Stage Fright

Theatrical Release Poster

Michael Wilding

Richard Todd

Alastair Sim

**Stage Fright** is a 1950 British thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wildingand Richard Todd. Others in the cast include Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Pat Hitchcock in her movie debut, and Joyce Grenfell in a humorous vignette.

## Plot

Eve Gill is an aspiring actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. She is interrupted in rehearsal by her friend (and crush), actor Jonathan Cooper, the secret lover of flamboyant stage actress/singer Charlotte Inwood. Via a flashback, he says Charlotte visited him after killing her husband; she was wearing a bloodstained dress. Jonathan claims he went back to her house for another dress, but was seen by Nellie Goode, Charlotte's cockney maid/dresser. He escaped the police and needs help.

Eve takes him to her father's house on the coast to hide. Commodore Gill notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been smeared on deliberately; he and Eve think that Jonathan was framed by Charlotte. Jonathan angrily destroys the dress and thus the most useful piece of evidence.

Eve starts to investigate. She hears Charlotte's dresser Nellie Goode boasting about the notoriety in a bar. While she is there, Eve meets Detective Inspector Wilfred O. Smith, and they become friendly. Eve then poses as a reporter; she bribes Nellie to tell Charlotte she is ill and to introduce her cousin "Doris Tinsdale" as a replacement. Using her acting skills, Eve becomes "Doris" and starts working for Charlotte. Eve discovers Charlotte is having an affair with her manager Freddie Williams.

Eve and "Ordinary" Smith become more friendly. When Smith visits Charlotte, Eve has to disguise the fact that she is also "Doris" the maid. Smith makes a courtship visit to Eve and her mother at home, where the commodore drops subtle hints that Jonathan has left the seaside house.

Despite her widowed status, Charlotte continues to perform her West End musical show. Jonathan comes to her dressing room asking her to accompany him abroad. She casually tells him no, but he says he still has the bloodstained dress. The police search for Jonathan, and Eve again helps him escape. He hides at the Gill's London residence. He is grateful to Eve, but she is starting to fall in love with Detective Smith.

Smith and Eve kiss in a taxi on the way to the RADA garden party, where Nellie Goode confronts Eve, demanding more blackmail money. Eve does not have enough, so Eve's father comes to give Nellie more cash. Freddie Williams spots Eve (thinking she is "Doris") and orders her to help Charlotte, who is to sing on stage in a tent. During the performance, Commodore Gill gets a small boy to carry a doll wearing a bloodstained dress onto the stage as Charlotte sings "La Vie en Rose". Charlotte collapses and "Doris" has to help.

Seeing this, Smith confronts Eve and the commodore, but Eve proclaims her true affection for Smith as well as Jonathan's innocence. They persuade Smith to set Charlotte up. Once the theatre has closed, they use a hidden microphone and "Doris" tells Charlotte she has the bloodstained dress. Smith and his men listen using the theatre loudspeakers. Charlotte admits planning her husband's death, but says that Jonathan actually committed the murder. Charlotte offers Eve 10,000 pounds to keep quiet.

Eve sees that Jonathan has been brought to the theatre by the police, but he escapes. Charlotte realizes her conversation with Eve was broadcast to the detectives, and that she will be charged as an accessory to murder. Detective Smith tells the commodore that Jonathan really did kill Mr. Inwood and that Jonathan has killed before, though he got off on a plea of self-defence.

Hiding below stage, Jonathan confesses to Eve that Charlotte goaded him into killing her husband. His flashback story was all lies, and he was the one who smeared more blood onto the dress. He threatens to kill Eve to give a reason for pleading insanity, but she escapes, and in the confusion, Jonathan is killed by the stage's falling safety curtain.

## Cast

* Jane Wyman as Eve Gill
* Marlene Dietrich as Charlotte Inwood
* Michael Wilding as Ordinary Smith
* Richard Todd as Jonathan Cooper
* Alastair Sim as Commodore Gill
* Sybil Thorndike as Mrs. Gill
* Kay Walsh as Nellie Goode
* Miles Malleson as Mr. Fortesque
* Hector MacGregor as Freddie Williams
* Joyce Grenfell as Lovely Ducks
* André Morell as Inspector Byard
* Patricia Hitchcock as Chubby Bannister
* Ballard Berkeley as Sergeant Mellish
* Gordon Bell as Chauffeur

## Trivia

* According to Alfred Hitchcock, he ran into great difficulties with leading actress Jane Wyman.
* After completing this film, Alfred Hitchcock would not work in his native Britain again until Frenzy 23 years later.
* Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman and Richard Todd all died at the same age: 90.
* In an extraordinary move for the normally controlling director, Alfred Hitchcock provided Marlene Dietrich an exceptional amount of creative control for the film, particularly in how she chose to light her scenes. Hitchcock knew that Dietrich had learned a great deal of the art of cinematography from Josef von Sternberg and Günther Rittau, and allowed her to work with this film's cinematographer, Wilkie Cooper, to light and set her scenes the way that she wished.