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- 1976
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h
- 1976
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h
Summary A phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Ernest Lehman, Victor Canning
- 1976
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h
- 1976
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h
Family Plot
79
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary A phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Ernest Lehman, Victor Canning
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
79
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
79
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Beneath all the fun, there's a vision of humans as essentially greedy and dishonest, presented with a gorgeously amoral wink from Hitchcock, and performed to perfection by an excellent cast.
The performances are first-rate (finally free of the casting constraints, Hitchcock displayed--in 1972's Frenzy as well--a deliciously offbeat taste in performers) and the screenplay by Ernest Lehman (North By Northwest) is a witty model of construction. The humor is more obvious and subversive than any of Hitchcock's films since The Trouble With Harry.
Family Plot is a dazzling achievement for Alfred Hitchcock masterfully controlling shifts from comedy to drama thoughout a highly complex plot. Witty screenplay, transplanting Victor Canning's British novel, The Rainbird Pattern, to a California setting, is a model of construction, and the cast is uniformly superb.
Because there is no point in worrying over hapless victims, the audience can devote its energies to trying to guess how the master will stage his next sneak attack. It's futile. At 76, Hitchcock is still one jump ahead. [05 Apr 1976, p.85]
Everything's laid out for us and made clear, we understand the situation we can see where events are leading... and then, in the last 30 minutes, he springs one concealed trap after another, allowing his story to fold in upon itself, to twist and turn, and scare and amuse us with its clockwork irony.
A witty, relaxed lark. It's a movie to raise your spirits even as it dabbles in phony ones.
It’s enjoyable enough, and the acting is comparatively looser than most of what comes before it thanks to the allowed improvisations on set, a first for the director
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
7.8
77% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
23% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
7.8
77% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
23% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
