Suspicion

Cary Grant plays against type as charming but shady playboy Johnnie, while Joan Fontaine won an Academy Award as prim wallflower heiress Lina, who is swept off her feet in Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 romantic thriller. The sheltered young woman elopes even after she's been warned that ne'er-do-well Johnnie is only after her money. Later, she discovers that he's lied about almost everything and is content to spend her wealth gambling on horses and long-shot investments. Nigel Bruce (who played Watson in the classic Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone) is Grant's old chum Beaky, who dies under mysterious circumstances, after which Lina starts to believe that her husband is out to murder her for her fortune. Working from a thin screenplay, Hitchcock creates suspense out of simple sequences through the use of ominous angles and lighting. In one memorable scene, Johnnie carries a glass of milk that may contain poison up a staircase to Lina's room—and the room appears to grow darker while the milk literally glows (thanks to a small bulb placed in the liquid). Hitchcock's early American movie was also his first of four films with Grant, who here displays more menacing shades than the actor had previously exhibited. Hitchcock's original ending was too dark for the studio, which imposed a happy finish that is both abrupt and unconvincing, although audiences embraced the film and made it a hit. But the weak conclusion aside, Suspicion is elegant, suspenseful, and very entertaining. Bowing on Blu-ray, extras include a retrospective featurette. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)