FAMILY PLOT (1976) *** Alfred Hitchcock's last stand. A triumph certainly-at least a minor one-but no effort is made towards a blaze of glory. The man was secure, he was quite through with showing off. There are in fact no legendary Hitchcock shots, not so much as an offering at one. The obligatory signature profile is the only friendly gesture in that general direction. If you saw this film without warning of any sort, you would probably think that it's a nicely done period piece. Quality too much for television, certainly, and a promising.perhaps young.director. One working the blueprint of the day towards something new. Like very early Hitchcock, for example. The lie is exposed in what he gets from his actors. William Devane has never been so profound, so debonair, so sinister. Karen Black has been more emphatic in horror roles, and so the master moves her in that direction whilst skirting the most unique and dramatic aspects of that personae. She is instead a full realization that hints and threatens at more. Bruce Dern somehow succeeds in pulling off the role of imposing unemployed actor/cabbie. He sells himself short, and so does everyone else, but again there's a sense of latency.that whatever it is, good or evil, he's going to have it in him. Ed Lauter? How'd he make it that long without putting that mug in a Hitchflick? So Hitchcock is unquestionably there, ubiquitous, in influence and spirit. But the only way you'd ever peg this as a Hitchcock movie is by the sudden and not entirely comfortable understanding that you've been in a state of suspended suspense for more than an hour.
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