's classic thrillers. The plot is as convoluted as ever, except that it borders on the silly.
As a stand-alone movie, it's beautifully shot, but too ridiculous to take seriously, without managing to be actually funny.
But if you take the plot as simply a line to hang the parody on, it's nicely amusing. It's a kaleidoscope of scenes from other Hitchcock movies which were scary the first time round, but this time they're caricatures. Relive bits from North By Northwest, Psycho, To Catch A Thief, and many more, grinning as you recognise where they came from.