Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Forgotten Movies: SUSPICION

Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 suspense thriller starred Grant and Fontaine in the story of a would-be spinster who marries a would-be killer. Or is he? The strength of the movie lies in this question. Lina  disregards the many hints that Johnny is a psychopathic scoundrel. Until the evidence is too great to ignore.  Grant and Fontaine are at their best in this. And it is wonderfully filmed. The ending is changed from the Frances Iles book and it's up for debate whether Selznick of Hitchcock was behind it.
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6 comments:

Bill O said...

It was unthinkable that Cary be a wife murderer.Selznick literally called the shots here.Tho Hitchcock rejected Grant for that reason for Dial M For Murder.

4:11 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...

One article I read said Hitchcock also liked making it more of a woman's psychological problems rather than her husband's villainy. I thought the book ended it perfectly.

6:36 AM
Bill O said...

Hitchcock also loved having his murderers be attractive males, but would've been commercial suicide here. His stated preferred ending supposedly was she willingly drinks the poisoned milk, first asking him to mail a letter, which implicates him. The last shot would've been him posting it, walking away whistling....

6:46 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh, that's such a good 'un, Patti. I haven't thought about it in too long.

7:44 AM
George said...

Hitchcock had firm control of his technique in SUSPICION. I need to watch this movie again.

8:22 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

I must admit that I have never been much of a Joan Fontaine fan. It would have been much more effective (and shocking, of course) had they kept the book's ending. This way it just seemed to peter out.

10:21 AM

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