Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: "Family Plot" was Hitchcock's last film...if this is the best he could come up with, he should have retired after "Frenzy" (the only decent movie the master made after "The Birds" in my opinion!) I am a huge fan of Hitchcock, but this was a sad and disappointing way to end an otherwise stellar career. I didn't mind the fact that the movie is a comedy (with dramatic overtones)...after all, so was "Frenzy" in a much darker sense, and "The Trouble With Harry"...in fact, that characteristic Hitchcock wit permeated most of the master's work, and usually, it only added to his movies...("Rear Window" is a prime example)but "Family Plot" was just stupid, and waaaay beneath the master of suspense. With the possible exceptions of "Marnie" and the dreadful "Topaz", "Family Plot" was Hitchcock's worst film...but mind you, this is just one person's opinion. You might not agree...so see it for yourself...just be warned...don't expect the Hitchcock genius in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Hint of Romanticism
Review: 1976's FAMILY PLOT was Hitchcock's final film. In an interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock stated that in today's films you no longer had to close the picture with a kiss. The audience no longer needed it or expected it. The romanticism of the motion picture was dead. If not for the performances of Barbara Harris as a phony psychic and Bruce Dern as her taxi driving-detective-boyfriend this film would have indeed lacked any hint of romanticism. In a complex plot that involves the location of a missing heir the lives of Harris and Dern become intertwined with the villains of the piece (William Devane and Karen Black). Ultimately the film seems more akin to ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS than to Hitchcock's previous films. However, there's nothing wrong with that.
Rating:
Summary: A Hint of Romanticism
Review: 1976's FAMILY PLOT was Hitchcock's final film. In an interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock stated that in today's films you no longer had to close the picture with a kiss. The audience no longer needed it or expected it. The romanticism of the motion picture was dead. If not for the performances of Barbara Harris as a phony psychic and Bruce Dern as her taxi driving-detective-boyfriend this film would have indeed lacked any hint of romanticism. In a complex plot that involves the location of a missing heir the lives of Harris and Dern become intertwined with the villains of the piece (William Devane and Karen Black). Ultimately the film seems more akin to ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS than to Hitchcock's previous films. However, there's nothing wrong with that.
Rating: 
Summary: Family Plot---- Not Hitchock's best but still enjoyable
Review: As a child growing up I was consumed with a passion for film, which has continued to this day and one of my all time favorite directors of film is Alfred Hitchcock.The film Family Plot came was released in 1976 and for a young teenager growing up in Southern California, this was my first and only opportunity to see a Hitchcock film in it's initial release. The plot in this film is sort of silly in spots, it concerns a phony psychic who while working as a medium is hired to find a missing heir to her family's fortune. The only problem is that the missing heir is now a jewel thief who faked his own death years ago and wants no part of being located once again. Bruce Dern plays a cabbie who is also a boyfriend to the psychic, played by Barbara Harris, the jewel thief is played by William Devane, and Karen Black plays his accomplice/love interest. Mr Hitchcock on this film employed many of the people who had made his subsequent films so successful including screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who penned North By Northwest amongst others for Hitch, Edith Head multi Academy Award winning costume designer, as well as Henry Bumstead who handled the fabulous set designs. This DVD release is quite impressive for one of the least impressive films of Alfred Hitchcock, but the features make this a worthy addition to your collection nonetheless. The disc is released in anamorphically enhanced widescreen which is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1:85.1 and looks vastly superior to the old LaserDisc and VHS copies of this film that I have viewed over the years. The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono and the composer is John Williams in a subdued but effective score. There is a very nice documentary on this DVD as well entitled, "Plotting Family Plot which runs a little under 50 minutes and covers just about the whole production of the film and has interviews with assisstant director Howard Kazanjian, set designer Henry Bumstead, and actors Bruce Dern, Karen Black, William Devane. There all also the standard addition of trailers two to be exact, as well as production photos and some behind the scenes photos as well. Overall Alfred Hitchcocks 54th and final film is not something that film historians will be citing as a milestone in his career, however I think that anyone who is a film collector or Hitchock fan should add this to their DVD collection. I give this DVD release on a Bronze to Platinum rating scale.... a SILVER rating.
Rating:
Summary: So-so Hitchcock, but that beats most directors' best efforts
Review: As a teenager, I attended the "Family Plot" premiere at the L.A. Film Exposition in the spring of 1976 in Century City. (Apparently this was on March 21st, 1976 at the Plitt Century Plaza Theater. Amazing what you can find on the Internet :)Filmex was an interesting event, which I don't think is held anymore. Of the few events I attended during 1975-76, I stood next to Fred Astaire, Peter Falk, Rosalind Russell and a lot of other cinematic icons. The movie itself was a mild disappointment - perhaps a bit more workmanlike than one expects from a genius like Hitchcock, but saved by a charming tongue-in-cheek performance by Barbara Harris, a calculating Karen Black, and a wicked turn by then newcomer William Devane. It's also worth noting that Hitchcock was 76 years old at the time. While it might be light entertainment compared to his best work, "Family Plot" still manages a few surprises and narrowly misses being a very entertaining film. Hitchcock was feted afterwards at a Century Plaza Hotel banquet by various actors, including Jimmy Stewart. What I remember most about the great director's speech at the end of the tributes was a denial of his famous phrase that "actors are cattle." "What I probably said," Hitchcock intoned, "is that actors should be TREATED like cattle."
Rating: 
Summary: Hitch Shines
Review: Before I saw this movie, I thought "OK, it's the 70's, Hitch is done with." I was so entertained by this movie throughout that I couldn't stand it to end. It was hilarious and I'm going to watch it at least one more time before I return it.
Rating:
Summary: Laughed till I cried
Review: By no means an artistic masterpiece, but this piece of fluff is absolutely hilarious. Saw it twice, laughed out of control both times -- and how often do you get to do that? Pure fun. May not be great cinema (though that mountain descent is one of my all-time favorite sequences for humor/terror) but thoroughly lovable.
Rating:
Summary: A Small but Exquisite Gem
Review: FAMILY PLOT has earned a place in cinematic history simply because it turned out to be Alfred Hitchcock's last production. While the film was a financial success, like most Hitchcock pictures, it got mixed reviews because many found it too comic in tone and not "suspenseful" enough to have been directed by the Master. It is true that FAMILY PLOT is far from being one of Hitchcock's best films, and it is not the "great" movie one might have expected from this director after the spine-chilling and sordid FRENZY, FAMILY PLOT's immediate predecessor - it is not an ambitious production. However, although the tone of the film is the lightest and funniest of any Hitchcock movie since THE LADY VANISHES in 1939, this does not mean that FAMILY PLOT is free of some disturbing undercurrents which linger in the mind and demand repeated viewings. Like all the characters in the movie, FAMILY PLOT is not what it seems to be. On the surface, we have a light, comic thriller involving a psychic (Blanche/Barbara Harris) and her cabbie/actor boyfriend, Lumley (Bruce Dern) who have been hired by a rich old woman to find her missing nephew, the heir to a huge fortune. The missing nephew turns out to be the thouroughly repellent Arthur Anderson (William Devane), a sociopath who, with the help of his girlfriend Fran (Karen Black), kidnaps important people and holds them for ransom. But Anderson is not just a thief - he is also a killer. When he realizes Blanche and Lumley are trying to find out information about him, and that they know of his hidden identity (which I won't reveal here), he assumes that they are undercover agents looking to expose him as a kidnapper. Of course, Blanche and Lumley know nothing about this, and thus put themselves in great danger without realizing it. The plot of this film is very complex and I won't say any more about it for those of you who haven't seen it. The comic tone of the film is belied by some exteremely dark moral undercurrents. The dominant characters, Blanche and Anderson, are very similar to one another although in dramatic terms one is the heroine and the other the villain, and this put us in an uneasy relationship with all the people in the film. Anderson is a liar, a thief, and a con artist. Blanche (a fake psychic who bilks lonely old women out of their money) is also a liar, a thief (she essentially steals from the women she "consults" by faking her "powers") and a con artist motivated by greed. Both heroine and villain also dominate their lovers - Blanche uses her sexual hold over the rather dumb (but loving) Lumley to get him to adopt all sorts of identities to further their plans, and Anderson does the exact same thing to Fran, forcing her to assume a false appearance in the course of furthering his kidnappings. Although one couple is labelled as "good" and the other as "bad", morally, they are not so far apart from one another. Indeed, everyone in the film has manipulated and lied to others to achieve none-too-pleasant ends. Even old Julia Rainbird, whose guilt over ostracizing her dead sister and the girl's illegitimate child sets the story in motion, has used and deceived others for her own selfish goals. The vision of humanity in this film is essentially dark - people are monsters of greed and deceit, willing to use anyone and everyone, and even risking the lives of those they love in the process. This makes the film's undeniable humor even more disturbing - what are we really laughing at when we laugh at these sad and confused people? The performances by the four principals are top-notch, especially by Harris as the ditzy "psychic" who isn't the dumb blonde she appears to be, and by Devane as the evil killer who presents himself as a respectable businessman. Although there are no spectacular Hitchcockian "set-pieces", a scene where Blanche and Lumley are trapped in a speeding car is scary and funny at the same time, and the movie is filled with little Hitchcock touches that are simultaneously amusing and fetishistic (as when Karen Black idly throws the blonde wig she uses to disguise herself into a bin in the refrigerator - I don't know why, but this struck me as uproariously funny in context). This is a greatly underrated film which may not be the "masterpiece" people were hoping for from Hitch, but I think that reviewers have done this movie a disservice by comparing it to earlier films and not judging it on its own, considerable, merits. Hitchcock always gave us what we didn't expect, and FAMILY PLOT is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent comedy/thriller by our man Hitch!
Review: FAMILY PLOT was an excellent film written by Ernest Lehman, writer of NORTH BY NORTHWEST. It follows two seperate couples, Fran and Arthur, jewel theives and kidnappers and Blanche and George, a phony psychic and a cab driver, who are unknowingly looking for eachother. The plot was excellent and it was utterly hilarious in some parts. It was definitly a great finale to a wonderful career by Mr. Hitchcock. Thanks for the movies, Old Man. We salute you!
Rating:
Summary: cute Hitchcock comedy-thriller
Review: FAMILY PLOT, Hitchcock's last completed film, has echoes of THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY - it is essentially a superbly witty and entertaining black comedy. The story concerns fake medium Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris in a superb performance), who is hired by a wealthy widow (Cathleen Nesbitt) to find her nephew who is the missing heir to the family fortune. When Blanche and her bumbling taxi-driver boyfriend (Bruce Dern) decide to bilk the old lady out of her fortune by pretending to find her nephew (William Devane), they embark on a thrilling adventure. Meanwhile the nephew, a larcenous jeweller and his beautiful girlfriend (Karen Black) have kidnapped a rich Greek shipping magnate for ransom. Together they're on a non-stop merrygo round of mystery murder and mayhem that combines a delicious concoction of comedy and suspense for great entertainment. Featuring Marge Redmond and Katherine Helmond. The DVD contains the documentary "Plotting Family Plot" which includes interviews with Bruce Dern, William Devane and Karen Black; storyboards, art gallery, 2 trailers and production notes. An acquired taste, FAMILY PLOT, one of Hitch's most obscure and unusual films, is really one of his finest in terms of cast and performances.
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