Suspicion

The success of Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) lies in one word and one word only, and that is the pet phrase that Johnnie (Cary Grant) calls Lina (Joan Fontaine), his wife: "monkeyface." Never marry your spouse until you can call them "monkeyface" and not end up sleeping on the couch.

In this film, Johnnie Aysgarth woos Lina, much to the dismay of her parents, who understand that Lina is marrying down in class. However, their love is too great for such a problem, at least, that is, until Lina realizes that Johnnie is a perpetual putz who refuses to work or otherwise support the family, so that the income from the family is derived entirely from Lina's parents. When Lina's father dies, Johnnie anticipates an inheritance that never comes, so Lina begins to fear that Johnnie is engineering accidents and brushes with death specifically so that he can inherit the insurance money.

Hitchcock is able to create a nice sense of suspense and doubt in the central conflict between spouses, and Fontaine deserves the acclaim that she has gotten for her role, but the end shift of the film turns into a deflated exercise in empty suspense and drama. Whereas in the book that the film was adapted from Lina knew that Johnnie was a murderer, and so she accepted a poisoned drink that he offered her, thereby killing herself and their unborn child rather than bring the baby into this world with a father as a serial killer, Hitchcock unsatisfactorly posits that these signs that Lina read into Johnnie were all chance and misread events, so that the two drive away, happily ever after, understanding each other anew in their relationship.

What this amounts to, then, is a pointless pandering to the audience, wherein the film manipulates our core emotions but never displays confidence in the ending that it is building toward. As a result, the end of this film is a big copout, and results in little response beyond a sighing "meh." But on the bright side, try out "monkeyface" on your loved one. It's a good experiment.

Suspicion: 5.5/10