'Nashville' and 'Family Plot'

Unlike late-era peers like John Ford and Howard Hawks, who tended to stick to the tried-and-true to the end (John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart) Hitchcock tried to keep up with the changing times at the movies and hire "new young talent" for his movies in the 60's and 70's: Sean Connery, Paul Newman, Julie Andrews.

Hitchcock could neither afford (Jack Nicholson for the hero) nor attract (Roy Scheider for the villain) the star actors he wanted for "Family Plot",but he did manage to find some new Hollywood types anyway.

Karen Black and Barbara Harris did "Family Plot" in 1976, but take a look: they're together in Robert Altman's "Nashville" less than a year earlier. Perhaps Hitchcock saw them there?

Indeed, Black and Harris have a short scene together in "Nashville," in which Harris' nutty runaway-wife-singer does a "fan attack" on big-haired singer Black. It's quite funny --but Black and Harris don't much "connect" any more in their "Nashville" scene than they do in "Family Plot" (where they are only in one scene, but Black stands away in the corner as Harris confronts William Devane.)

So, "Family Plot": Hitchcock does Altman. After all, like Altman, "Family Plot" is about colliding characters and overlapping stories. And William Devane had a small role in "McCabe and Mrs. Miller."

P.S. Karen Black badly wanted the role of Madame Blanche in "Family Plot," but had to accept Harris taking it. That probably didn't make for much comfort in their one scene together.