Suspicion won Joan Fontaine an Academy Award for Best Actress. It is said that she received it because of missing out on it the year before for Rebecca. While I certainly liked the Rebecca, Suspicion was good. If flawed.

Flawed?

Yes. The ending didn't particular suit the film. Everything leading up to it said, "Murder!" But we get some curt explanation, some hilarious mistaken motives, and a really fun, action at the end. All is wrapped us neat and tidy to fit in with the Hollywood production code. This was one movie where the original ending (see the extras) would have made this movie more satisfying.


This is also Cary Grant's first movie with the master director. And he plays it like a cad with a dark and mysterious past. Yet, Grant seems to me too bright. For me, he doesn't have the dark, rightening, murderous persona beneath his gentlemanly persona like I believe James Stewart to possess. Still he is one of Hitchcock's iconic leading men. I still prefer Stewart, but Grant is good because he is playful and makes Hitchcock a more sly and sinister storyteller. Who believes these men to be all-star, all Americans knows not of the dark and ugly evil lurking in all men?

My Hitchcock obsession continues.

4 of 5 stars.

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