It is tempting to be too easy on a film from such an esteemed director even if it isn't up to par, but Family Plot does have its own set of charms. In fact, it has been underestimated by critics who have written that Hitchcock had lost his ability to make good films in his final years. It follows two stories until they converge: In one a fraudulent psychic, Blanche played by Barbara Harris, accepts a job from a wealthy elderly woman tracking down her long-lost nephew and only living heir. Blanche enlists her boyfriend George (Bruce Dern) for the lucrative mission. In the other story a couple, played by William Devane and Karen Black, carry out elaborate jewel heists without leaving a trace. Exactly how these paths will cross is a typically labyrinthine Hitchcock construct. The film starts off a little slow, the cast don't develop their characters as quickly as other earlier Hitchcock casts do (Dern, say, doesn't make the immediate impression of a James Stewart or a Cary Grant), and the premise feels a little creaky. Soon enough, though, the little Hitchcock flourishes start to pop out: A crystal chandelier hiding a secret, a pair of unevenly aged gravestones marked with the same date, a puff of black smoke rising over the side of a mountain. Hitchcock's genius was in imbuing a wide variety of images with an endless series of emotions. If he wanted a murder to be funny, the audience laughed; scary, they jumped. His command of the film language was total and here, even in one of his lesser films, you can see how he manipulates at every turn.

VIDEO:
The video on this print is very good. Although it features a fair amount of dirt, the print used has strong colors and detail. Earlier scenes show a graininess that all but disappears later. The transfer is anamorphic.

AUDIO:
The audio is a fairly simple Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, but it is effective and appropriate. A young John Williams provides the score, trying very hard to sound like Hitchcock's then-recently estranged collaborator Bernard Herrmann. Fans of modern movies may be surprised by the wall-to-wall score of Hitchcock's films, but he knows exactly when to drop out all sounds and let the silence tell the story.

EXTRAS:
Family Plot, like all of Universal's Hitchcock releases, has a nice selection of extras. Most important is a nearly hour-long documentary on the film "Plotting Family Plot". While it starts off a little shallow, the behind the scenes look ultimately adds up to a pretty comprehensive view of an underrated film. Most of the cast and several key crew members discuss at length their experiences on the film and their working relationships with the master. Bruce Dern recalls how Al Pacino was originally set to play his role, a casting coup spoiled only by Hitchcock's refusal to pay the high price demanded by the Godfather star. One can only speculate how a collaboration between the method actor and the controlling director would have gone.

Two trailers for Family Plot are included. Usually trailers are barely worth mentioning as special features but with Hitchcock films they are always a delight. They feature the director himself selling the film in his famously deadpan style. Even though they are in rough shape they are totally indispensable.

The disc also includes a selection of still screens with production photos, storyboards of the big car scene, notes on the shoot, bios, and more.

Gil Jawetz is a graphic designer, video director, and t-shirt designer. He lives in Brooklyn.