Family Plot

Written by Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest), this macabre comedy — incredibly, Hitchcock’s 53^rd — pits a fake psychic (Barbara Harris) and an incompetent private eye (Bruce Dern) against a pair of serial kidnappers (Karen Black and William Devane), “and it’s a delight for two contradictory reasons: because it’s pure Hitchcock, with its meticulous construction and attention to detail, and because it’s something new.” (Roger Ebert)