A
film review by Andy Webb for TheMovieScene.co.uk
While
Alfred Hitchcock made more
praiseworthy movies than Suspicion it
is one of my favorites. Why? Well it is a combination of things starting with
the simple fact that Cary Grant is
cast as a charmer, a familiar role but one which thanks to the storyline has
ambiguity about it. That ambiguity makes the storyline work and Suspicion has an easy-to-follow
storyline which ends up being about whether a gambler with debts and secrets is
actually a criminal capable of murder. But what really makes this storyline
work is not so much the ambiguity but the realism because there is a lot of
truth in the way Grant's character reacts when it comes to hiding his problems
and what the mounting level of despair leads him to contemplate.
A
chance encounter on a train when Johnnie (Cary Grant) enters a first class
carriage with a third class ticket begins an infatuation for pretty but shy
Lina (Joan Fontaine). But that
chance encounter is followed by another and before she knows it she has been
whisked off her feet by the charming and confident Johnnie leading to a quick
wedding in a registry office. But on returning home from an extravagant
honeymoon to a newly decorated house Lina begins to discover that Johnnie isn't
the man she thinks he is as she discovers he has debts and a fondness for
gambling. But things get worse as she discovers more of his secrets and when
his best friend Beaky (Nigel Bruce),
who he had just gone into business with is murdered she begins to question
whether Johnnie killed him and is about to do the same to her.
One
of the things which really took me by surprise with Suspicion is the level of authenticity when it comes to the story
of a man with a gambling problem and secrets. For a movie which in many ways is
really about whether or not Johnnie is calculated enough to kill, the way he is
portrayed is very true - from trying to hide his mounting problems from Lina to
the extent he goes to try and sort them out on his own but only making matters
worse. The fact he is a gambler is also well portrayed as while he promises to
quit he continues in secret and he has the highs and lows of a gambler,
generous with gifts when he has money but desperate and moody when things go badly.
But
as I said the real focus of Suspicion
is on whether or not Johnnie is either calculated or desperate enough to kill
to try and gain money to get out of the financial mess he is in. And this side
of the movie works brilliantly because in a slightly playful way there are
plenty of clues to suggest he is, which feeds Lina's suspicions over her
husband. We have Johnnie's fondness for facts about murder, his constant secret
keeping and of course Beaky's death all of which lead Lina to suspect that
maybe she could be next, especially as she learns Johnnie has been trying to
get a loan on her life insurance. Now this being a Hitchcock movie means that
everything is not as straight forwards as it seems and there is a playful
ambiguity to about how it ends, leading you to draw your own conclusions.
Joan
Fontaine won an Oscar for her performance in Suspicion and there is no question about how good she is as Lina,
taking us from shy through loved up to being suspicious and fearful of Johnnie.
But in truth it is Cary Grant who makes the movie work and that is because he
is playing a familiar role of a charmer, a man with a gift for talking people
around and an infectious personality. But because we have this ambiguity over
his motives and the occasional mood swing it makes this familiar character so
much more interesting and intriguing with Grant selling that ambiguity
brilliantly.
What
this all boils down to is that Hitchcock made better movies, he made more
exciting and clever movies but in its simplicity Suspicion is one of my favorites. It has a mixture of being
authentic and ambiguous which makes it so entertaining to follow with both Cary
Grant and Joan Fontaine delivering top performances. [Webb’s rating: **** out
of 5 stars]
[Blogger’s
comment: In the novel written by Anthony
Berkeley under the name Francis Iles, Johnnie actually does murder Lina.
However, Hitchcock was unable to cast Grant as a murderer, so the screenplay
opts for an upbeat Hollywood ending.]
Labels: film-noir, mystery, thriller
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