Hitchcock's Family Plot: Plotting Family Plot
Ava Lawson 
I came across this "making of ..." video on YouTube and found it very interesting. Interviews with Bruce Dern, DL fave Karen Black, and William Devane. Somebody stated that Hitchcock used something like 50% of what he shot, which is an amazing statistic. He storyboarded and knew exactly what he wanted in frame. Yet, it sounded like he enjoyed Bruce Dern because he was "unpredictable" and did allow Dern some freedom.
Hitchcock supposedly loved Barbara Harris, who played the phony, grifting psychic GF of Dern's character.
The side characters / casting was amazing. The faces of the actors tell you who they are.
Anyway, my parents took us kids to see this movie when we were little. I am re-appreciating it and hope we can discuss it!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 54 | December 27, 2022 1:16 PM |
I remember seeing this when I was about thirteen and I recall it being very amusing. It is a much more sly style of comedy and I think it is a credit to Hitchcock that it works so nicely. That cast was excellent.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | December 14, 2022 6:06 AM |
Saw this at age 15 with my mom and younger brother. I have been a fan of the movie ever since. And don't forget the movie contains a charming music score by John Williams, written about ten months after his score for "Jaws".
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 14, 2022 6:40 AM |
Family Plot is a delightful little bauble. Because it was Hitchcock's last, people wish it had been something more major, like one of his masterpieces of the '50s, but it's what it is, and I like all of the central performances as well as the supporting ones. It's nice seeing Barbara Harris and Karen Black in the same movie a year or so after Nashville, in which they had an amusing scene together.
Hitchcock hit a cold streak after The Birds (I do include Marnie in that), but then with Frenzy and Family Plot, he went out on an uptick.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 17, 2022 2:29 PM |
I agree, R3. Torn Curtain and Topaz are both *okay* — as an adult I definitely liked them more than I ever would have as a kid when I first went through a Hitch obsession — but Frenzy and Family Plot are both as good as most of his earlier films, like The Trouble With Harry, Foreign Correspondent, et al.
Funny I should come across this post today— just last night I finally watched the documentary the OP mentions. I have the new-ish 4K UHD disc of Family Plot (it’s lightyears better than the horrid old Blu-ray from 10 years ago), and I just watched it and the documentary last night. I wish they could’ve gotten an interview with Barbara Harris. I believe it’s from the late 90s? Maybe from the first DVD edition of the film? Karen Black is interviewed for it.
Anybody know when Barbara Harris got dementia? She was out of the public eye for so long.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 17, 2022 3:20 PM |
Barbara Harris was adorable in this movie. She always had a kewpie doll quality.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 17, 2022 10:49 PM |
Yes, BH was adorable, even as a grifter.
People magazine says she died of lung cancer (2018, age 83), no mention of dementia.
Ed Asner was one of her friends.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 17, 2022 11:24 PM |
Gay neighbor of the later Barbara Harris reminisces.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 17, 2022 11:47 PM |
I like the movie a lot.
It's basically about faking and lying.
For starters there's a phony psychic, a respected jeweler whose store is a front for sinister activity, and an empty grave.
Both couples are essentially frauds (although granted one couple is nice), with one person in each relationship dominating over the other person.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 18, 2022 12:30 AM |
I love this movie. Bruce Dern and William Devane were both very attractive, and any chance to see Karen Black and Barbara Harris on screen is great.
Without spoilers: The last scene — where you realize the solution was in front of your eyes all along and one of the characters does something to indicate "It's only a movie!" was a great final moment from a masterful yet playful director.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 18, 2022 12:55 AM |
[quote]Without spoilers: The last scene — where you realize the solution was in front of your eyes all along
Say what now? Solution?
I love the story posted above by the former neighbor of Harris’s in the 90s. One of the comments on that blog post says she may have been on the autism spectrum. So many in entertainment seemingly are.
I wonder if her paranoia was apparent when she was working in the film industry? I admittedly know nothing about her personal life—that blog post was as informing an account as I’ve ever read about her. She really was a great actor, and although there’s something obviously sad about her years in that apartment in Chicago in what must have been her 60s, it just makes me like her even more.
I love an eccentric, what can I say.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 18, 2022 1:11 AM |
Bruce Dern said that he recommended that Hitchcock, at the end of the movie, descend the stairs and wink into the camera (like Harris did). Dern said that Hitchcock thought about it and decided to have Harris do the wink.
Hitchcock's cameo ended up elsewhere in the movie, in silhouette, only.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 18, 2022 1:15 AM |
I’m so glad Hitch didn’t do the wink at the end.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 18, 2022 1:18 AM |
Yes, I think it was better that B. Harris did the wink at the end. It made more sense, too.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 18, 2022 1:23 AM |
SPOILER ALERT:
I always assumed the wink at the end was Harris communicating to the audience that no, she wasn’t really psychic like she’d convinced Dern she was in that moment; she’d (likely) just overheard them discussing where the diamond was. Is that plausible?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 18, 2022 1:25 AM |
R14, yes, that's exactly what the wink was about. At some point, when she was supposedly knocked-out / unconscious, she saw or overheard something.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 18, 2022 1:31 AM |
In the documentary at OP, the Assistant Director said he'd wanted to film the car scene on an actual road. (It's green screen and, frankly, looks kind of hokey.) But Hitch didn't want to be directing under those circumstances (riding around on a real road). I think the movie suffered, but Hitch was having health and mobility problems at that point.
One of my favorite scenes from the movie was when Barbara Harris's character hoisted herself out of the wrecked car, platform sandal planted and pushing off of Bruce Dern's face.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 18, 2022 1:38 AM |
Harris and Dern were filmed in front of a green screen, but the road-facing action, where all the thrills come from, was the real thing—and those shots don’t look hokey at all of course; there isn’t any processing. That scene always has me on the edge of my seat because I HATE being on roads like that, and I have a fear of heights. I think it’s one of the scariest scenes in any Hitch film!
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 18, 2022 1:42 AM |
Love FAMILY PLOT and loved watching that documentary! Thanks for posting it, OP. And also thanks to r7 for posting that fascinating blog remembrance.
I was huge Barbara Harris fan as a teen from seeing her on Broadway in On a Clear Day.... and The Apple Tree. As great as she was on film, she was even more sublime onstage.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 18, 2022 2:39 AM |
According to the author's boyfriend, article at R7, Barbara Harris said that Barbra Streisand "poisons everything she touches!"
[quote] That intrepid boyfriend, however, made semi-regular trips down the derelict back stairs to pay social calls to Barbara. I’d get reports back, most of which were rather unspectacular, save for a juicy pronouncement on Barbra Streisand – “She poisons everything she touches!” (Streisand took the lead in the film version of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, a role that Harris originated on Broadway – and to be honest, I see her point.)
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 18, 2022 2:51 AM |
And Barbra stole "Yentl" from me! POISON.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 18, 2022 3:53 AM |
Well, Barbara Harris stole A Thousand Clowns from me!
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 18, 2022 4:34 AM |
The Family Plot movie poster is superb.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 18, 2022 1:48 PM |
R7 Great article, thank you.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 19, 2022 12:27 AM |
Family Plot was my first Hitchcock film, and the only one I got to see in its initial release (as a kid). I really loved it. In college there was a Hitchcock film series on Tuesday nights for several weeks, and I got to see North By Northwest (my favorite), Vertigo, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry (much underrated), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (the remake with Doris Day). I became an instant convert! He really was a master storyteller and filmmaker. Even a bad Hitchcock film is better than most of what wins awards these days.
In Family Plot Dern and Harris had tremendous chemistry, as did Black and Devane. I don't think Roy Thinnes (originally cast in the Devane role, but fired/replaced -it's still him in a couple of long shots) would have been nearly as good.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | December 19, 2022 12:43 AM |
Barbara Harris, a unique talent
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | December 19, 2022 1:38 AM |
Bruce Dern is hot AF in this.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | December 19, 2022 2:17 AM |
Katherine Helmond was sinister!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 27 | December 23, 2022 12:54 AM |
Helmond wasn’t sinister; she was paranoid about her husband’s past and grieved him when he died. She hated the *actually* sinister Devane for what he’d done.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | December 23, 2022 12:57 AM |
Love Cathleen Nesbitt as the mark at the outset of the film.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 29 | December 23, 2022 12:59 AM |
The year before, Nesbitt played an elderly heroin addict and thief in "French Connection II". She was 87 then.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 30 | December 23, 2022 1:24 AM |
Well that’s just horrifying, R30.
Wasn’t she in The Parent Trap? I remember her from either that or some other Disney film, and Family Plot.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | December 23, 2022 3:04 AM |
Affirmative on the Parent Trap. She was the uptight grandma.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 32 | December 23, 2022 3:14 AM |
Now I have to watch the film again, R33!
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | December 23, 2022 5:32 PM |
Some great info about the production.
Hitchcock considered Beverly Sills for the role of Blanche???
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 35 | December 23, 2022 5:44 PM |
Barbara Harris could've had a much better career. But, it does seem like she was dealing with mental illness which may have made that impossible.
I find when she's on screen, she's very appealing. You can't take your eyes off her.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | December 23, 2022 5:54 PM |
Harris was totally charismatic, funny, attractive.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | December 23, 2022 9:32 PM |
I'm sure today she'd have been placed on the autism spectrum -but what a fantastically-talented lady!
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | December 23, 2022 10:44 PM |
The balding helicopter pilot with the chin cleft shown in the trailer with Karen Black presses a lot of my buttons.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 39 | December 24, 2022 2:47 PM |
Alan Fudge pronunciation guide.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 40 | December 24, 2022 2:48 PM |
All you Fudge (-packing) fans will remember him as CW on The Man From Atlantis, with the always-shirtless Patrick Duffy.
It just occurred to me that the producer of that show must've been gay! Mostly nude Duffy, daddy Alan, and campy Victor Buono in nearly every episode. It was a gay-fest right under my innocent adolescent nose! I mean, matronly Belinda Montgomery was only a non-sexual, non-threatening beard...
BTW -This thread made me re-watch Family Plot last night. Dern and Harris were so damned good together!
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | December 24, 2022 5:42 PM |
[quote] Katherine Helmond was sinister!
I didn't even realize it was Katherine Helmond!
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | December 24, 2022 5:45 PM |
This guy, actor Ed Lauter, was also scary.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 43 | December 24, 2022 5:47 PM |
Seeing this film when it came out turned me into a Hitchcock fan. If you haven't already, check out some of his other films like North By Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Rear Window, Suspicion, Spellbound, The Trouble With Harry, Foreign Correspondent, etc. Hell, I even enjoy Torn Curtain!
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | December 24, 2022 5:53 PM |
R44 Not to mention The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Notorious, Rope, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief...
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | December 25, 2022 7:06 AM |
"I didn't even realize it was Katherine Helmond!"
A far cry from her Jessica Tate character on Soap! I love it when actresses aren't afraid to look plain on screen -especially pretty ones.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | December 25, 2022 7:47 AM |
William Devane, is just so damned ugly. He looks like a chimp.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | December 25, 2022 1:31 PM |
No Hitchcock film ever made me laugh so hard.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | December 25, 2022 4:55 PM |
When I was younger, I used to think Devane was rather handsome. I think he has nice eyes, and a mustache usually makes any guy look sexier (to me, at least). But a week ago when I was watching Family Plot, I mentally ranked the attractiveness of all the actors and Devane came in dead last. Definitely chimp-like (and I usually LOVE simian faces).
Really Ed Lauter is the hottest guy in it. Dern is okay.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | December 25, 2022 8:38 PM |
One final word from me about Devane’s looks—I just saw him in a TV commercial for something (life insurance?), and he looks and sounds remarkably well preserved for his age. He seems ten years younger than he actually is, easily. We’re lucky he’s still around.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | December 25, 2022 8:39 PM |
On this "making of" documentary, it says that Hitchcock came to regret using Devane, but doesn't elaborate. I don't know if I believe it. Hitchcock kicked out actor Roy Thinnes actor when Devane became available.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 52 | December 25, 2022 9:33 PM |
R45, don’t forget Lifeboat.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | December 26, 2022 6:55 AM |
I thought Ed Lauter was scary and kind of sexy.
Menace has an appeal for me.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 54 | December 27, 2022 1:16 PM |
