Stage Fright is a 1950 British thriller film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd. The cast also features Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Pat Hitchcock in her film debut, and Joyce Grenfell in a vignette.
The story was adapted for the screen by Whitfield Cook and Alma Reville (the director's wife), with additional dialogue by James Bridie, based on the 1947 novel Man Running by Selwyn Jepson.
Plot
Eve Gill is an aspiring actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. She is interrupted in rehearsal by her friend (and crush), actor Jonathan Cooper, the secret lover of flamboyant stage actress and singer Charlotte Inwood. Via a flashback, he says Charlotte visited him after killing her husband; she was wearing a bloodstained dress. Jonathan claims he went back to her house for another dress but was seen by Nellie Goode, Charlotte's Cockney maid and dresser. He escaped the police and needs help.
Eve takes him to her father's house on the coast to hide. Commodore Gill notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been smeared on deliberately; he and Eve think that Charlotte framed Jonathan. Jonathan angrily destroys the dress and, thus, the most useful piece of evidence.
Eve starts to investigate. She hears Charlotte's dresser Nellie Goode boasting about her newfound notoriety in a bar. While she is there, Eve meets Detective Inspector Wilfred O. Smith, and they become friendly. Eve then poses as a reporter; she bribes Nellie to tell Charlotte she is ill and introduce her cousin "Doris Tinsdale" as a replacement. Using her acting skills, Eve becomes "Doris" and starts working for Charlotte. Eve discovers Charlotte is having an affair with her manager Freddie Williams.
Eve and "Ordinary" Smith become more friendly. When Smith visits Charlotte, Eve has to disguise the fact that she is also "Doris", the maid. Smith makes a courtship visit to Eve and her mother at home, where the Commodore drops subtle hints that Jonathan has left the seaside house.
Despite her widowed status, Charlotte continues to perform her West End musical show. Jonathan comes to her dressing room, asking her to accompany him abroad. She casually tells him no, but he says he still has the bloodstained dress. The police search for Jonathan and Eve again helps him escape. He hides at the Gills' London residence. He is grateful to Eve, but she is starting to fall in love with Detective Smith.
Smith and Eve kiss in a taxi on the way to the RADA garden party, where Nellie Goode confronts Eve, demanding more blackmail money. Eve does not have enough, so Eve's father comes to give Nellie more cash. Freddie Williams spots Eve (thinking she is "Doris") and orders her to help Charlotte, who is to sing onstage in a tent. During the performance, Commodore Gill gets a small boy to carry a doll wearing a bloodstained dress onto the stage as Charlotte sings "La Vie en rose". Disturbed, Charlotte collapses, and "Doris" has to help.
Seeing this, Smith confronts Eve and the Commodore, but Eve proclaims her true affection for Smith as well as Jonathan's innocence. They persuade Smith to set Charlotte up. Once the theatre has closed, they use a hidden microphone, and "Doris" tells Charlotte she has the bloodstained dress. Smith and his men listen using the theatre loudspeakers. Charlotte admits planning her husband's death but says that Jonathan actually committed the murder. Charlotte offers Eve £10,000 to keep quiet.
Eve sees that Jonathan has been brought to the theatre by the police, but he escapes. Charlotte realises her conversation with Eve was broadcast to the detectives and that she will be charged as an accessory to murder. Detective Smith tells the Commodore that Jonathan really did kill Mr. Inwood and that Jonathan killed before, though he got off on a plea of self-defense.
Hiding below the stage, Jonathan confesses to Eve that Charlotte goaded him into killing her husband. His flashback story was all lies, and he was the one who smeared more blood onto the dress. He alludes to killing Eve to justify a plea for insanity in court. Eve pretends to help Jonathan escape but locks him onto the stage and alerts the police about his presence. As Jonathan is pursued from all directions and cornered, he is killed by the stage's falling safety curtain.
Cast
Production
Though Hitchcock had lived and worked in Hollywood since 1939, this mystery thriller, which is mixed with humour, was made in London locations. The only members of the cast who are not British are the two top-billed stars: Wyman and Dietrich.