Family Plot – Review

Opening with a fairly cooky séance between medium Blanche Tyler (Harris) and aged ultra wealthy Julia Rainbird (Nesbitt), it is revealed that Julie is regretting abandoning a child in her past to avoid family shame. The boy was given up for adoption through her now deceased sister, but not much else is known. Despite clearly having no real psychic ability, Julia offers a hefty sum to Blanche ($10,000) if the child can be found.

Blanche is picked up by her boyfriend and cab driver George Lumley (Dern), who immediately begins investigating. Enter another pair of devious players: Arthur Adamson (Devane) and Fran (Black). This San Francisco jeweler has a dark and devious secret of his own which he shares with girlfriend Fran. As our plots begin to converge, all sorts of wackiness breaks out.

While Family Plot is a lesser-known Hitchcock affair, it remains a fun and ridiculous story filled with solid performances. Based on a book, the plot is pretty good, however Hitchcock decided to go with humorous as opposed to serious and dark, despite some murder-y elements. Most of this works pretty well as the competent cast delivers on the task, however it does give some absolutely silly vibes to the overall movie.

This approach makes for a fun and relaxed affair, and there is enough story to keep the runtime mostly fresh and the viewer wondering how things could possibly resolve. If you can put up with an older style of movie and pacing, Family Plot works well and is still fun today.