Apr 9
75-year-old Alfred Hitchcock's 53rd and final feature film was released on 9 April 1976.
Ernest Lehman (who had written 1959's North by Northwest) adapted Victor Canning's 1972 novel, The Rainbird Pattern, and followed Hitchcock's instruction to use only the "bare bones" of the novel and change the setting from England to California (Lehman's script would receive the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America).
Family Plot was a commercial and critical success, and Hitchcock intended to continue directing, working again with Lehman on The Short Night (based on the novel by Ronald Kirkbride), but Hitchcock's poor health prevented him from making the film.
