FILM · 1950 · UK
Stage Fright
38 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (38)
- #001
Because Patricia Hitchcock (Chubby Bannister) resembled Jane Wyman, her father Sir Alfred Hitchcock asked her to stand in for Wyman in the scenes at the start of the film that required "danger driving."
- #002
The film broke with the long-standing cinematic convention that flashbacks are always a true account of earlier events. Here, however, the opening flashback turned out to be a lie, which first surprised and then angered some viewers who felt they had been deceived.
- #003
According to Sir Alfred Hitchcock, he had great difficulties with Jane Wyman, who needed to look flashy and coarse when disguised as a maid and was reluctant to appear so plain while Marlene Dietrich looked so glamorous. Hitchcock said Wyman cried when she saw Dietrich looking magnificent on set in maid's disguise, and that she could not accept the idea of her character being unkempt. Much to Hitchcock's distress, Wyman secretly wore makeup or otherwise tried to improve her appearance, so she failed to maintain her character.
- #004
In an extraordinary move for a director who normally kept control, Sir Alfred Hitchcock gave Marlene Dietrich an unusual amount of creative control on this film, particularly over how she chose to light her scenes. Hitchcock knew that Dietrich had learned a great deal about the art of cinematography from Josef von Sternberg and Günther Rittau, and he allowed her to work with cinematographer Wilkie Cooper to light and set up her scenes as she wished.
- #005
At around the fortieth minute of the film, we return to look at Eve, who is disguised as Charlotte's maid.
- #006
Sir Alfred Hitchcock said this film was more than a murder mystery: it was a critical examination of the art of acting. He said it was a subject that had long fascinated him and that this film gave him the opportunity to explore it.
- #007
The opening flashback of the "false story" runs thirteen minutes and is the only flashback in the film. It begins and ends each time with Jonathan Cooper telling Eve "what happened" and with a temporary resolution. The flashback contained various visual techniques that look artificial yet still work within the film's realism, and it is not apparent that the character is lying.
- #008
One of the songs Marlene Dietrich sings in this film is Édith Piaf's signature song "La Vie en Rose." Dietrich and Piaf were close personal friends, and Piaf gave Dietrich permission to use the song.
- #009
According to Marlene Dietrich's autobiography, a passionate love affair with Michael Wilding began while she was shooting this film. Dietrich and Wilding never married, but Dietrich had been separated from her husband for many years (and remained so until his death).
- #010
Marlene Dietrich's costumes were designed by Christian Dior, although he is not credited on screen.
- #011
After completing this film, Sir Alfred Hitchcock did not work in his native Britain again until Frenzy (1972). Hitchcock did, however, shoot the thrilling scenes of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) in London.
- #012
One reason Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this film was to spend time with his daughter Patricia Hitchcock. Hitchcock had been living in California for several years, and his daughter had enrolled as a drama student at the Royal Academy in London. By shooting the film in London, Hitchcock gained the chance to spend time with his daughter and even offered her a small role in the film.
- #013
The film was criticized for its false-story flashback. Sir Alfred Hitchcock repeated the idea of the false story without using a flashback in such popular films as Vertigo (1958) (where Gavin Elster initially tells Scottie about his wife) and Psycho (1960) (where Norman Bates tells Marion Crane about his family history).
- #014
When Jane Wyman sneaks into Marlene Dietrich's house, she introduces herself as Doris Tynsdale, but Dietrich refers to her first as Phyllis, then Elsie, then Doris and finally Mavis. For Sir Alfred Hitchcock, it was a classic piece of dialogue play.
- #015
Despite the difficulties she created, Jane Wyman took part in the AFI tribute to director Sir Alfred Hitchcock and paid loving homage to Hitchcock and to this film, stating that she had learned far more from it than she had imagined and that she was grateful to him. She concluded by saying she loved Hitchcock, to great applause from the audience.
- #016
The scenes at Wyman's father's house were initially to be shot at a location on the British coast. However, prolonged and exceptionally bad weather prevented this, and the shoot was moved to a sound stage at Elstree Studios.
- #017
Sir Alfred Hitchcock built the plot of this film on lies that the characters tell one after another from the outset. Hitchcock then constructed the final part by revealing the truths — truths unknown to the main characters and the audience — one after another.
- #018
It was the playwright James Bridie who suggested that Sir Alfred Hitchcock cast Alastair Sim. Bridie also contributed additional dialogue to the screenplay.
- #019
The film differs greatly from Selwyn Jepson's novel "Man Running." Sir Alfred Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville and screenwriter Whitfield Cook wrote their own adaptation for the film. In the novel the killer is Freddie Williams and there is no false flashback. Commodore Gill's role was also a minor one in the novel. Hitchcock added a biblical reference to the film, in which "Eve" is deceived, at the film's "beginning."
- #020
Some of the cast members had extraordinary longevity. Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman and Richard Todd lived to the age of 90. Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh and Patricia Hitchcock lived to the age of 93.
- #021
The novel on which the film is based, Selwyn Jepson's "Man Running," was serialized in Collier's Magazine from 9 August 1947 to 13 September 1947.
- #022
While Commodore Gill (Alastair Sim) talks with Detective "Ordinary" Smith (Michael Wilding), he pretends to be thinking of the prime suspect's name. He first gives the name Crippen instead of Cooper. Crippen was the name of an English doctor who killed his wife in 1910 and fled across the Atlantic by ship. He was the first suspect to be caught using wireless telegraphy.
- #023
At the very bottom of the list of names on the column in the RADA auditorium, the name "Richard Attenborough" is engraved.
- #024
One year after appearing in this film, Alastair Sim (seen here as Jane Wyman's elderly father) took on his best-known role: he played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1951), which many consider the best screen version of Charles Dickens's classic holiday story.
- #025
With the death of Patricia Hitchcock (Chubby Banister) in 2021, all of the credited cast members have now died.
- #026
This was Lionel Jeffries's (Bald RADA Student) first feature film.
- #027
The car Jonathan uses to escape from the police was a 1947 Armstrong Siddeley Typhoon. Only 1,701 were produced between 1946 and 1949.
- #028
At the beginning, Eve drives a 1946 Triumph 1800 roadster away from St. Paul's Cathedral.
- #029
William Lava composed original music for the US trailer.
- #030
(At about 1 hour 36 minutes) Eve's father (Alastair Sim) asks: "Do I hear the silent clanking of chains?" In A Christmas Carol (1951), Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge is terrified by the eerie sound of the chains dragged by Jacob Marley's (Michael Hordern) ghost.
- #031
Most of Irene Handl's performance as the maid Miss Mason was cut in post-production.
- #032
The young actor playing the young Scout, who plays a significant part at the garden party, is not listed in the credits.
- #033
Alfie Bass's character is named "Electrician" in both the production documents and Bass's contract.
- #034
Miles Malleson was also working on The Golden Salamander (1950) during the same period.
- #035
The card Wilfred Smith gives to Eve Gill reads: "Regent 1113. / Wilfred O. Smith Detective Inspector / West Central Station, Saville Row, W.1".
- #036
This was Brenda Cowling's debut.
- #037
In Selwyn Jepson's book "Man Running," Jonathan Cooper's name is "Jonathan Penrose." In this film, "Penrose" became "Cooper."
- #038
In Brazil the film is titled Pavor nos Bastidores, which translates into English as Terror Behind the Scenes.
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