- The Trouble with Cary: Hitch cast heartthrob Grant in an atypical bad boy role
- First film with Hitch’s favourite actor added to his roster of charming psychopaths
- Lamb to the slaughter: Red-hot off Rebecca, Joan Fontaine is love-struck ingénue Lina
- Lina fears for her life… each time they kiss, there is the thrill of love… the threat of murder!
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Suspicion: Writing on a Classic, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2: Home video and soundtrack
US one sheet poster
Contents
- Synopsis
- Production
- Essays, etc
- On the radio
- Suspicion (1987)
- Cary Grant documentaries
- Related articles
Synopsis
Non-DNRed | intros: WHRO, TCM | trailers: AzPM; Fr, Sp TV; fan, #2, #3 | clips, train, hair, kiss, Beaky
She won your heart in Rebecca!
He drew your cheers in The Philadelphia Story
Thrill to them together in a suspense-romance directed by the man who did Rebecca
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Suspicion is filled with all the ingenious touches of the Master of Suspense. It stars Joan Fontaine as Lina McLaidlaw who falls in love with and marries a reckless, playboy, Cary Grant as Johnnie Aysgarth. Through a sequence of events Lina begins to suspect that Johnnie is the murderer of a close friend and indeed suspects that he plans to murder her. Her suspicion heightens to become the focal point between her love and trust for Johnnie, and the fear for her life. Lina is faced with the decision to discover the truth of her suspicions or to wallow in fear, where each time they kiss, there is the thrill of love and the threat of murder… Whatever you suspect, Suspicion will surprise you. – Australia CEL VHS
A sinister web of suspicion from the Master of Suspense!
Well-to-do wallflower Lina McLaidlaw is in love, perhaps in danger. She’s begun to suspect that Johnnie Aysgarth, the Prince Charming of a playboy who swept into her life and married her, is a murderer – and that she is his next intended victim. Alfred Hitchcock’s celebrated thriller Suspicion slyly combines romance, mystery and atmospheric flourishes (including an ominous, glowing glass of milk – a famed effect achieved with a light bulb inside the glass). Joan Fontaine plays vulnerable, nerve-wracked Lina, following up her acclaimed work in Hitchcock’s Rebecca with a striking performance that won the Academy Award and New York Film Critics laurels as 1941’s Best Actress. Playing against type, Cary Grant makes Johnnie an imposing charmer, wastrel and cad…but is he also a killer? Like the glowing glass that may or may not contain poison, Johnnie’s words and deeds may or may not be laced with menace. – US Warner VHS (1999), DVD and BD
Production
Alfred Hitchcock: You might say Suspicion was the second English picture I made in Hollywood: the actors, the atmosphere, and the novel on which it’s based were all British. The screenwriter was Samson Raphaelson, who’d worked on the early talking pictures of Ernst Lubitsch.
François Truffaut: And with him, the family brain trust, Alma Reville and Joan Harrison.
A.H. The original novel was Before the Fact, and the author’s—Francis lies’—real name was A. B. Cox. He sometimes also wrote under the pen name of Anthony Berkeley. I’ve often wanted to film his first novel, Malice Aforethought. The book opens with the sentence: “It was not until several weeks after he had decided to murder his wife that Dr. Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter.” The reason I didn’t do it is that it requires a mature man in the part. It’s hard to find the right actor, perhaps Alec Guinness…
F.T. Would you do it with James Stewart?
A.H. James Stewart would never play a killer. – Hitchcock/Truffaut
Hitchcock: Finding the Dark Side of Cary Grant – Bill Krohn
Of course, due to censorship and his star’s public image, the screenplay’s ending (alt) of Iles’ 1932 source novel (It/Fr/Sp) notoriously shies away from that of the book but most reprints capitalise on their film connection, especially the first US paperback from 1947. His other best known work, the previous years’ Malice Aforethought (It/Fr/Sp), was eventually adapted as a 1979 UK TV miniseries and a 2005 TV movie, the latter of which is available on a region 0, US PBS DVD (2005). Initially, Suspicion the film retained the book’s title as evidenced by an RKO exhibitor book ad (alt) and a single surviving lobby card.
It’s worth mentioning two other literary works and their adaptations bear a striking similarity to Before the Fact/Suspicion. Agatha Christie’s 1924 short story “Philomel Cottage” was first anthologised in The Listerdale Mystery (1934) and the basis for Love from a Stranger (alt), a hit 1936 play by Frank Vosper. The tragically short-lived actor-writer is also remembered for film appearances including Rome Express, Waltzes from Vienna and The Man Who Knew Too Much. His play was filmed twice: a 1937 UK production starred Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone, and a 1947 US outing featured Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak of Lifeboat fame. Sadly, both eponymous outings are only available via lo-res bootlegs.
The other similar novel is Ethel Lina White’s Some Must Watch aka The Spiral Staircase (1933), filmed several times under the latter title, following her other most successful novel’s adaptation for The Lady Vanishes.
Among the many famous and overt instances of queer coding in Hitch’s films, such as The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Rope, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest, there’s a more subtle nod in Suspicion with the cohabiting lesbian friends of Lina and Johnnie. It also marks a rare – and final – screen appearance of predominantly stage actress Violet Campbell, aka Mrs. Nigel Bruce. By the way, “ucipital mapilary” is screenwriter Samson Raphaelson’s fabricated term for the more correctly named “suprasternal notch” and it was further popularised by its use in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
The Man from Dream City / Pauline Kael and the Men from Dream City – Christina Newland
UK 1953 re-release quad poster, thought to be the first anywhere to feature an image of the director… Anyone out there know of any earlier?
The above poster is a rare early example of Hitch’s likeness being featured prominently on pre-1955 publicity materials. Such appearances became commonplace following the immediate and enduring success of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which helped make him a household name and at least famous as any of his actors or films. Note its margin credit to Stafford & Co., Netherfield, Nottingham, just a couple of miles from my home by Alma Reville’s birthplace. They were a commercial printers established in the 1880s who specialised in advertising materials and were especially renowned for theatre, cinema and railway posters, also producing various other Hitch-related examples.
Lawrence Gleadle was a staff artist there from 1923–1941 and his son Godfrey, aka Goff, later organised exhibitions in Portsmouth and Nottingham, appeared in several TV reports, and has a book and website dedicated to his father’s career. He also states in a fascinating thread that “Staffords was possibly the largest poster printer in England and responsible for 50% of cinema posters printed between the 1920s and 1960s.” There are more great examples in the entries for Rope and Strangers on a Train. Peter Barrie Waite (1936–2018) authored three books on Nottingham history in his later life, including a complete history of Staffords, and was a director of the Netherfield Forum at St George’s Centre (Facebook).
- A History of Stafford & Co. Ltd, Nottingham/alt (2012)
- Loco Village: The Birth and Growth of Netherfield/alt (1994)
- Railways of Nottingham/alt (2004)
By 1977, Stafford’s factory was home (more) to Lonsdale & Bartholomew printers, who carried on the tradition of poster printing until finally shutting up shop in 1989.
Essays, etc
- That Painting in Suspicion – Maurice Yacowar
- Suspicions and Suspicion – Mark Crispin Miller
- Suspicions in Suspicion – Inge Pruks (Oct 15-16)
- Fontaine Flowers: Rebecca and Suspicion – Farran Nehme
- Suspicion: Studying Its Production Context – Roy Stafford
- Before and after the Fact: Writing and Reading Suspicion – Rick Worland
On the radio
This 1961 Italian re-release poster by Bob Deseta is based on the little-known fact that Hitch originally cast Gary Grant in the lead but just after filming commenced his new star fell off his horse, so Hitch recruited his near-namesake brother. Unfortunately, due to Selznick’s interference and over-zealous editing, all of Gary’s scene’s ended up on the cutting room floor and are now lost. An exasperated Hitch, who when feeling extremely seasick had a penchant for picking his nose with a unfeasibly elongated index finger, later complained to Truffaut that “It was just like being Spellbound with Vertigo all over again.” (1954, 1961 four sheet; 1974 two sheet)
- Lux Radio Theatre, May 4, 1942 (47min) – Joan Fontaine, real-life husband Brian Aherne, and Nigel Bruce | Radio Spirits 2-CD/cass
- Screen Guild Theater, January 4, 1943 (30min) – Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
- Philip Morris Playhouse, October 15, 1943 (30min) – Madeleine Carroll; lost?
- Lux Radio Theatre, September 18, 1944 (54min) – Olivia de Havilland and William Powell
Good Evening: AH on Radio – Charles Huck and Martin Grams, Jr.
- Theatre of Romance, July 17, 1945 (24min) – Judith Evelyn and Anthony Quinn
- Screen Guild Theater, January 21, 1946 (30min) – Loretta Young, Cary Grant and Nigel Bruce
- Academy Award Theater, October 30, 1946 (29min) – Ann Todd, Cary Grant and Carl Harbaugh?
- Screen Guild Theater, November 24, 1949 (30min) – Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant and Nigel Bruce; lost?
- BBC Radio 4 Saturday Drama, 20 Apr 2013 (57min) – Emilia Fox, Ben Caplan and David Timson
Suspicion (1987)
US Kino Lorber DVD
Relive the terror…
Hitchcock’s classic suspense tale from the 1940s is stylishly recreated in the haunting romantic thriller Suspicion. Anthony Andrews (Brideshead Revisited) is cosmopolitan jet- setter Johnnie Aysgarth, whose good looks and devastating charm outshine his reputation as a liar, gambler and ladies’ man. Jane Curtin (Kate & Allie, Saturday Night Live) is Lina, the unsophisticated, plain-Jane daughter of a wealthy businessman who captures Johnnie’s attention—and eventually his heart. Against the wishes of a stepfather who’s pegged Johnnie as a blatant fortune hunter, Lina marries her worldly beau.
Unable to keep a job and unwilling to give up gambling, Johnnie develops a bizarre fascination for murder. He’s inexplicably vague about his whereabouts at the time of his best friend’s mysterious death. And suspicion spirals into near certainty when Lina discovers that Johnnie’s request to borrow money against her life insurance policy can only be fulfilled in the event of her death. The evidence is all-too convincing, and Lina must face the fact that her husband could be a cold-blooded killer—and she could be his next victim! – US Fox Hills VHS (1987) VHSC
There have only been two screen remakes of Suspicion to date: an unavailable 1955 episode of Lux Video Theatre and a 1987 episode of American Playhouse originating from the UK, which is easy to find on a handful of VHSs and three DVDs.
There are also witty skits, such as that from the first episode of The Mitchell and Webb Situation (2001), and more direct homages, like those from 2015, 2015, 2017, 2017 and 2019. Here’s a nicely done student short from 2014:
Documentaries
Surprisingly, Joan Fontaine is featured in only two documentaries and one of those is devoted to her lifelong sibling rivalry. However, as she remained active and outgoing until the end of her life, there are many interviews to savour and guest spots on various TV shows, including her delightful 1954 appearance on What’s My Line? She even had her own cable TV chat show in the late 70s and early 80s.
- Joan Fontaine (2001, 25m) Hollywood Remembers
- JF vs Olivia de Havilland (2000, 50m) Hollywood Rivals
- Passport 5-DVD (2007) – region 0 NTSC; plays anywhere
- Prime Video
CG: A Complicated Man, Fama, controvérsias e segredos
Several of the ever-growing number of documentaries on Archibald Leach have been included on releases of his films; one is Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man narrated by Richard Kiley. An extra on the German DVD of Suspicion and various other German Grant discs, though with its title simplified to Cary Grant: The Leading Man, it’s not to be confused with later doc below, Cary Grant: Hollywood’s Leading Man. Celebration provides a cursory overview to one hell of a life and career but don’t look for any real meat here: this hagiography completely glosses over any ‘awkward’ stuff. It’s also been released separately on US and UK VHS; DVD (with almost an hour of extras); streaming and, uniquely, adapted as an ebook by the writer-directors:
- Cary Grant: The Leading Man (1988, 60min) | 28-minute version; French
Another doc, Cary Grant: Hollywood’s Leading Man (1993, 44min), narrated by Peter Bogdanovich, has had only two physical releases:
Despite there being at least a dozen so far, the definitive Grant doc has yet to be made but among the best of the current crop is Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2004, 87min). You’ll find it on many copies of North by Northwest and various other Grant-related releases. Lastly, three more similar to those above are also on streaming, DVD and for free.
- CG: Leading Man (1999, 23m) Cinema Legends
- CG: Hollywood Remembers (2000, 25m) The Leading Men
- CG: A Gentlemen’s Gentleman (2009, 58m)
- Cobra 3-film DVD (2011) w/extras: CG trailers and two PD films – R0 NTSC
Spanish poster; French
Suspicion: Writing on a Classic, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2: Home video and soundtrack
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
