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"A Doorbell Rings, A Garage Door Closes": The Great Final Stretch At Adamson's House (SPOILERS)

posted a year ago by roger1 (3626)
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(aka ecarle.)

Family Plot has gone into the history books as the final movie of Alfred Hitchcock, made at least 50 years after his first silent film in the 20s. He was "the mid-century boss" of the movies. And television, too.

Family Plot came almost four years after Hitchcock's penultimate film, "Frenzy"(1972). "Frenzy" broke a losing streak in the 60s(Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz) and was quite the comeback film for HItchcock. It was made exclusively as a "foreign film" in England and it was made very well and written very well.

"Family Plot" returned Hitchcock to an American film with an American setting and work on the Universal soundstage and backlots in North Hollywood. Despite having a script by Ernest Lehman("North by Northwest"), the film was not as well written or tightly structured as Frenzy, and the four-years older Hitchcock's direction was often slow, with scenes being allowed to go on too long. "Family Plot" was NICER than the brutal R-rated Frenzy, but, alas, it felt like a step back from Frenzy and some critics said it would have been better for Hitchcock to end WITH Frenzy.

I expect that Hitchcock felt this himself, but was determined NOT to end his career with the grim, rape-murder centered Frenzy and to "go out with something nicer," less violent, with a happy ending and a wink at the end. Hitch DID try to make more movies after Family Plot, but his health failed him and I expect he felt OK to end with Family Plot and its niceness.

Still, there are some great Hitchcockian touches all through Family Plot,and a few deft set-pieces( the rape-murder set piece in Frenzy is here replaced with an exhilarating "runaway car" action sequence)

But it remains my contention that, deep in the third and final act of Family Plot, Hitchcock and his scenarist Ernest Lehman devised a sequence which is truly "Hitchocck at his best" and demonstrative of the unique approach Hitchcock took to the thriller: witty, ironic, coincidental, perfectly timed...and profound.

Family Plot is a small-scale comedy-thriller about two separate plots on a collision course: Story One: Phony medium Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris) is hired to find -- "through psychic means, of course," the missing heir to a multi-milliion dollar fortune; her cab driver/actor boyfriend(Bruce Dern) is her silent partner. Story Two: Arthur Adamson(William Devane) is a successful jeweler by day who kidnaps powerful people(a millionaire, a bishop) for diamond ransoms; his silent partner in crime is girlfriend Fran(Karen Black.)

The story is essentially Psycho without the horror: investigators following one story(Janet Leigh stealing the 40,000; the search for the missing heir) are coming up against some very dangerous people involved in another story(Mrs. BAtes the psychopathic killer; Arthur Adamson the dangerous kidnapper.) In both movies, the closer the investigators get to solving the mystery...the greater risk the are at to get killed.

And so: in Family Plot, "the big sequence" begins like this:

At Adamson's urban townhouse, Adamson and Fran go into the secret cell in which their latest kidnap victim -- a bishop in a red robe -- is being held captive. In shadow, Adamson asks the bishop to keep his back turned and await a shot that will put him to sleep so they can take him out of the house and to the cops in exchange for the ransom.

The sequence of "moments" unfolds:

MOMENT ONE: in shadow, Adamson gives the bishop his shot and the man collapses into Fran's arms. And, A DOORBELL RINGS. And: we realize: that is the cute, ditzy nice Madame Blanche out there -- because we remember she was heading over to Adamson's house having "finally found the missing heir."

Critic Andrew Sarris wrote of this moment: "All of the fifty years of Hitchcock's experience in the making and plotting of thrillers could be encapsulated into the moment a doorbell rings in Family Plot."

I myself saw Family Plot at its "World Premiere" in Los Angeles at the now defunct FILMEX festival in March of 1976. (Family Plot was released in April.) Hitchcock was there in the auditorium and we tried to "boost" him throughout the somewhat slow and dated film with laughter and applause at key moments. But we didn't have to fake anything when that doorbell rang. We KNEW "Hitchcock was hitting it" when THAT occurred. Because we'd forgotten that Blanche was heading to the Adamson house and we were so wrapped up in the kidnap victim preparation for return that it took us by SURPRISE. I recall the audience -- as one -- first gasping at the doorbell, then laughing, and then APPLAUDING. It was a great moment "at the movies."

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) a year ago

MOMENT TWO: Adamson is upset that someone is at the door -- they've got to be on time to deliver the victim for ransom(I love that; criminals worried about being ON TIME to meet with the police.) Family Plot here turns into a blend of comedy (its funny to see the cool and suave Adamson starting to rage and panic) and suspense(Madame Blanche is in grave danger -- of getting killed by Adamson. This isn't funny in THAT regard.)

Adamson and Fran reach the door. Fran looks through the eyehole -- an echo of Norman at the peephole in Psycho. "Its HER--that psychic!" Adamson explodes: "I can't BELIEVE this is happening!" Big laughs.

MOMENT THREE: Adamson tells Fran they will have to sneak the bishop out to the car and out of their garage and not engage with Blanche outside. Fran checks the peephole: "She's gone." But Hitchcock cuts outside: Blanche goes BACK to the front door to leave a note and that means that Adamson and Fran do NOT see Blanche head back towards her car bhich is blocking the garage door.

Interior: garage. Adamson and Fran have put the bishop into their black sedan. Adamson uses the automatic garage door opener control in his hand(established early on in the film) to open the garage door -- and there stands Madame Blanche, her white Mustang blocking the driveway. BIG LAUGHS -- and -- a certain great amount of pure Hitchocck suspense.

Our two stories have finally joined into one. Two key characters -- our nice heroine(Blanche) and our evil villain(Adamson) finally meet. Danger is in the air.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) a year ago

And Hitchcock milks the suspense. We go NUTS wanting Blanche to JUST TELL HIM: you're RICH! You're the missing heir! But Adamson is quietly raging at her, thinking she's investigating his kidnappings and has come for blackmail. Back and forth the dialogue goes until finally, she DOES tell him. Adamson is stunned. Fran is stunned. WE are stunned -- how can this kidnapper claim his reward? Well, drop off the bishop, present as Adamson the jeweler for the inheritance and..happy ending for all?

But Fran opens the door to tuck the bishop's bright red robe back into the car, and the unconscious bishop falls half out of the car, head hangiing down, and Blanche yells "the bishop!" and as she tries to run out of the garage the door closes on her before she can make it out and...

...cut to: Adamson, his hand on the remote control as the door closes and traps Blanche with him.

There are different ways to define "Alfred Hitchcock at his best" -- sometimes its a glorious camera move, sometimes a specatcular montage(the shower murder in Psycho), sometimes a romantic scene -- but HERE, what we feel -- and FELT in 1976 was an aged master of the film medium "on it" -- delivering a perfect sequence as if snapping his fingers:

SNAP: Doorbell rings.
SNAP: Blanche through the peephole
SNAP: Garage door opens, Blanche is there.
SNAP: Blanche tries to escape, garage door closes on her.

Everything pays off and we find ourselves laughing AND being in tortuous suspense. That's Hitchcock.

The movie keeps going from here -- will Adamson kill Blanche? Will Blanche's boyfriend find her in time at Adamson's? There's some good stuff ahead, but a bit too slow and heading towards a bit too little of a climax.

No, the action is all HERE. From doorbell ring to garage door close. Hitchcock at his best. For the last time.

Happy and sad.