Suspicion

Casting Joan Fontaine in the lead for a second consecutive film, which resulted in the only Academy Award-winning performance he ever directed, Alfred Hitchcock used Fontaine’s brilliant fragility in Suspicion to infuse danger and suspense into what might otherwise be mistaken at times for a romantic comedy. In an attempt to avoid spinsterhood, wealthy Lina McLaidlaw (Fontaine) hastily marries dashing horse bettor Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant), who quickly announces he has no money and doesn’t intend to seek employment. A series of events and coincidences soon have Lina fearing not only that Johnnie married her for her money but that he plans to murder her to inherit it. Nigel Bruce plays Beaky, an old friend of Johnnie’s who attempts to reassure Lina that her husband isn’t a villain. Hitchcock makes the most of glamorously decked sound stages and panoramic vistas of seaside cliffs, while noir touches appear in the form of the banded shadows of Venetian blinds and the organic glow of a glass of milk on a shadow-enshrouded staircase.