The trickster Madam Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris) lures the elder millionaire Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt) that believes she is a spiritualist. After a séance, she discovers that Julia is tormented by her past, when she forced her sister and single mother Harriet to deliver her baby for adoption to avoid a family scandal. Julia promises the small fortune of ten thousand dollars to Blanche if she finds her nephew and heir of her fortune using her phony powers. Blanche asks her boyfriend George Lumley (Bruce Dern), who is an unemployed actor working as a cab driver, to investigate the whereabouts of Julia's nephew. Meanwhile, the greedy jeweler and collector Arthur Adamson (William Devane) kidnaps wealthy people with his girlfriend Fran (Karen Black) to increase his collection of diamonds with the ransom. When George concludes that Arthur Adamson might be the heir of Julia Rainbird, the reckless Blanche gets in trouble with the kidnappers.
"Family Plot" is the swan song of the genius Alfred Hitchcock. The entwined stories are in general very funny and enjoyable, with the exception of the ridiculous and overacted sequence of Blanche while George is driving downhill the car without brakes. This time, the cameo of Alfred Hitchcock is a shadow at the "registration of births and deaths" when George is seeking the death certificate of Edward Shoebridge. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Trama Macabra" ("Macabre Plot")
Note: On 20 November 2024, I saw this film again.
"Family Plot" is the swan song of the genius Alfred Hitchcock. The entwined stories are in general very funny and enjoyable, with the exception of the ridiculous and overacted sequence of Blanche while George is driving downhill the car without brakes. This time, the cameo of Alfred Hitchcock is a shadow at the "registration of births and deaths" when George is seeking the death certificate of Edward Shoebridge. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Trama Macabra" ("Macabre Plot")
Note: On 20 November 2024, I saw this film again.