Suspicion

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Dan R The genius of Hitchcock is still obvious today when 1941's 'Suspicion' is still such an incredible film. SYNOPSIS: 'A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.' History tells us that this film faced much studio meddling but Hitchcock is still able to pile on the tension in a way that only he knows how, skilfully building to the sensational finale. The film starts off quite light with a charming edge but slowly darkens so gradually you won't even notice it shift from light romance into a psychological thriller. It's incredible how this film still works 80 years after its release. An absolute classic of a movie. 9/10 Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 11/30/24 Full Review Rare T This was what Katy Perry was talking about when she sang Hot N Cold. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/15/24 Full Review Abe A Almost a 4. The end was a disappointment--Hitchcock chickened out and gave the movie a generic Hollywood ending. This was better than Rear Window, and could have been a masterpiece of suspense if the end hadn't been a damp squid. My impression from this and Rear Window is that Hitchcock movies always end happily, and that detracts enormously from whatever suspense is built into the plot because you know it will end well. He just couldn't resist following the generic Hollywood script. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/24 Full Review James G So underrated! Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine are phenomenal in this Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/24 Full Review X O Strange film. Hitchcock's very earliest films? Why would Joan Fontaine win an Oscar for her role in this? She really needs to let her down. I've been watching lots of 1940s films recently. The music is so weird. Terribly strange. Seems very unorchestrated. It kills what could be possible. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/05/23 Full Review Matthew B One of Alfred Hitchcock's many extraordinary achievements was to take one of Hollywood's most charming and affable stars, and have him portray characters of a more sinister kind. It is comparatively easy to bring out the dark side in actors such as James Mason or Kirk Douglas who regularly played flawed characters. To do the same with Cary Grant, the star of a number of agreeable romantic comedies, was a more incredible feat. What would it be like to be married to such a roguishly charming and ruthless man of the kind that Grant played in other films? Suspicion is the movie that comes closest to answering this question. For the first time we see that marrying such a man is not the happy ending that the comedies suggest, but the beginning of a fresh collection of problems. Suspicion was made after Rebecca, and shares many similarities. Both feature Joan Fontaine as a timid heroine, and offer a supporting role to Nigel Bruce. Both were made in America, but set in Britain. In the case of Suspicion, this is a quaint England created entirely on sets, where characters act in the way that American audiences seem to expect of the English – talking in posh accents, hunting, and living in clean postcard villages. Most of all, both movies portray a marriage that is in trouble. In the world of Hitchcock, single people have fun sparring with one another before finding a happy ending in wedlock, but married couples are frequently unhappy, and spend the film struggling to reach some kind of resolution to their problems. The script cleverly alternates between moments of suspicion and moments of reassurance. These two states of mind slide like tectonic plates beneath the feet of our heroine and of the audience watching the movie. The viewer is constantly made to doubt Johnnie's probity, but like Lina we wish to believe the enchanting rascal. I may be in a minority, but personally I prefer the revised ending. There is something more interesting about an open ending. We can make up our own conclusion to the story. There are a number of themes and motifs that can be found in other Hitchcock movies, especially that of the marriage in trouble. Another familiar element is the inclusion of characters who enjoy discussing murder methods, and who therefore offer an insight into Hitchcock's own attitudes towards making movies on the subject. The murder mystery writer Isobel exclaims, ‘My villain? My hero, you mean. I always think of my murderers as heroes." It is easy to imagine Hitchcock saying the same thing, as his films often identify with the villains as well as the heroes. There are also a number of stylistic touches that identify the film as Hitchcockian. The music is used to heighten effects. In this case it is Strauss's Vienna Blood waltz which plays in the background during the scene where Johnnie meets Lina at the ball, and reverberates throughout the rest of the movie in happy, sad or ominous variations. Two years later, Hitchcock used Lehar's music from The Merry Widow to achieve a similar effect in Shadow of a Doubt. Suspicion provides a good blend of carefully-crafted melodrama, romance and suspense. As with the earlier Rebecca, it demonstrated that Hitchcock's move to America was not going to dull the sharp edge that his British films had shown, but rather to provide new opportunities and a bigger budget for the great director to stretch his abilities. I wrote a longer appreciation of Suspicion on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/suspicion-1941/ Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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