Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.
Hitchcock's Stage Fright is a solid but somewhat uneven thriller, notable for its unreliable narrator device—the false flashback—which was audacious for its time but divisive among audiences and critics. The London theatrical milieu is richly evoked, and the cast (Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Alastair Sim) performs at a high level, with Dietrich especially magnetic. Cinematography is competent Hitchcock but lacks the visual bravura of his peak works. The ending, while delivering a twist, feels somewhat rushed and theatrically contrived, undercutting the tension built earlier. As a Hitchcock entry it sits in the mid-tier—enjoyable and technically accomplished, but not among his most celebrated.