Suspicion (1941)

Suspicion (1941) – A shy heiress falls for a roguish gentleman, but begins to wonder if he is going to kill her after they marry.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock                          Starring Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Nigel Bruce

Proving that good direction and acting can save even an average script, “Suspicion” suffers from two classic Hollywood failures.  It veers away from any mention of sex (which leaves the story rather thin), and it worries about the lead actors reputation above the story itself.

“Suspicion” was based on a novel by Francis Iles titled “Before the Fact”.  The book is far darker than the movie.  Since the Production Code was very puritanical when it came to any discussion of sex, all of the misbehavior by Grant’s character got left out.  It felt like it didn’t give Johnnie much impetus to make the leap from con man to murderer.  Grant was also cast against his usual “heroic” role, but the studio didn’t want to make his too nasty so they further soft pedaled the character, which leaves the ending rather limp and hokey.

The good news in all of this is that Alfred Hitchcock knows how to direct a psychological thriller, even when there isn’t a lot of meat on the bones.  Cary Grant is actually quite good, and more than a little creepy, in his role as a con man.  He is willing to marry a young woman for her inheritance and take his old pal Beaky (Nigel Bruce) to the cleaners on a bad real estate investment.  Fontaine won an Oscar for her performance.  It’s a good thing that the two central characters are in such good hands because the secondary characters are pretty forgettable.  Bruce’s character appears to be slow beyond the realm of “not the sharpest knife in the drawer”.  I found myself wondering how he found his way out of his bedroom each day.  Grant is delightfully sleazy and Fontaine carries the role of the woman in love with a handsome cad.  She knows he’s no good but she (and her parents) didn’t think that love would ever come her way.  So she clings to what she has, no matter what.

I was rather surprised to see it had been nominated for the Outstanding Motion Picture Oscar in 1942.  Up against “How Green Was My Valley” (which won the category), “Citizen Kane”, “The Maltese Falcon” and “Little Foxes”, among others, it never really had a shot is my thought.  The direction and acting carried it as far as it could.

Why You Will Like It – Hitchcock weaves his magic around the performances of Grant and Fontaine.  It is more than enough.

Rating – *** Worth A Look