Suspicion
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Movie Reviews of Suspicion
Movie Review: why can't they all just grow up?
Summary: 5 Stars
Suspicion was one of Hitchcock's earliest films--and it remains one of his best. The plot moves along at a good pace and the suspense keeps slowly mounting until the final minute or two of them film. People may say that the film, therefore, has an abrupt ending; but I thought it all worked rather well. Only a genius like Alfred Hitchcock could pull this all off!
The action begins when spinster Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) meets Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) on a train. Nothing much comes of the meeting--but they do meet again soon afterward on a social occasion. Gradually Lina falls for Johnnie, especially when she overhears her parents resigning themselves to the fact that their daughter will simply never marry.
It's not long after the marriage that problems arise. Lina becomes more and more uncomfortable being married to Johnnie when she learns more and more about him, usually through a friend or acquaintance. First there are secretive gambling debts and an extravagant house Johnnie hopes to pay for by gambling. Then Lina learns about the theft of money from Johnnie's boss for which Johnnie gets fired. Lina soon suspects that Johnnie may have killed his best friend just to get his hands on even more money. Finally, Lina becomes so worried and rattled with fear and dread that she assumes Johnnie will kill her for her money, too.
The convincing acting stuns me--these actors really know how to act! The choreography is well done in crowd scenes like the hunting expedition and the cinematography shines in the darker scenes in Lina and Johnnie's home near the end of the film.
Overall, I highly recommend Suspicion for Cary Grant fans, Hitchcock fans and people who enjoy watching Joan Fontaine on the screen. Look for another fine performance by Auriol Lee who plays Isobel Sedbusk, a writer of murder mysteries that Johnnie loves to read. This is quality film at its finest; and students of cinema and fine art would do well to watch this film.
Movie Review: "If you're going to kill someone, do it simply"
Summary: 5 Stars
Alfred Hitchcock's second film after being brought to America by David O. Selznick was SUSPICION, which he made while on loan to RKO Pictures. As in his first Hollywood flick, REBECCA, he put Joan Fontaine to very good use and ultimately these two films made her into a star.
Fontaine won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Lina McLaidlaw, a bookish and innocent (but wealthy) young woman who gets swept off her feet by the caddish Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant). After their quick courtship and marriage against her father's wishes, Lina begins to see Johnnie for who he really is--a penniless leech--but she naively continues to love him nonetheless. Johnnie's charm is ostensible, yet his irresponsible ways are increasingly becoming inexcusable. Lina's trust eventually gives way to suspicion when she begins to believe that he might go to any length to pay off his mounting debts.
Hitchcock masterfully builds suspense in this movie and manages to maintain it for the duration of the picture. The movie's only flaw is its tacked-on and seemingly contrived final scene which, we are told, was due either to Mr. Grant's popularity during these years or to the existence of the Production Code in effect in Hollywood at that time. Hitchcock wanted a darker ending but, as we see here, he lost that battle. However, he did not give in as completely as some would have us believe. The ending remains ambiguous enough to allow us to project either a happy or a sinister conclusion according to our own sensibilities.
SUSPICION is classic Hitchcock. Grant and Fontaine turn in masterful performances and Nigel Bruce is irresistible as the dimwitted and loveable "Beaky," Johnnie's old chum. The flawed ending prevents placing SUSPICION at the top of any list of Hitchcock's achievements, but it is a fine film nevertheless and I can only give it my highest recommendation.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
Movie Review: Amazing film
Summary: 5 Stars
Joan Fontaine and Carey Grant play two characters that need each other for different reasons. Grant's character, Johnnie Aysgarth, is looking for financial security through his liason with wealthy women. He plays upon Fontaine's character, Lina's feminine insecurities--she is not beautiful and is growing into spinsterhood--to ring her into his orbit. While secure women would find Johnnie's quirks troublesome--he calls her "monkey face" and brags about his scores of romantic conquests on their first date--she falls for his charms and marries him against the wishes of her upper-class parents who disapprove of Johnnie's horse-betting and other unsettling lifestyle habits.
Suspicion is a strange story about star-crossed lovers that nevertheless seem to suit each other on some level. The ending is ambiguous, and in a sense, more fulfilling because of it.
Suspicion is a wonderful film, one of Hitchcock's most interesting, because the characters so at odds with each other, with one taking advantage of the other, destroying that person's trust, yet seem to keep going in spite of it. One wonders at Lina's refusal to leave Johnnie at every, deceitful turn, yet also begin to see that there might be something besides money that Johnnie is hoping to get out that marriage. Fascinating film!
Movie Review: The main enemy is within your mind!
Summary: 5 Stars
A timid woman, overprotected by his father a General, finds apparently the expected love and shelter in a man of doubtful reputation, fond of women and hard gambler who did not hesitate for a second to sell his soul to get some money.
In this state of complementariness, one each other finds shelter (one of them economic, the other one, emotional and affective) the tension will be gradually increasing due the serious suspects he may kill with the same easiness he lies. She will be upset, but this growing doubt will affect her whole behavior leading her to the verge of the neurosis.
Although, the original plot is even bleakest, other interests interloped to present a smooth version in which a forced redemption will emerge from the blossomed heart of his beloved wife. This alteration whatever their causes might be, weakened the basic structure of the movie. That 's why I can not assign the expected Five Stars. If I had been Hitchcock, I would have kept a Director version, for better times, perhaps.
A well constructed drama with all the basic elements of Hitchcock. Fontaine won an Academy Award for this acting in 1941.
Movie Review: "Wear that saucy little hat you wore on the train..."
Summary: 5 Stars
In his first of four Alfred Hitchcock films, Cary Grant plays Johnnie Aysgarth, the debonair playboy who fell in love with - and married Lina McLaidlow, a girl he met on a train. Lina (brilliantly played by Joan Fontaine) is well-to-do, shy, reserved, and his little "monkey face." When the two of them return from their honeymoon she finds out that he has no money and he has been borrowing it to pay for their house. Anyways, as the story goes on she starts to suspect that he is going to murder her...especially after she reads a letter of his from an insurance company stating that he won't receive the money until "after the eve of his wife's death..."
Joan Fontaine liked the story so much that she said she would be willing to do the part without pay, if necessary. She won the 1941 Best Actress Award for this and another Hitchcock movie, Rebecca. I think Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine really make the movie! This isn't your typical Cary Grant movie, but no one could play the part of Johnnie and get away with it like Cary Grant does!