Most Underrated Hitchcock Movie Ever.

Hell yes. I remember hearing that it was one of his weakest. And considering that he was up there in age and in not the best of health, i assumed that it hindered his directorial prowess.....i was dead wrong. I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed the comedy, the acting, the story, and that Hitchcock suspense never fails.

3 1/2 out of 4 stars from me.

Yes --Topaz has something about it--even without much of an ending, there are many good scenes and characters: The nasty Russian defector, the mysterious "Colombine", and the whole scene with Roscoe Lee Brown in Harlem was great.

I've recently decided to work my way backwards through Hitchcock's films and I've only just reached Topaz. Out of the last three though, I definitely thought Topaz was the best.

Oddly, Frenzy has been (for me) the least impressive so far. There's something oddly goofy about both Frenzy and Family Plot but (it seems to me) moreso in Frenzy. Family Plot has some great moments and a good build up of tension along with the more light hearted aspects and it's mainly the "magic powers" ending that I feel lets it down.

I believe that all of the films that Hitchcock made after his supposed "last major one" ("The Birds" in 1963) reflect, in varying ways, a "genius in spite of everything."

In other words, there may have been problems with "Marnie," "Torn Curtain," "Topaz," "Frenzy"(the best reviewed of the lot, and the biggest hit) and "Family Plot," but by the time Hitchcock made those films, he had more knowledge of how to tell a story and how to visualize a story imbedded in his sharp but aging mind than he'd ever be able to forget. As long as his mind stayed reasonably focussed(since he could direct sitting down), he could still bring something to his last films that many filmmakers couldn't bring to their first.

"Family Plot," at the very end of the line, shows off its "tiredness" in some ways(I post elsehwere on the poor opening scenes), but when it starts kicking in, it has some of the greatest things ever in any Hitchcock movie.

Here is a movie that no other filmmaker (particularly in ultraviolent 1976, when "Marathon Man" and "Carrie" and "The Omen" were gorily scaring audiences) would even conceive of doing in a thriller: making it non-violent and funny and literally all about the PLOT: two unrelated stories criss-crossing and slowly coming together.

I will also say this:

The sequence that begins with Devane and Black giving the bishop his shot -- as the doorbell rings(we KNOW its Madame Blanche) and that ends in Devane's garage as he presses the button on his remote control garage door opener...is one of the greatest sequences Hitchcock ever put on film. Shot by shot, idea by idea...as the two stories literally "all come together." This isn't a sequence of action or horror, but it IS a sequence of storytelling genius, and humor, and suspense.

As Andrew Sarris wrote of the sound of that doorbell ringing(paraphrased from memory): "All fifty years of Hitchcock's career, of his mastery of storytelling, of his knowledge of filmmaking, are distilled into the sound of that bell ringing."

I thought it was a great film, and better than The Birds. The scene where George and Blanche can't stop their car, and we see from their first person perspective (or the car's) was incredibly tense.

Santa isn't real

Yes definately deserves more credit. So entertaining throughout.

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Very underrated film

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