Family Plot

For the 1994 television episode, see Family Plot (2point4 children).

Not to be confused with Family Plots.

"Missing Heir" redirects here. For a person related to a descendant but whose address is not known, see Missing heir.

Family Plot
Original release poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by	Alfred Hitchcock (Uncredited)
Written by	Ernest Lehman
Based on	The Rainbird Pattern by Victor Canning
Starring	Barbara Harris Bruce Dern Karen Black William Devane
Music by	John Williams
Cinematography	Leonard J. South
Editing by	J. Terry Williams
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 9, 1976
Running time	121 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$13,200,000

Family Plot is a 1976 American dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black.

The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. There were two working titles: Deceit and Missing Heir.

Plot

The story involves a fake psychic, Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris), and her con artist taxi driver boyfriend, George Lumley (Bruce Dern), who attempt to locate the nephew of a wealthy and guiltridden old woman, Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt). Julia, one of Blanche's clients, was responsible for her now-deceased sister giving up a boy for adoption years earlier and now wants to make him her heir. She will pay $10,000 if he is found.

However, the nephew and prospective heir is now a successful jeweler in San Francisco known as Arthur Adamson (William Devane), who has a secret and lurid past, having apparently murdered his adoptive parents and faked his own death. He and his live-in girlfriend, Fran (Karen Black), have successfully kidnapped an assortment of millionaires and dignitaries, returning them when the ransom, in the form of a valuable gemstone, has been delivered, each of which they hide in their chandelier. Arthur enlists Maloney (Ed Lauter), who assisted him in the murder of his adoptive parents, to kill Blanche and George. However, Maloney had already been tracked down by George after it was revealed he paid for Arthur's fake tombstone. Maloney initially refused to help, but then contacts Blanche and George after having spoken to Arthur, telling the couple to meet him at a café atop a mountain. Instead of showing up, he cuts the brake line of Blanche's car, which George eventually crashes into the side of the road in order to stop. Maloney then approaches in his car, claiming he was on his way, but the couple reveal they know of his plot to kill them. He turns around and tries to run them over, but fails when another vehicle appears and causes him to lose control and drive off the cliff.

At Maloney's funeral, his wife (Katherine Helmond) tearfully confesses to George that Edward's name is now Arthur. George is called into work that night, so Blanche sets about tracking down various A. Adamsons in San Francisco, eventually reaching the jewelry store as it closes for the day. Arthur's assistant Mrs. Clay (Edith Atwater) offers to let Blanche leave a note as Arthur has already left, but she convinces Mrs. Clay that she is his friend and asks for his address to send a telegram.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Fran are in the process of bundling Bishop Wood (William Prince), who they kidnapped (preventing George from asking him for information after learning he baptized Arthur), into their car to drop him off in exchange for another ransom diamond when Blanche rings their doorbell. After they ignore it and attempt to drive out of their garage, Blanche stands at the garage door. Arthur asks her what she wants from him, but she brushes aside his concerns, informing him his aunt wants to make him her heir. Fran then notices that the bishop's robe is caught in the car door and tries to quickly tuck it back in, but the bishop's head pushes the door open further. Blanche swears she will not tell, but Arthur corners her and drugs her, leaving her in their cellar while they drop the bishop off.

George learns where Blanche has gone and notices her car outside Arthur and Fran's house despite nobody answering the door. He breaks into the basement and makes his way inside calling for Blanche, but to no avail. Arthur and Fran arrive home as George hides upstairs. He overhears Arthur's plot to kill Blanche, dump her body and frame her death as a suicide, but Fran wants no part in it. George sneaks past Fran in the kitchen and hides in the basement after talking to Blanche, who is now faking unconsciousness in the open cellar. As Arthur readies a pipe to gas Blanche in her own car, Fran decides to help him carry Blanche's body from the cellar, but Blanche darts out the door as George locks the other couple in.

Suddenly, Blanche appears to move in a trance, walking up the basement stairs into the house and making her way several steps upstairs, where she extends her arm to point at the diamond hanging in the chandelier. Blanche then asks George what she is doing inside and he excitedly tells her that she is "not a fake" psychic before going to call the police. Blanche turns to glance at George with a slight smile on her face as she sits down, looks at the camera and winks.

Cast

• Barbara Harris as Blanche Tyler
• Bruce Dern as George Lumley
• Karen Black as Fran
• William Devane as Arthur Adamson/Edward Shoebridge
• Cathleen Nesbitt as Julia Rainbird
• Ed Lauter as Joseph P. Maloney
• Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Maloney
• Nicholas Colasanto as Constantine
• Edith Atwater as Mrs. Clay
• Warren J. Kemmerling as Grandison
• William Prince as Bishop Wood
• Marge Redmond as Vera Hannagan

Production

The film was adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman, based on Victor Canning's novel The Rainbird Pattern (1972). Lehman wanted the film to be sweeping, dark, and dramatic but Hitchcock kept pushing him toward lightness and comedy. Lehman's screenplay earned him a 1977 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The novel on which the film is based had earlier been rejected by Lehman, to whom it had been submitted as a potential project for him to either produce and/or direct. Hitchcock's other collaboration with the screenwriter, North by Northwest (1959), was followed by several aborted projects. Lehman had incurred the director's anger by declining an offer to write the screenplay for No Bail for the Judge, a London set thriller intended to star Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Harvey and actor John Williams. Although Hitchcock eventually had a fine screenplay and pre-production (location scouting and costumes) was at an advanced stage, the film was never made; Hepburn became pregnant and Hitchcock turned to another project, Psycho (1960), instead.

Hitchcock at work on location in San Francisco for Family Plot

Hitchcock, who often liked to specify the locales of his films by using on-screen titles or by using recognizable landmarks, deliberately left the story's location unspecific, using sites in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The chase scene in the movie, which writer Donald Spoto called a spoof on car chases prevalent in films at the time, was filmed on the extensive Universal backlot. The restaurant used in the film was also built on the backlot and was shown on studio tours in 1975.

Hitchcock's signature cameo in Family Plot can be seen 40 minutes into the film. He appears in silhouette through the glass door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths.

Following Family Plot, Hitchcock worked on the script for a projected spy thriller, The Short Night. His declining health prevented the filming of the screenplay, which was published in a book on Hitchcock's last years. Universal chose not to film the script with another director, although it did authorize sequels to Hitchcock's Psycho.

An advertisement for this film can be seen in the 1993 comedy film, Dazed and Confused, when characters pass a drive-in movie theater.

Casting

Hitchcock considered such actors as Burt Reynolds and Roy Scheider (for Adamson), Al Pacino (for George), Faye Dunaway (for Fran), and Beverly Sills and Goldie Hawn (for Blanche) for the film. High salary demands were partly responsible for his turning to other actors. Although Liza Minnelli was among the stars recommended to Hitchcock, he was especially delighted to work with Barbara Harris as the medium. He had previously tried to hire her for other film projects. Harris was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Musical/Comedy for her performance in this film.

Hitchcock had earlier worked with Bruce Dern on episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and on Marnie (1964), in which he had a brief role in a flashback playing a doomed sailor.

William Devane was Hitchcock's first choice for the role of nefarious jeweler Arthur Adamson, but Devane was unavailable when the film went into production. Hitchcock finally settled on Roy Thinnes as Adamson and shot several scenes with him. When Devane became available, Hitchcock fired Thinnes and re-shot all of his scenes. Later, Thinnes confronted Hitchcock in a restaurant and asked the director why he was fired. Hitchcock simply looked at Thinnes until the actor left. Some shots of Thinnes as the character (from behind) remain in the film.

Jack Nicholson turned down the role of George Lumley due to scheduling conflicts with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Music

The film was the only Hitchcock production to be scored by John Williams, a rising staff composer at Universal who had recently won an Oscar for Steven Spielberg's Jaws. Williams has stated that Hitchcock wanted choir voices for Madame Blanche to make her seem psychic towards the beginning. Williams also stated that Hitchcock was at the scoring sessions most of the time and would often give him suggestions. For the scene in which Maloney suddenly disappears from Adamson's office, Hitchcock suggested that Williams stop the music when the camera cuts to the open window, that way it would show the audience that Maloney is gone. Hitchcock then went on to say, "Mr. Williams, murder can be fun", when he suggested that he conduct the music lightly for a darker scene of the film. Williams stated that it was a great privilege, and he had a wonderful working experience with the director.

The complete soundtrack was not released upon the film's release date. Few themes from the film were released on John Williams and Alfred Hitchcock compilation albums. For years afterwards, the original soundtrack was not available, spawning many bootleg copies of the complete scoring sessions of the film over the internet. Finally in 2010, Varèse Sarabande made an official release of the complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 34 years after the film's initial release.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The First Séance"	5:29
2.	"Blanche's Challenge"	2:09
3.	"The Mystery Woman"	3:27
4.	"The Rescue of Constantine / The Diamond Chandelier"	2:21
5.	"Kitchen Pranks"	2:08
6.	"The Shoebridge Headstone"	2:23
7.	"Maloney's Visit to the Jewelry Store / Maloney's Knife / The Stake Out"	4:58
8.	"The Second Séance"	2:20
9.	"Nothing Held Back"	0:37
10.	"The White Mustang"	1:19
11.	"Blanche and George"	1:17
12.	"Maloney's Exit"	2:03
13.	"Share and Share Alike"	0:54
14.	"The Mondrian Shot / The Revealed Identity"	1:47
15.	"The Search Montage"	3:41
16.	"Blanche's Arrival / Blanche's Note"	2:29
17.	"Blanche Gets the Needle"	3:03
18.	"Breaking Into the House"	5:16
19.	"The Secret Door / Blanche Wakes Up"	1:39
20.	"End Cast"	4:14
21.	"Family Plot Theme"	2:38
22.	"The Stonecutter"	6:35

External links

• Family Plot at the Internet Movie Database
• Family Plot at AllRovi
• Family Plot at Box Office Mojo
• Family Plot at Rotten Tomatoes
• Family Plot Eyegate Gallery