Review of Suspicion (1941) by Hatem A — 21 Nov 2011

3.5/4.0.

"Suspicion" starts off as a love story of two opposites - handsome womanizer Johnny Aysgarth (Cary Grant) and shy bookworm Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine). The two meet on a train and are instantly attracted. They eventually marry despite the discontent of Lina's father (Sir Cedric Hardwicke).

When the honeymoon is over and the couple moves into their lavish London apartment, the movie diverges into an intense suspense buildup exercise as Lina becomes, well, suspicious of her husband. She learns he is broke, living off borrowing from others and is hoping to benefit from her father's generosity. She persuades him to get a job with his estate agent cousin Captain Melbeck (Leo G. Carroll) but that doesn't bode very well.

As the movie unravels, she learns more about Johnny including his gambling addiction and chronic lying. But things take a dangerous turn when she begins to suspect that he is capable of murderer and that she might be next on his list. Fontaine, in an Oscar winning role (the only actor to win an Academy Award under Hitchcock's direction), is great in portraying a helpless, sheltered woman who gradually realizes she has done a great mistake by merely following her instinct and sense of adventure. A big driver of Lina's build-up of suspicion is Johnnie's best friend Beaky (played with perfect comic timing and natural naiveté by Nigel Bruce) who with good intentions sometimes divulges too much about Johnnie to Lina but assures her of his good nature. Hitchcock has quite an interesting Agatha Christie like character in the movie - Isobel Sedbusk (Auriol Lee) - a friend of Lina and a mystery novel writer. There is a dinner scene at her place later on in the movie where they discuss untraceable poisons that is a great demonstration of how Hitchcock builds up a great deal of tension from quite moments - something that he does for the larger part of this movie's running time.

"Suspicion" falters only because of its ending (which reportedly Hitchcock later complained about claiming he was forced to change it), which is too fluffy and utterly unconvincing. The ending (set in a car as the couple drive by a dangerous cliff - a favorite Hitchcockian setting) was completely different from the source material - the 1932 Frank Iles novel "Before the Fact" - reportedly because the studio (RKO) didn't want to damage Grant's good boy image (although he does perfectly come off as a total creep all through the movie). If only it had been darker! Nonetheless, "Suspicion" is a great Hitchcockian piece of work that manages to keep viewers in the edge of their seats by putting them in the position of a potential, hapless murder victim. It is also one of the best movies to come out of Hollywood about the dangers of marrying someone one barely knows. Won 1 Oscar: Actress (Fontaine). Nominated for 2 Others: Picture, Dramatic Music Score.