1976 - FAMILY PLOT, Hitchcock's last film is a real talk fest.

Hitchcock's final film was written by Ernest Lehman who had worked with him on North by Northwest.  The expectations were high for a film of that caliber, what the audience got was a very low key television type mystery thriller.

The elaborate plot about jewel thieves who get mixed up with a phony psychic and her boyfriend is a complicated thriller which coasts along on dialog heavy scenes.  The film lacks the visual touch that Hitchcock in his prime could bring to a story.  Only a couple of scenes look like Hitchcock even directed them particularly the car chase.  The film seems to really run out of gas towards the end with Hitchcock phoning it in with a very unmemorable climax.   

A lot has been written about Hitchcock's lack of interest during the filming of Family Plot.  Years of eating a steak a day for lunch had finally caught up with hm and he was in poor health throughout the filming.

Whatever energy the film has comes mostly from Bruce Dern (smoking a pipe) and Barbara Harris.  Apparently when he wasn't acting in front of the camera Bruce Dern spent his time off screen attempting to motivate Hitchcock into actually directing the film. 

A ill looking Hitchcock with Bruce Dern

Family Plot wraps up a career from a master filmmaker who made eight great films, eight good ones, three bad ones and thirty interesting if not successful films, a very good record in the film business.

121 minutes.