SUSPICION
US, 1941, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Nigel Bruce, Cedric Hardwicke, May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, Leo G. Carroll.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Suspicion is one of Hitchcock's earliest American films. It is considered something of a classic, even though one with many flaws. It seems very dated now in technique and style. Joan Fontaine, who was so excellent in Rebecca, won an Oscar for her performance. Cary Grant appears in the first of four films he made for Hitchcock: Notorious, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest. There is a very good supporting cast headed by Nigel Bruce.
The setting is make-believe England a la Hollywood, as in Rebecca. The score by Franz Waxman is particularly melodramatic now. The sets are quite artificial and many of the poses seem strained. However, within this creaky framework, Hitchcock explores human nature very intensely - the wish-fulfilment of the repressed romantic spinster and the attraction of the devil-may-care spendthrift hero. It leads to suspicion which eats away at the heroine and makes her misjudge situations.
In the original story, the hero was guilty. It was said that producers could not imagine Cary Grant as guilty. The ending, where he is proven innocent, seems particularly unpersuasive. However, Francois Truffaut and Robin Wood. both experts on Hitchcock, consider that the ending is justified in themes. It seems less far-fetched in reality. The film has many comic Hitchcock touches, very tongue-in-cheek. However, making the audience identify with the heroine, seeing everything from her point of view and sharing her suspicion is good cinema and shows Hitchcock exploring the intricacies of human nature.
1. A satisfying Hitchcock film - expectations in plot, style? The reputation of his English film? The beginning of his American career?
2. The acclaim of the film: Joan Fontaine's Oscar, Cary Grant as the charming lead? R.K.O. production values and the re-creation of England? The adaptation of the original novel - the hero not being guilty: did this spoil the plausibility, the ending? Did it make the plot a new story as many critics said?
3. The techniques for audience identification with Lina? Observing her, seeing Johnny through her eyes, changing moods with her, judging from her point of view, seeing her imagination visualised, her fears? Her being over-wrought by suspicion? The theme of suspicion: real, its origins, effect, the basis or lack of basis, the exploding of suspicion?
4. The theme of wish-fulfilment in the repressed spinster? The opening (and Hitchcock's love for trains and tunnels?), the heroine's erratic behaviour - on the horse, waiting for Johnny, the impulsive going to church, the romantic Wuthering Heights scene with Johnny on the hill? Lina's inability to cope, her headaches, going to the ball? How realistic her assessment of Johnny? Her allowing herself to be swept off her feet? The audience being swept off its feet?
5. The basic plot conventions: romantic types, basic situations, romantic setting, the Wuthering Heights scene and the indications of passion, the ball, the elopement, the marriage and the gradual revelation of the truth?
6. The importance of seeing everything from Lena's point of view? Hitchcock manipulating the audience? Her imagination, her looking at Johnny, her not seeing what he was doing when he was absent, her visit to his employer, the word game and the suggestion of murder? Hearing everything and interpreting it through suspicion?
7. Joan Fontaine's performance as Lena - the spinster in the train, her attitude towards Johnny and yet keeping the newspaper clipping, her riding on the horse, at home, the visit to church, the headache, the ball, the elopement, the happiness of the marriage sequence? Setting up home, imposing her ideas, wanting Johnny to work? Her continued surprises - about his attitude towards work, getting a job, the present of the chairs and the selling of them? Her love overcoming all suspicions at first? The importance of her practical approach? Her friends - the discussion with the murder novelist? The money situation, the suspicion about her father's death? The friend and his almost going over the cliff? Her going to the cliff to check? The firm and its launching? The visit to Johnny's employer and discovering the truth? The Paris story and the police interrogation? The importance of the milk sequence? The finale in the car? How realistic a portrait, how successfully contrived for the purposes of suspicion?
8. Lena as complex, erratic, strong-willed? What really made her truly suspicious of Johnny as a murderer?
9. Cary Grant's style as Johnny - the opening in the train, the discussion, his self-confidence, the hunting, the visit to the church, the romance on the hill? The girls following him? The eloping? His irresponsibility? Dislike for work? Lies? Johnny's friendship with Beaky? The possibility that he could have killed him - on the cliff, in Paris? The novelist and her theories about murder, poisons? His discussions with her - and Lina's and the audience's suspicions? The problem of the estate, floating the company? The absence and his seeming to be in Paris? The drama of his bringing the glass of milk? The final sequence in the car?
10. How plausible was his change of heart about giving himself up? Lena's relief? The dialogue and Cary Grant's speaking of it - how persuasive?
11. The supporting characters making the work of suspicion plausible: the people in the village. the girls following Johnny, the people at the hunt, Lina’s parents and their attitudes towards her - her father's commenting on her spinsterhood, her mother's care, her father's death and his bequeathing the picture to them rather than any money? The novelist and her books? Her dinner guest and her harsh masculine/feminine manner? Beaky and his bluster? The police and their interrogation of Lina - and the assistant and his looking at the modern picture? The Hitchcock humorous touches?
12. The film's use of irony and comedy as well as melodrama and romance? As a vehicle for communicating insight into human nature?
