Review of Suspicion (1941) by Blake P — 17 Aug 2011

A pretty good Hitch thriller. When you are getting Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine directed by Alfred Hitchcock all in one little package is a gigantic sign that this is going to be one heck of a ride. Though this is far from any of their best movies, this though, is extremely memorable for the actors' performances, not even really because of the plot, or the suspense.

Though Fontaine took home a Oscar trophy for her performance, I still think she had a bigger reason to win "Rebecca" than this. Though it's a good movie, her role in this is not as big of a deal as the woman in "Rebecca", so if you want her all time best performance, I wouldn't necessarily watch this.

Cary Grant is the stellar one in this, and though he was only nominated for "Penny Serenade" and "None But the Lonely Heart" (which are totally forgotten today), this should of at least been added to that short list.

You see his character go through a metamorphosis from good guy to bad guy very quickly, and he somehow does it effortlessly. His performance beats Fontaine's by a landslide. I see many comments complaining about the lame ending (the reason I deducted the star), and I think it deserves some explanation.

The Hays Code was on full force, and the original climax, Cary's character was supposed to poison his wife's food with her knowledge. She would then write a letter to her family telling how her husband killed her, having him unknowingly send it, thereby getting caught.

But a rule was that the bad guy would never get away with murder, but we would never see the family with the letter, just Grant sending it. Keep this in mind when watching, and maybe understand that Hitch didnt actually want to do it.

"Suspicion" is pretty darn good.