Released in 1941, ‘Suspicion‘ is one of the first films made by Hitchcock after crossing the ocean and relocating in the United States. The cast includes two of the biggest Hollywood stars of the day, but Cary Grant was also an Englishman, while Joan Fontaine, born in Tokyo, also had a British father. It can be said that, to a large extent, this film can be considered as one of the final films of his series of British movies, or as belonging to a period of transition to Hollywood. Given that Hitchcock was still filming almost exclusively in studios at the time, the placement of the action in England was not a problem. In addition, we are in 1941, the year in which the United States had not yet entered the war, while England was in the third year of the confrontation with Hitler’s Germany. ‘Suspicion‘, a British thriller with social overtones, probably could not have been made that year, had Hitchcock stayed in England. And if it had been made, it would probably have looked different, because in one famous episode in the history of cinema, the ending of this film was changed under the pressure of the producers, Hollywood-style, from the one that was written in the original script and in the book it was adapted from.
‘Suspicion‘ begins as a rather mundane story of social ascension based on fraud. Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant), who is a dandy, gambling addict, uses her personal charms to trap her and marry Lina (Joan Fontaine), the naive heiress to a supposedly substantial fortune. Everyone around her and the movie spectators see who she’s dealing with, just not Joan, and inevitably, the two get married. Doubts and disappointments begin immediately after the honeymoon. The marriage being contrary to the will of Lina’s parents, the inheritance will be left to wait. Lina begins to have doubts about Johnnie and the doubts are more and more confirmed. When Johnnie’s (dubious) business partner dies, Lina suspects that this was a murder and that she could be the next victim. Justifiable suspicion or the paranoid behavior of a rather naive woman who finds herself deceived by the man she fell in love with?
It’s not one of Hitchcock‘s best films, but there are many features that would be better connected in the films that would follow. The gradual building of the suspense includes interesting elements and characters (a scrabble-like game in which the word ‘murder’ is formed, an author of detective novels, a poison expert). There are also a few shootings in nature, including vertical perspectives that will play an important role in a number of subsequent films. There’s a train scene and a ballroom dance scene, two of Hitchcock‘s favorite settings. Finally, here we have in this film the famous scene with the glass of milk radiating white from inside. However, the cinematography in general is too neutral and acting is too theatrical. Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine were already too strong personalities to be held in check by Hitchcock, and the casting, which in the eyes of the producers added appeal to the film, in the end I think it hurt it artistically. The two were fine actors, but their extroverted styles did not match the atmosphere of Hitchcock‘s films. As for the ending, it changed the whole perspective. Had the endin in the original script and the book remained, ‘Suspicion‘ would have been a classic ‘noir’, interestingly told, from the victim’s point of view. The screen ending of the film is, paradoxically, more open. Truffaut preferred this ending, probably considering it even ‘modern’, arguing that the viewer is left to guess what happens next. Hitchcock himself was of a different opinion. In the final frame of the film, a car makes a U-turn on a road. “That’s what I was forced to do,” the master seems to tell us, the spectators.