History Film / StageFright

There are three works with this title on the wiki:

* ''WesternAnimation/StageFright'', a 1997 cartoon short.

There are two films of this title on the wiki:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fbb11cf003171d08b54d0af30d013377.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Pictured - the laziest girl in town on the right.]]

''Stage Fright'' is a 1950 crime thriller film, based on the short story ''Man Running'' by Selwyn Jepson. It was directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. The main stars were Creator/JaneWyman, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Creator/MichaelWilding and Richard Todd.

The events of the film take place in London and involve students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Eve Gill (Wyman) is one such student. She has long had an unrequited crush on fellow student Jonathan Cooper (Todd). One day, Jonathan interrupts her rehearsal. He is frantic and seeking her help. He explains that he got himself in a mess. He is the secret lover of Charlotte Inwood (Dietrich), a well-known singer and actress. Who happens to be married. Or rather WAS married. He claims that Charlotte killed her husband in an argument and then left her house in a bloodstained dress. She visited him in his apartment and got him to go back to her house. He was only supposed to get her a clean dress. He decided instead to re-arrange the crime scene and make it look as if the death was the result of a burglary gone wrong. He got caught in the act and is now on the run. He is a wanted man and needs a place to hide.

Eve convinces her father, Commodore Gill (Alastair Sim), to help Jonathan stay out of sight for a while. The Commodore notices something peculiar in the bloodstained dress Jonathan carries with him. The blood spatter is not random enough to be accidental. It looks as if someone deliberately smeared the cloth in blood. Eve concludes that Charlotte has framed poor Jonathan for the murder. She decides to investigate Charlotte and her activities first hand. She bribes Charlotte's maid to play sick for a while and poses as temporary replacement "Doris Tinsdale".

Both as Eve and Doris, our amateur sleuth meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Wilding) and starts falling for him. But all is not as it seems. Charlotte may have benefited from the murder but there are clues that she is not the actual killer. Jonathan may not be as innocent as he acts, and Smith knows more than he is willing to share with Eve.

Noted for how its plot twist broke a long-established cinematic convention, something that Hitchcock later regretted.

----
!!Provides examples of:
* AccentRelapse: Eve's cockney accent slips a few times, particularly when she's nervous or distressed. [[spoiler: She abandons it completely when she busts Charlotte]].
* AdaptationNameChange: In the book, Jonathan Cooper is called Jonathan Penrose.
* AmateurSleuth: Eve Gill for most of the movie.
* AngstWhatAngst: In-universe. Eve tries to use this to convince Smith of Charlotte's guilt, noting how she continues with her work so soon after her husband's death.
* {{Blackmail}}: Eve bribes Charlotte's regular maid to take some sick days from work so Eve can get close to Charlotte as the temp maid. The maid then begins blackmailing Eve for more money.
* BettyAndVeronica:
** Eve sees herself as the Betty to Charlotte's Veronica, at least where Jonathan is concerned.
** Jonathan himself turns into the Veronica to Smith's Betty, with Eve as the 'Archie'.
* BlackWidow: Essentially the reasons Charlotte has for killing her husband.
* BlindWithoutEm: Subverted for a little gag early on. Eve tries to disguise herself more elaborately before she poses as 'Doris', taking her mother's glasses. But even without them, her mother recognises her instantly.
* BluffingTheMurderer: Jonathan lies to Charlotte that he didn't destroy her blood-stained dress.
* CassandraTruth: The Commodore attempts to tell his wife the truth about Jonathan, but she thinks he's making fun of her.
* ChekhovsSkill: Eve being a RADA actress means she's very good at going undercover and playing a character.
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used to great effect in the film's climax.
* ClearMyName: Why Jonathan needs Eve's help. [[spoiler: Subverted when he turns out to be guilty.]]
* CreatorCameo: As usual with Alfred Hitchcock. Here a very obvious one, as he walks right past Eve and glances back at her as Eve is going over her fake "Doris" identity.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** With Dietrich in the role, Charlotte naturally is an example.
--->''The only murderer here is the orchestra leader.''
** Commodore Gill is played by Alastair Sim at his most affable, but he still gets off some good zingers.
--->''I never hope to be appreciated. Yes, your mother cured me of that.''
* DistressedDude: Jonathan. Wanted by the police and in desperate need of protection.
* DotingParent: The Commodore is apparently willing to do everything for his daughter, including harboring wanted criminals.
* DrivingADesk: Very obvious on mutliple occasions as people are driving around.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: Eve pulls this on [[spoiler: Charlotte.]]
* {{Fainting}}: Eve does this in a very obvious manner to prevent Smith's partner from catching Jonathan.
* FemmeFatale: Charlotte Inwood is the film's antagonist, and is a sultry seductress. [[spoiler: Played with in the sense that she ''didn't'' commit the murder in question]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Charlotte's song "The Laziest Girl In Town" contains the lyrics "it's not coz I wouldn't, it's not coz I shouldn't, it's not coz I wouldn't" - [[spoiler: foreshadowing that she got someone else to commit the murder in her place]].
** When Eve first meets Smith, she puts on a good act of being frail and distressed about the murder. [[spoiler: She pulls the same trick on Jonathan in the climax to out him]].
* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: Charlotte Inwood takes the news that she's confessed to being an accessory to murder rather well.]]
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler: Jonathan is implied to have ended up this way after the stage's safety curtain lands on him.]]
* HaveAGayOldTime: "Must be dreadful to sing and dance and be gay with that horrible picture still burning in one's mind."
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Before the movie even got started no less. [[spoiler: Jonathan taking time to smear more blood on Charlotte's dress to frame her for the murder led to him getting caught in the house]].
* HollywoodHomely: In-universe. Eve does this to herself to pass off as a lower class maid. Freddie and Charlotte suggest a few alterations to look attractive. When they see her dressed up for the garden party, it's an in-universe BeautifulAllAlong moment for them.
* InMediasRes: The movie opens with Eve driving a panicked Jonathan to safety. He then tells her the story of how Charlotte got him to clean up for her after she killed her husband.
* IronicName: Nellie Goode, Charlotte's maid, who's egotistical and greedy and ultimately engages in {{Blackmail}}. Lampshaded by Commodore Gill.
* MaliciousMisnaming: Charlotte knows her new temp maid is called "Doris" but keeps calling her things like "Elsie" or "Mavis".
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent:
** Eve Gill is an English girl but Jane Wyman keeps her American accent, with the HandWave that she was educated in America. She does however imitate a working class accent to pass herself off as Nellie's cousin.
** Charlotte Inwood is presumably English but Marlene Dietrich uses her German accent. Although since Inwood is her husband's last name, she could be German in this universe too.
* OhCrap: Eve gets worried when she lets slip that she knows that Smith is working the Inwood investigation (which he hadn't told her yet), but nothing more is said about it. Then she has a real moment like this when she sees Nellie at the garden party.
* PetTheDog: Near the end, Charlotte gives Eve a little extra money and says she's been happy having her as a dresser. Likewise when she sees Eve dressed up at the garden party, she compliments her.
* PluckyGirl: Eve goes undercover to try and save her friend from being wrongfully committed of murder.
* SilkHidingSteel: [[spoiler: Once Eve gets the truth out of Jonathan, she seems like she's going to help him escape through the stage doors. As soon as he goes through, she locks them and screams to alert the police]].
* UnreliableNarrator: Jonathan Cooper. [[spoiler: This movie is significant because it broke a long-established cinematic convention that flashbacks were always a true account of earlier events. In this film, though, the opening flashback turns out to be a lie, a device which at first baffled then enraged cinemagoers who felt that they had in some way been cheated.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Eve's actress friends who she tries to get to distract Smith. [[spoiler: They end up giving away that Eve hasn't been rehearsing with them]]. It's a double whammy with Eve's father, whose IndyPloy to [[spoiler: agitate Charlotte with a blood-stained doll blows Eve's cover in front of Smith]].
* TheVamp: [[TwoWordsObviousTrope Two words: Charlotte. Inwood.]]
* WidowsWeeds: Charlotte's insincerity is demonstrated in a scene where she's preening and primping while putting on widow's weeds, wondering if she can show more cleavage.
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Jonathan pretends to be the innocent victim of Charlotte. [[spoiler: He may be her victim, but not really innocent.]]
* WrongGenreSavvy: Charlotte says to Eve "it's the scene of the crime the murderer returns to, not the theatre" - but sure enough, Jonathan does come to the theatre.
* YourCheatingHeart: Charlotte was cheating on her husband with Jonathan.
----

-->''The only murderer here is the orchestra leader.''

-->''I never hope to be appreciated. Yes, your mother cured me of that.''

* DeadpanSnarker: Commodore Gill is played by Alastair Sim at his most affable, but he still gets off some good zingers.

* IronicName: Nellie Goode, Charlotte's maid, who's self-centered and greedy and ultimately engages in {{Blackmail}}. Lampshaded by Commodore Gill.

* MaliciousMisnaming: Charlotte knows her new temp maid is called "Doris" but keeps calling her things like "Elsie" or "Mavis".
* MeaningfulName: Averted with Charlotte's maid, Nellie Goode. See {{Blackmail}} above. Lampshaded by Eve's father.

''Stage Fright'' is a 1950 crime thriller film, based on the short story ''Man Running'' by Selwyn Jepson. It was directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. The main stars were JaneWyman, Creator/MarleneDietrich, MichaelWilding and RichardTodd.

Eve convinces her father, Commodore Gill (AlastairSim), to help Jonathan stay out of sight for a while. The Commodore notices something peculiar in the bloodstained dress Jonathan carries with him. The blood spatter is not random enough to be accidental. It looks as if someone deliberately smeared the cloth in blood. Eve concludes that Charlotte has framed poor Jonathan for the murder. She decides to investigate Charlotte and her activities first hand. She bribes Charlotte's maid to play sick for a while and poses as temporary replacement "Doris Tinsdale".

Both as Eve and Doris, our amateur sleuth meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Wilding) and starts falling for him. But all is not as it seems. Charlotte may have benefited from the murder but [[spoiler: there are clues that she is not the actual killer. Jonathan may not be as innocent as he acts. Smith knows more than he is willing to share with Eve. Charlotte convinced Jonathan to kill her husband for her. Much of his sob story was fabricated. He has actually killed before and has a violent temper. He eventually turns on Eve and tries to kill her too.]] Even the flashbacks are [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable]].

!!Provides Examples of:

* AmateurSleuth: Eve Gill.

* FemmeFatale: Charlotte Inwood. The 49-year-old Dietrich gives a sexier performance than Wyman.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Wyman, playing an Englishwoman, sounding like Wyman. Although she does take some stabs at a working class accent when pretending to be Doris the maid.
** It's mentioned in passing that she was educated in America to explain her American accent.
** This also applies to Marlene Dietrich, whose character is also (presumably) English, but who keeps her famous German accent.

* TheVamp: [[TwoWordsObviousTrope Two words: Marlene. Dietrich.]]

Both as Eve and Doris, our amateur sleuth meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Wilding) and starts falling for him. But all is not as it seems. Charlotte may have benefited from the murder but there are clues that she is not the actual killer. Jonathan may not be as innocent as he acts. Smith knows more than he is willing to share with Eve. Charlotte convinced Jonathan to kill her husband for her. Much of his sob story was fabricated. He has actually killed before and has a violent temper. He eventually turns on Eve and tries to kill her too. Even the flashbacks are [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable]].

* ClearMyName: Why Jonathan needs Eve's help. Subverted when he turns out to be guilty.

** It's mentioned in passing that she was educated in America to explain her American accent

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Jonathan pretends to be the innocent victim of Charlotte. He may be her victim, but not really innocent.

* UnreliableNarrator: Jonathan Cooper. "This movie is significant because it broke a long-established cinematic convention that flashbacks were always a true account of earlier events. In this film, though, the opening flashback turns out to be a lie, a device which at first baffled then enraged cinemagoers who felt that they had in some way been cheated."

* MaliciousMisnaming:

'''Stage Fright''' is a 1950 crime thriller film, based on the short story ''Man Running'' by Selwyn Jepson. It was directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. The main stars were JaneWyman, Creator/MarleneDietrich, MichaelWilding and RichardTodd.

Both as Eve and Doris, our amateur sleuth meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Wilding) and starts falling for him. But all is not as it seems. Charlotte may have benefited from the murder but there are clues that she is not the actual killer. Jonathan may not be as innocent as he acts. Smith knows more than he is willing to share with Eve. [[spoiler:Charlotte convinced Jonathan to kill her husband for her. Much of his sob story was fabricated. He has actually killed before and has a violent temper. He eventually turns on Eve and tries to kill her too]]. Even the flashbacks are [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable]].

* DawsonCasting: Eve is supposed to be a young acting student, probably in her 20s. She is played by 33-year-old Jane Wyman, the former wife of RonaldReagan.

'''Stage Fright''' is a 1950 crime thriller film, based on the short story ''Man Running'' by Selwyn Jepson. It was directed by AlfredHitchcock. The main stars were JaneWyman, Creator/MarleneDietrich, MichaelWilding and RichardTodd.

* AmateurSleuth: Eve Gill.

* DistressedDude: Jonathan. Wanted by the police and in desperate need of protection.
* DotingParent: The Commodore is apparently willing to do everything for his daughter, including harboring wanted criminals.
* FemmeFatale: Charlotte Inwood. The 49-year-old Dietrich gives a sexier performance than Wyman.

'''Stage Fright''' is a 1950 crime thriller film, based on the short story ''Man Running'' by Selwyn Jepson. It was directed by AlfredHitchcock. The main stars were JaneWyman, MarleneDietrich, MichaelWilding and RichardTodd.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Jonathan pretends to be the innocent victim of Charlotte. He may be her victim, but not really innocent.