Stage Fright

The hardest movies to write about are the ones that leave almost no impact whatsoever. A great movie makes you want to sing from the rooftops about what joy it brought you, and a terrible movie makes you want to warn everyone you know to avoid it at all costs. But movie that is just okay doesn't give you much to do. And that's Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright. Eve (played by Jane Wyman) is a struggling actress. She's approached by her best friend and unrequited love interest, Johnny (played by Richard Todd). He's now the prime suspect in the murder of his lover's husband, but he says he didn't do it. She decides to help him by sheltering him in a remote location while she ingratiates herself in the lover's house as hired help. Stage Fright's basic premise -- someone trying to acquit somebody else -- is a twist on the normal innocent-man genre Hitchcock did so often, but it isn't original. Stripped of its trappings, Stage Fright is basically a gender-swapped version of a very early Hitchcock movie called Murder!, where a juror pursues his own investigation into the accused murderer because he thinks she's innocent. Stage Fright does more, with Eve living a double life to keep close to whom she believes is guilty, while balancing her love of Johnny and a burgeoning attraction to the lead investigator, who has no idea of her amateur sleuthing. Wyman does a good job in the role, starting off as a sweet girl with stars in her eyes for a guy who has never seen her as more than a kid sister, slowly finding herself, her voice, and her strength as it goes on. Eve's evolution is the best part of the movie. And I will give Stage Fright its due in a twist I did not expect, because it sets up things perfectly where there's no reason to suspect there will be a twist, let alone what it is. What leaves Stage Fright in a middling state, though, is an overwhelming feeling of just not amounting to much. The movie is 110 minutes long, and there's just not enough meat on the bone to justify it. I checked the remaining time on probably half a dozen occasions because I couldn't believe it wasn't near the climax yet. It doesn't help that the movie gets overly complicated with too many supporting characters, and too many subplots, like Eve being extorted by Charlotte's original hired help, Charlotte having another lover on the hook, and marital issues between Eve's parents. There's a tight, 90 minute noir thriller in here that suffers from bloat, and an overly long and needlessly convoluted middle act. There is some black comedy to enjoy, and Wyman and Marlene Dietrich are the best reasons to watch this (even if Dietrich seems to just be playing herself). But when this movie's over, you won't remember it. If this didn't have some Hitchcockian directorial flourishes, and the most blatant cameo he ever did, this could be one of a hundred noir thrillers released in the era and likely lost in that miasma to all but hardcore cinephiles. If I say give you the prompts "Hitchcock", "thriller", and "innocent person framed for murder", it is exactly what you think it is. It's perfectly fine, but only that, and thus, perfectly forgettable.