Suspicion

"If you're going to kill someone, do it simply."

Alfred Hitchcock undertook Suspicion (1941) as a break from David O. Selznick's domineering supervision. The film was a hit, winning Joan Fontaine a Best Actress Oscar, and remains a favorite for many Hitchcock fans. But it's one of his most problematic films, the studio-enforced ending emblematic of deeper flaws.
Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) marries ne'er-do-well Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant), against the wishes of her family. Lina finds Johnnie an irresponsible layabout, frittering money on gambling and absurd real estate schemes. When a business deal with Johnnie's friend Beaky (Nigel Bruce) goes south, Lina becomes afraid that Johnnie's more than just a cad - she suspects he's plotting her demise.
Patrick McGilligan half-jokingly suggests that Suspicion is Hitchcock remaking Rebecca without Selznick. Besides Joan Fontaine, there are similarities in wives absorbed by their husband's dark pasts. Suspicion's romance seems flimsier: Lina rushes after Johnnie after hearing her mother (Dame May Whitty) call her a spinster, and she's surprised when Johnnie isn't the man of her dreams? His vices and compulsive lying cause tension, yet they remain in love because the plot requires. It's silly melodrama, but no worse than many Hollywood films.
The problem is that Suspicion never sells us on its central idea. Johnnie's a glad-handing gold-digger, lazy but hardly homicidal. It's a leap from losing gambling money and pawning family heirlooms to murder. Worse, Lina's suspicion comes from on Johnnie's fondness for mystery novels and a game of anagrams! A creative filmmaker could easily frame Lina as delusional, but Hitchcock gives us a half-baked guessing game, inserting clues then waving them away.
Even so, Suspicion snaps to life in the second half. Hitchcock's interesting touches come here: Harry Stradling Sr.'s brooding photography, casting Johnnie as darkness entering the home; the glowing glass of "poisoned" milk. There's Auriol Lee as a mystery writer who "always thinks of my murderers as heroes," an amusing touch. Suspicion nonetheless remains an Idiot Plot, where the story could be resolved by two characters sitting down and chatting. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens.
Hitchcock always bemoaned RKO's demanding a happy ending, afraid of alienating audiences and eroding Cary Grant's image. Yet Hitchcock's preferred conclusion seems worse: Lina would passively accept death, drinking Johnnie's poison while sending a letter to alert the authorities. It's a catch-22: if Johnnie's a villain, the story's obvious. If he's innocent, it's been a waste of time. Always fuzzy on plot, Hitchcock nonetheless usually avoided such easy traps.
No one complains about Suspicion's stars. Joan Fontaine's award-winning performance gives her a variant on Rebecca's Mrs. DeWinter, bewildered, trapped but a tad more assertive. Cary Grant shifts from charmer to menacing figure with remarkable ease. Hitchcock casts character roles well, with Cecil Hardwicke and Dame May Whitty as Lina's parents, Nigel Bruce as the idiot Beaky, and a walk-on for Leo G. Carroll.
Auteurists often present Suspicion as a masterwork mutilated by a brainless studio. But the project's deeply flawed in ways that even an ideal ending couldn't resolve. Suspicion is minor Hitchcock, a decent idea badly handled.