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Stage Fright

Play trailer Poster for Stage Fright Released Apr 15, 1950 1h 50m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
92% Tomatometer 24 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
The police think actor Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is a murderer, and now they're on his tail. He asserts that it was his lover, the famous actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich), who killed the victim (not coincidentally, her husband). He seeks shelter with his ex-girlfriend Eve (Jane Wyman), a budding actress. Convinced Jonathan is innocent, Eve plays detective and assumes multiple disguises. But once she is entangled in a web of deception, she fears everyone in fact wears a mask.
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Stage Fright

Critics Reviews

View All (24) Critics Reviews
Jake Wilson The Age (Australia) This 1950 thriller is minor only by the standards of genius. Oct 26, 2018 Full Review Richard Brody The New Yorker Hitchcock conjures a deep-rooted, irony-rich complicity of father and daughter that seems borrowed from the films of Howard Hawks and suggests the inner compass that helps to guard against chasing the wrong man. Mar 10, 2014 Full Review Variety Staff Variety Wyman is delightful as embryo actress but the choice femme spot goes to Dietrich. Feb 4, 2008 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia It is a thriller in which Hitchcock, with the surgical precision of his aesthetic, builds a twisted murder mystery based on suspicion, deception and false clues that point in wrong directions where nothing is what it seems. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 7/10 Jan 14, 2024 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row The tale of dueling actresses allows Hitchcock to playfully layer deception upon deception, culminating in a twist that, while not particularly well received at the time, is one of the film's most remarkable elements. Rated: 3/4 Mar 23, 2022 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Lesser Hitchcock? Hardly. Rated: 3/4 Jan 29, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (208) audience reviews
Micah H With twists throughout this film remains suspenseful from start to finish. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 04/22/25 Full Review John S This is laughably terrible and full of holes. It looks nice though. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 09/21/24 Full Review David K I love Hitchcock. But, this one leaves me flat. Not a great sense of suspense but it does have a twist. The question is whether that is enough to hold interest. Not really for me. Maybe it's because my expectation of Hitchcock has been shaped from all of his great films from "The Lodger" to "Psycho". Hey, no one's perfect. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/18/23 Full Review stu b Not the most celebrated of HItchcock's films, but an ultimately satisfying thriller nonetheless. Marlene Dietrich stars as an acclaimed London actress who murders her husband and then frames her lover for the crime...which prompts the lover's earlier girlfriend, a young ingenue still attending drama school, to go deep undercover in an effort to trick Dietrich into confessing. Well-acted by all--pay particular attention to Alastair Sims' enormously entertaining turn as the ingenue's willing-to-do-anything father--and much more light-hearted than most of the master's films, but chockful of suspenseful moments, too. The ending will leave you gasping--rarely has a thriller led its audience down the proverbial garden path as skillfully as this one--and you'll probably want to view it a second time (and maybe even a third) to see what you may have missed. With Richard Todd as Dietrich's lover, Jane Wyman as the girl, and Michael Wilding as the police inspector who falls for her. Hardly a masterpiece, but still a treat. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/08/22 Full Review j m The plot is hard to follow, but stuff like Hitchcock's memorable cameo makes this film better. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review david f Hitchcock and Dietrich pair up in this murder mystery. I think I appreciated it more after watching the making-of documentary which told of Hitchcock's regrets over the phony flashback. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Stage Fright

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Cast & Crew

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Alfred Hitchcock

Director

Jane Wyman

Eve Gill

Marlene Dietrich

Charlotte Inwood

Richard Todd

Jonathan Cooper

Michael Wilding

Ordinary Smith

Kay Walsh

Nellie Goode

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Stage Fright

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Movie Info

Synopsis The police think actor Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is a murderer, and now they're on his tail. He asserts that it was his lover, the famous actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich), who killed the victim (not coincidentally, her husband). He seeks shelter with his ex-girlfriend Eve (Jane Wyman), a budding actress. Convinced Jonathan is innocent, Eve plays detective and assumes multiple disguises. But once she is entangled in a web of deception, she fears everyone in fact wears a mask.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Producer
Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriter
Whitfield Cook
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
EBS Los Angeles, Iceman Productions
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 15, 1950, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 15, 2008
Runtime
1h 50m
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