Family Plot (1976, USA) C-121m. **½ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane, Ed Lauter, Cathleen Nesbitt. Hitchcock's last film is medium crime drama with black humor. Dern and Harris rip off elderly ladies with their psychic act, meet seriously villainous couple Black and Devane when investigating their latest victim's family history. Lightweight, talky drama that would qualify as plot-heavy if it had much plot to speak of. Still, interesting as Hitch's last project; he died four years later without getting another project off the ground (he had been involved in a spy drama called 'The Short Night'). Scripted by Ernest Lehmann, based on the novel The Rainbird Pattern by Victor Canning. Score by John Williams.


© Ron Altman