Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Dear Al Pacino,I read that you rejected the lead role in this Hitchcock film. You went and made Bobby Deerfield instead. It would have been cool to see you in a Hitchcock film. Even though this is nowhere close to Hitch's best.Two sets of criminal couples (one murderous and the other one just small time crooks) are at odds with each other in this mysterious comedy.The film is a bit of an oddity in Hitch's filmography. There are some great directorial flourishes. The séance scene at the beginning is very mysterious and funny, John Williams score was pretty good. The scene in the car with the fake background that followed the séance was also great. The car going crazy was a great action scene. But some of the scenes go on for too long, the background score was unremarkable in places. De Palma did say that Hitch breaking up with Herrmann affected his last few films.Karen Black and Barbara Harris are beautiful in their own right, but when you consider all the beautiful women filmed by Hitch, they are right at the bottom of the list. I've never been that big a fan of Bruce Dern. I would have loved to see you in his role, Al. William Devine looked menacing with his toothy sinister smile.Overall, I'm not surprised you rejected this.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)

Compared to other Hitchcock films, "Family Plot" is something of a dud. It comes across as a cheap, made-for-TV movie of the week. And the main problem is a poor script.Instead of one major plot line, we have two, involving two different sets of characters. Eventually, these two strands join into one unified story. But the first thirty minutes or so is confusing and annoying. The Maloney character isn't really needed. And except for the Blanche character (Barbara Harris) none of the major characters are interesting. The underlying premise isn't believable. I think Hitch was starting to run out of story ideas.But the film is not without entertainment value. Through sheer performance alone, Barbara Harris makes Blanche come alive with small-town charm, even though her motive regarding Mrs. Rainbird is deceptive. The most entertaining segment, despite its implausibility, is a three-minute car sequence in the second half wherein Blanche and George (Bruce Dern) careen down a mountainside sans brakes; some good tension there.Casting is acceptable except for the oily William Devane. One of the reasons I chose this film to watch is that I like Karen Black. She does a fine job here, though the script doesn't give her much to do. Cinematography is okay, but the rear screen projection is some car scenes renders the film dated. Also making the film dated are Karen Black's bell-bottoms. Overall prod values are minimally acceptable, but nothing special.If you like tongue-in-cheek thrillers, "Family Plot" will appeal to you. But the underlying humorous tone dilutes suspense and mystery. And the two-for-one plot line conveys the impression that neither plot was strong enough to stand on its own.

. . . and his character, George Lumley, proves more durable than the drunken sailor he played in MARNIE. I thought it was TOTALLY an implausible plot point that jewel thieves would hold a poor church mouse for ransom when I viewed FAMILY PLOT, until I saw this week's headline about the "Bishop of Bling" over in Germany. That does not change the fact that when you see the highlight reel of the fourteen Hitchcock flicks offered for sale in Universal Studio's "Master of Suspense" collection, the scenes from FAMILY PLOT sort of stick out like sore thumbs (and that includes the sticking of the aforementioned bishop with a hypodermic needle during his mid-Mass kidnapping; common sense would suggest NO congregation anywhere would sit still for such an incident, but as this week's offering at the multiplex--JACKASS PRESENTS BAD GRANDPA--proves, the American public has little if any common sense, and pranksters or evil-doers can get away with pretty much ANYTHING in front of a crowd as long as they seem either self-assured and\or too much trouble to interfere with).

Alfred Hitchcock's final film , it was his fifty-third when made this lighthearted suspense story about a phony psychic/con artist named Blanche (Liza Minnelli, Beverly Sills, and Goldie Hawn were all considered for the role , Barbara Harris eventually was cast in the role ; apparently, Alfred Hitchcock was happy with the casting of Harris as he had apparently tried to hire her before)and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend (Bruce Dern who had previously worked with Alfred on episodes of Alfred Hitchcock presents as well as having had a small role in Marnie) who encounter a pair of serial kidnappers called Arthur (William Devane , though Roy Scheider and Burt Reynolds were considered for the part) and Fran (Karen Black) while trailing a missing heir in California . As an aging widow (Lillian Gish wanted to test for the role of Julia Rainbird but had been promised to Cathleen Nesbitt) to find her nephew who was given away for adoption many years earlier following a family scandal . Meanwhile, an extremely clever couple, an astute jeweler (Roy Thinnes was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson, but Hitchcock's first choice William Devane became available so Hitchcock fired Thinnes without a reason and hired Devane) and his enticing girlfriend are behind a series of kidnappings of various VIPs in the San Francisco area .Entertaining mystery movie packs thrills , humor , suspense and ordinary Hitch touches . This agreeable picture has some 'screwball comedy nature' that evokes Alfred Hitchcock's earlier flick ¨Mr. and Mrs. Smith¨. Alfred Hitchcock's films have become famous for a number of elements and iconography : vertiginous heights, innocent men wrongfully accused, blonde bombshells dressed in white, voyeurism, long non-dialogue sequences, etc. In this his final film, one last iconographic element was added to the canon: the woman in black . Karen Black plays a villainous character whose outfit is the antithesis of the blonde dressed in white , her costume comprises black hat, black dress, large black sunglasses obscuring the face and a long blonde wig . This menacing character image was notable in this movie and its image dominated in the film's printed promotional material and movie posters. The malevolent character-image has since been re-used in such famous movies as for character Bobbi in 'Brian De Palma''s Dressed to kill' and in Italian movies , the Giallo genre . Alfred Hitchcock's movies were known for featuring famous landmarks such as Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest and the Statue of Liberty in Sabotage. Hitch apparently decided to leave this movie location unspecific and without recognizable landmarks and filmed it in the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco . Spectacular runaway car ride , although the famous car chase in this movie isn't technically really a car chase as the downhill car sequence only involves one car. The final shot in the movie, a wink by the Barbara Harris character was a jokey reference that was not planned but Alfred Hitchcock decided to leave in , this was arguably a fitting coda to his career exemplifying the black humor that was prevalent in his movies . Alfred Hitchcock once said of this film: ¨It's a melodrama treated with a bit of levity and sophistication , I wanted the feeling of the famous director Ernst Lubitsch making a mystery thriller." .The motion picture was well directed by Alfred Hitchcock , he was famous for making his actors follow the script to the word, but in this movie he let the characters improvise and use their own dialogue . After this movie was completed, Alfred Hitchcock worked on the film script for the spy thriller 'The Short Night'. Alfred Hitchcock was seriously in ill-health during the production of this movie , this lead to this picture being his final ever film. He never got to direct it due to his ailing health and it was not made. It would have been his fifty-fourth film. 'The Short Night' still has never been filmed to this day.