Suspicion (1941)

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Suspicion (1941) – A. Hitchcock

Hitchcock (always a master self-plagiarist) here provides shades of Rebecca (1940), a recent hit for him. So again, we see Joan Fontaine anxious and doubtful of her husband (but this time she won the Oscar she was earlier denied). Cary Grant plays the charming cad well enough for us to think that he could be a murderer (which is what Fontaine eventually suspects – hence the title).  Accounts differ as to whether the censors (or Cary’s backers at the studio) tampered with the ending or whether Hitch wanted all along to portray a woman’s paranoid fantasies.  Indeed, things are mostly ambiguous most of the time – although we can probably agree that Cary is irresponsible and thus rather unlikeable.  No real MacGuffin here but a glowing glass of warm milk that may be spiked with an untraceable poison is a memorable touch.  A key plank in the construction of Hitchcock’s image, if not his best work.