Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Suspicion Blu-ray Movie Review

Here's Johnnie!

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 10, 2016

Debonair leading man Cary Grant first revealed his dark side in Suspicion, which inaugurated the actor's four-film collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, so effective was Grant at playing a reprobate that the studio, RKO Radio Pictures, grew fearful of damaging the beloved star's sterling reputation and fought with Hitchcock for changes in the film. Opinions vary over the degree to which either side won or lost, but the character of Johnnie Aysgarth remains one of Grant's most disturbing screen portrayals. Probably for just that reason, it's also one of his most memorable. (Ask any good actor, and they'll tell you that villains are more fun to play.)

Unfortunately for Grant, when awards season rolled around, all the attention centered on his leading lady, Joan Fontaine, who would win the Academy Award for Best Actress, the only acting Oscar ever achieved by a Hitchcock film. Grant, whose work wasn't even nominated, felt snubbed and, according to Fontaine's autobiography, avoided her forever after. Today, though, 75 years after Suspicion's initial release, it is Grant's embodiment of the mercurial—and possibly murderous—Johnnie that energizes Suspicion from its opening frame to its final resolution. Fontaine's performance is flawless, but without Grant's Johnnie, her character would have no reason to worry and nothing to do.

The Warner Archive Collection is continuing this year's releases from Warner's Hitchcock library with a stellar new transfer of Suspicion that demonstrates yet again how aptly the Blu-ray format is suited to reproducing expressive black-and-white photography.

The "suspicion" of the title gnaws at the mind of Lina McLaidlaw (Fontaine), who impulsively marries the dashing but penniless Johnnie Aysgarth (Grant) after a whirlwind courtship that begins with a chance meeting on a train. Lina receives plenty of warning about Johnnie, beginning with that first encounter, where he cadges from her the price of the first-class ticket he cannot afford, but she throws caution to the wind. It's not hard to understand Lina's reckless disregard after meeting her traditional fussbudget of a mother (Dame May Whitty) and her sternly disapproving father, General McLaidlaw (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Having spent her entire life as a sheltered country girl and having now passed her sell-by date—"The old maid is a respectable institution!" opines the General—Lina thrills to the adventure of receiving the romantic attention of a handsome rascal. He even says he loves her.

Only after the continental honeymoon does Lina begin to doubt her husband, as she discovers the depth of his poverty, his habitual gambling and his casual acquaintance with the truth. Johnnie's disappointment at the lack of financial support from Lina's parents is disturbing, and the new bride's concerns intensify with the appearance of Johnnie's old school chum, Gordon Cochrane Thwaite, affectionately known as "Beaky" (Nigel Bruce). Affable but addled, Beaky is easily influenced by Johnnie, and he has the funds to support a get-rich-quick scheme involving a land development. But Johnnie's perpetual lies, reckless spending and increasingly sharp mood swings prompt Lina to question whether her husband has other plans for Beaky. Eventually she suspects that she, too, may be at risk, as Johnnie's constant need for money prompts a covert inquiry to their insurance company about the policy on Lina's life.

Grant's exquisitely calibrated performance keeps you guessing about Johnnie throughout, as he alternates between a kind of manic bonhomie that deflects all questions and doubts and a sharp, deadly intensity that abruptly descends whenever Johnnie doesn't get his way. Early in their relationship, Lina affectionately calls him "a child", which aptly describes her future husband's irresponsible indifference to consequences. But is he just a naughty boy or something more dangerous? During a key scene where Johnnie enlivens a dinner party with a cheerful discussion of how to commit a successful murder, it's impossible to tell.

As so often in Hitchcock, the director surrounds his central cast with a bevy of vivid supporting players, many of them stock characters who become distinctive and memorable through tiny nuances. They include a local author of murder mysteries, Isobel Sedbusk (Auriol Lee); her pathologist brother, Betram (Gavin Gordon), whom Isobel uses as an expert source—and then so does Johnnie; the Aysgarths' maid, Ethel (Heather Angel), who giggles almost uncontrollably when the master of the house gives her an expensive gift; a police inspector named Hodgson (Lumsden Hare), whose assistant (Vernon Downing) seems unaccountably intrigued by an abstract painting hanging in the Aysgarth household; and, in a single but memorable scene, Johnnie's cousin, Captain George Melbeck (played by Hitchcock stalwart Leo G. Carroll), who represents all of the solid, sober English values that somehow skipped over Johnnie and, if they'd landed on him, would have rendered him thoroughly unattractive to Lina.

Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Suspicion was shot by Harry Stradling Jr. with the same canny manipulation of light and shadow and expressive use of depth that would win him an Oscar some years later for the black-and-white cinematography of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Warner previously mastered the film in 1080p at the time of its release on DVD, but for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation, the Warner Archive Collection decided to start from scratch, scanning (at 2K) a recently manufactured fine-grain master positive made from the original nitrate camera negative. After significant restoration and clean-up, the new master recreates the Aysgarths' world with a degree of sharpness and detail that will be a revelation to those who have only seen indifferent television broadcasts. The contrast between the fusty period detail of the McLaidlaw country home and the extravagant contemporary house that Johnnie rents for himself and his new wife is now more obvious than ever. Lina's attire, which reflects both her progression as a character and her deteriorating mental state, is even more striking. And famous scenes like the extended shot of Johnnie ascending the stairs with a dubious glass of milk have acquired a new intensity.

Blacks are solid and deep, which is especially appropriate for the formal wear of the era. The film grain is more prominent on the Blu-ray of Suspicion than on WAC's release of I Confess, which was sourced from similar material but was shot twelve years later (and, because it was far less successful, probably suffered less wear-and-tear on the negative). Still, the grain is well-resolved and yields a film-like image throughout. Adhering to its now-reliable high standards for mastering, WAC has placed the feature on a BD-50 with an average bitrate of 34.92.

Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Suspicion's mono soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, has been thoroughly purged of any pops, clicks or background hiss, and it sounds remarkably good for a 1941 recording. Dialogue is crystal clear, down to every last iteration of Beaky's repeated catchphrases, and the careful use of sound effects to express Lina's interior state has been meticulously reproduced. As described in the extras, Suspicion's score by Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard) was carefully composed to alternate between upbeat (featuring a recurrent motif from Johann Strauss's "Wiener Blut" waltz) and ominous. It plays here with good fidelity and, for the period, excellent dynamic range.

Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Before the Fact: Suspicious Hitchcock (480i; 1.33:1; 21:36): Special feature producer Laurent Bouzereau assembles the usual suspects to provide an overview of Suspicion's genesis and production, plus a critical evaluation. The participants include director Peter Bogdanovich, TCM's Robert Osborne, film historian Richard Schickel and Hitchcock's daughter, Pat. Also joining the festivities are Bill Krohn, author of Hitchcock at Work, and John Waxman, son of the film's composer. Among the highlights are excerpts from the colorized version of Suspicion created by Turner Films, which, especially after watching WAC's new Blu-ray, are laughably bad.



• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1.37:1; 1:41): Although WAC has adopted a practice of re-mastering trailers in 1080p, it has not done so in this case. Given the sorry state of the element, remastering probably wouldn't help. Joan Fontaine narrates a carefully edited selection of moments from the film, describing Lina's growing terror.

Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Unlike The Wrong Man and I Confess, which are lesser known entries in Hitchcock's filmography, Suspicion is a landmark film, easily ranked among the classics previously released in sets by Universal and MGM. WAC may have taken its time with the release, but the results are well worth the wait. Highly recommended.