Episode 270 · Film year 1950
Stage Fright (1950)
- Special Guest
- Patrick McGilligan
- Guest Co-Hosts
- Tania Modleski, Filip Önell
Show notes
Seen as one of the "lesser" of Alfred Hitchcock's films, Stage Fright (1950) is a fascinating update of the themes explored in Murder! (1930) as well as a interesting take on the reliability of narrators.
Joining Mike this week are Professor Tania Modleski (author of The Women Who Knew Too Much) and Filip Önell. Returning for another interview is author Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. The second part of the interview with Mr. McGilligan can be heard on the upcoming Vertigo episode.
Download Episode Now:
Joining Mike this week are Professor Tania Modleski (author of The Women Who Knew Too Much) and Filip Önell. Returning for another interview is author Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. The second part of the interview with Mr. McGilligan can be heard on the upcoming Vertigo episode.
Download Episode Now:
Watch
Music credits
- "Stage Fright Rhapsody" - Rumon Gamba
- "The Laziest Gal in Town" - Marlene Dietrich
Links & resources
- Buy Stage Fright on DVD (opens in a new tab)
- Buy The Women Who Knew Too Much by Tania Modleski (opens in a new tab)
- Buy Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan (opens in a new tab)
- Visit The Hitchcock Zone (opens in a new tab)
- Visit The Hitchcock Project (opens in a new tab)
- Visit the official Marlene Dietrich website (opens in a new tab)
- Read about Stage Fright at Fridays with Hitchcock (opens in a new tab)
- Read about Filip Önell's Nightbreed Fan Edit (opens in a new tab)
Related episodes
Episodes that share keywords with this one.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Shared: Director Alfred Hitchcock, Writer Alma Reville, Crime Thriller
Tania Modleski
Vertigo (1958)
Shared: Director Alfred Hitchcock, Tania Modleski, Patrick McGilligan
Patrick McGilligan, Dan Auiler, Tania Modleski, Susan White
Marnie (1964)
Shared: Director Alfred Hitchcock, Crime Thriller, Tania Modleski
Tony Lee Moral, Tippi Hedren, Tania Modleski, Susan White
Psycho (1960)
Shared: Director Alfred Hitchcock, Pat Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock
Alexandre O. Philippe, Christine Makepeace
Frenzy (1972)
Shared: Director Alfred Hitchcock, Crime Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock
Rebecca McCallum, Ian Cooper
Comments (1)
Mazze This episode is pretty good, the analysis definitely adds a lot to this "lesser" Hitchcock film. I appreciated Filip Önell's presence as his perspective made things more interesting. I felt this sort of perspective was painfully absent from the Vertigo episode, which just felt like a bunch of people gushing over what a brilliant masterpiece it is. It's important to have a voice that feels a little more grounded or contrary to the rest of the panel. On the subject of a couple of the oddball shots that were discussed: The first one, that obviously processed shot, I'm not sure why Mike is so quick to rule out the possibility of there being technical reasons for the shot. Hitchcock, throughout his career made all sorts of odd technical decisions with mixed results. He was hardly infallible in the technical department. I'm guessing this particular example had something to do with Dietrich's lighting requests coming up against practical needs in lighting the rest of the set causing them to have to do some weird composite thing. Now as for the slow motion shot as she steps from the carriage. I'm guessing it's because in this scene they are supposed to be sneaking along on tip toes, so they had to slow the shot down so the door would be moving slow enough to appear as if it wouldn't be making any noise. I'm guessing at normal speed it looked to be swinging open a little too violently. They both look like decisions made in post-production when they took a closer look, noticed some problems with the footage, and came up with these solutions to patch over the issues.