Suspense

Monogram Pictures was a poverty row studio during the 30’s and 40’s most known for making films with miniscule budgets and often amateurish production values. That’s why Frank Tuttle’s Suspense looks nothing like a typical Monogram film; in fact, it was touted as the studio’s first million-dollar feature, sufficient funding to create a number of extravagant set pieces to spotlight musical numbers on ice led by Olympian figure skater Belita. Barry Fitzgerald plays mysterious drifter Joe Morgan, who finds a job selling peanuts at an ice arena owned by Frank Leonard (Albert Dekker) and featuring his wife Roberta (Belita) for whom Joe immediately feels an attraction. When Leonard begins to suspect Roberta and Joe of having an affair, he takes her away to a mountain cabin where he disappears during an avalanche and is assumed dead (“assumed” the operative word). The snow mountain scenes and epic musical numbers crank up the entertainment value (soon Belita’s leaping through a hoop of swords), but the most evocative scenes are dark and somber, basement shadows battling with dim ceiling lamps, moonlight cascading through window blinds, a highly stylized score giving way to slow fadeouts. It’s a whole lot of movie.