Stage Fright (1950) - One of Hitchcock's finest!

Hello Everyone,
Here is my review.

Stage Fright (1950)- One of Hitchcock's finest

I found Stage Fright to be one of most Hitchcock's interesting films. After the failure of Hitchcock's previous films (The Paradine Case, Rope, and Under Capricorn), Hitchcock was given a small budget for Stage Fright. In audio interview with Truffaut, Hitchcock called Stage Fright "A Small Picture." But even in this small Hitchcock picture, I found several things interesting.

I don't know if anyone noticed this. if you rewatch this film, then you will see that the characters are telling one lie after another from the beginning of the movie. And the story builds up based on lies. But we see exactly the opposite on the last part of the film. The last part builds up by revealing the truths - one after another. And when we enter into the last portion of the film, we reach to a point where we never expected the film to reach. But the audience is concerned about it, because of the suspense Hitchcock uses.

I know Hitchcock felt guilty, because many critics told that lying flashback was a mistake. But I found it very interesting, because of several reasons.

I believe "the audience" is a character in Hitchcock films. The function of the audience is to watch and wait while Hitchcock intensifies their role by using suspense in the film. Let me give an example. A Suspense Scene from the film "Rope." Its the suspense scene where Mrs. Wilson clears the things on the chest to put the books inside the chest. If we take a closer look, then we will realize that the audience will be the "only one" who will be "heavily" concerned about opening the chest in that suspense scene. Unlike Mrs. Wilson, all the other characters in the film aren't focusing on both Mrs. Wilson and the chest, because they are busy talking about David.

When Jonathan is telling the flashback story (which he created) to Eve (Jane Wyman), he is not only giving a visual idea of the story to Eve, but also to the audience through his "viewpoint." We are not the only one who ended up believing his story. Eve believed his story too. So he ended up convincing both Eve and the audience. By traveling through Eve and her father (Alastair Sim), we watch and wait throughout the movie to find the solution. By the end, the audience feels cheated when they find out the truth. But to me, what the audience doesn't realize is that they were able to share a true moment of feeling with a character in the film. We are not the only ones who were cheated. Eve was also cheated too. Its one moment where a fictional character (Eve) and the audience share the same feeling - "They were deceived by Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd)." But the moment we see the horrifying side of Jonathan Cooper, we can completely feel the horror that is going through Eve. Both the audience and Eve feel the true feeling of danger, because both audience and Eve shared the same experience throughout the movie which is the desperation to find the solution. But when both the audience and Eve finds the truth, they both feel and share true moments of horror. Its not just Eve who wants to get out of that horrifying situation, but also the audience wants her to get out of there.

The story of the book "Outrun the Constable" also known as Man Running (the book Stage fright is based on) is very different. In the book, Freddie Williams is the killer. Jonathan Cooper in the book is innocent. In the book, Jonathan Cooper is called Jonathan Penrose. But Hitchcock always liked to make his own adaptation. Alfred Hitchcock entirely created this lying flashback for the film. From what I know of, One "main" reason why Hitchcock created this flashback was because of the main character's name "Eve." In the Bible, Eve was deceived by the serpent in the "beginning" days of mankind. In the film, Eve was deceived by Jonathan Cooper in the "beginning" of the film by telling the false story to her. Hitchcock always made Biblical references in his films.

For Example, the line in Foreign Correspondent - "You cry peace, Fisher. Peace. And there was no peace." This line was borrowed from the book of Jeremiah. The another example is The Man Who Knew too Much (1956) - The gunman at Albert Hall (Reggie Nalder) looks at the villain, because he is wearing the uniform of priest. The gunman says at the villain "What does the old proverb says? A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing." A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing was borrowed from Gospel of Matthew in New Testament Bible.

I want to post more information about Stage Fright. But I think it will be too long. I give this film 10 out of 10.