History Film / Suspicion

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* FourthWallPsych: In the train scene, there's suddenly a shot where Cary Grant looks directly to the camera and starts talking, but it turns out to be a shot from Lina's POV.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar
** Early in the film, Lina rebuffs Johnnie's advances — and the camera cuts to a closeup of her purse snapping shut.
** Johnnie's friend Beaky tells a story of picking up some girl in Paris that sounds like it's going to end with discovering she was a prostitute, but Johnnie cuts him off.

* GenreSavvy: Johnnie reads a lot of detective novel and Lina suspects that he wants to know what worked in them in order to commit murders.

** Early in the film, Lina rebuffs Johnnie's advances--and the camera cuts to a closeup of her purse snapping shut.

* GoldDigger: Johnnie may or may not be a murderer but he seems perfectly happy to live a life of leisure on Lina's money. The movie leaves it to us to decide if he was angling for her from their first "accidental" meeting on the train.

* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Johnnie tells Lina that her "ucipital mapilary is quite beautiful." That's a term that he (or, actually, co-writer Samson Raphaelson) made up for what's actually called the "suprasternal notch".

* PsychopathicManchild: Johnnie's irresponsibility, recklessness, lack of remorse, manipulative skills, and immature priorities suggest he is a psychopath or something like. When she starts to realize what he's like, Lina spins it as best she can..."You're a baby!" If so, the implied happy ending in the movie is not likely to turn out so happy.

* IdiotBall: Beaky has a violent and possibly fatal reaction when he drinks brandy, but that doesn't stop him from slurping it down anyway.

''Suspicion'' is a 1941 thriller starring Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/JoanFontaine, directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. Fontaine plays Lina, an upper class Englishwoman who seems bound for a life of spinsterhood, until she meets rakish playboy Johnny Aysgarth (Grant). They marry after a whirlwind courtship, but Lina soon finds out that Johnny is broke, a habitual gambler, an embezzler -- and may be a murderer.

* TheCasanova: When Johnny shows up at a ball, women literally flock to him. Later Lina asks him if he's had a lot of girlfriends, and he admits that he has and said that one time when he couldn't sleep, he tried counting them like sheep.

* TheDitz: Johnny's friend Beaky is very amiable but not terribly bright, and does not at all understand Johnny's plan for a seaside real estate development.

* FourthDateMarriage: A ''first'' date marriage, where Johnny whisks Lina away to get married after they dance at a ball.

** Early in the film, Lina rebuffs Johnny's advances--and the camera cuts to a closeup of her purse snapping shut.
** Johnny's friend Beaky tells a story of picking up some girl in Paris that sounds like it's going to end with discovering she was a prostitute, but Johnny cuts him off.
* GoldDigger: Johnny may or may not be a murderer but he seems perfectly happy to live a life of leisure on Lina's money. The movie leaves it to us to decide if he was angling for her from their first "accidental" meeting on the train.
* HappyEnding: A somewhat controversial one, and implied rather than demonstrated (we don't see Johnny reform, only ''talk'' like a changed man). In the source novel, Lina is right about Johnny. He is a criminal, and he is going to poison her with the glass of milk (the novel ends with Lina knowing this and drinking the milk anyway). The book ends with Johnny apparently getting away with it. One alternate ending considered for the film was for Lina to drink the milk, but not before sending off a letter that exposed Johnny's crimes. The final ending used for the film has Lina being wrong about Johnny, with him admitting that he was going to use that poison on ''himself'' rather than go to prison for embezzlement. They elect to face the future together. Hitchcock later claimed that RKO demanded the HappyEnding because they were nervous about Cary Grant playing a villain. Other sources claim that studio memos show Hitchcock was on board from the start with making a movie about a woman's imagination rather than the dark ending of the book.

* MaleGaze: When Johnny first meets Lina, on the train, he checks out her legs, then looks up to see that she caught him and is looking right at him.

* PrettyInMink: Lina wears a fur hat and wrap in one scene, and Johnny later gives her a mink coat.
* TravelMontage: Some still pictures along with stickers on luggage to indicate Johnny and Lina's honeymoon.

''Suspicion'' is a 1941 thriller starring Creator/CaryGrant and Creator/JoanFontaine, directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. Fontaine plays Lina, an upper class Englishwoman who seems bound for a life of spinsterhood, until she meets rakish playboy Johnny Aysgarth (Grant). They marry after a whirlwind courtship, but Lina soon finds out that Johnny is broke, is a habitual gambler, is an embezzler -- and may be a murderer.

''Suspicion'' was a critical and commercial success. It received three UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations, losing Best Picture to ''Film/HowGreenWasMyValley'' but winning Best Actress for Joan Fontaine--the only Oscar ever given for an acting performance in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Among the actresses Fontaine defeated for her Oscar was her sister, Olivia de Havilland, who had received a nomination for ''Hold Back the Dawn''. (De Havilland would later go on to win Best Actress twice).

* TheCasanova: When Johnny shows up at a ball, women literally flock to him. Later Lina asks him if he's had a lot of girlfriends, and he admits that he has and said that one time when he couldn't sleep he tried counting them like sheep.

Remade in 1988 as a UK/US MadeForTVMovie (for Creator/{{ITV}} and Creator/{{PBS}}), with Lina played by JaneCurtin ([[WTHCastingAgency of all people]]) and Anthony Andrews as Johnny.

* CaliforniaDoubling: That coast and the cliffs sure do look a lot like southern California.

''Suspicion'' is a 1941 thriller starring Creator/CaryGrant and Joan Fontaine, directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. Fontaine plays Lina, an upper class Englishwoman who seems bound for a life of spinsterhood, until she meets rakish playboy Johnny Aysgarth (Grant). They marry after a whirlwind courtship, but Lina soon finds out that Johnny is broke, is a habitual gambler, is an embezzler -- and may be a murderer.

''Suspicion'' is a 1941 thriller starring Creator/CaryGrant and Joan Fontaine, directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock. Fontaine plays Lina, an upper-class Englishwoman who seems bound for a life of spinsterhood until she meets rakish playboy Johnny Aysgarth (Grant). They marry after a whirlwind courtship, but Lina soon finds out that Johnny is broke, is a habitual gambler, is an embezzler--and may be a murderer.

Remade in 1988 as a UK/US MadeForTVMovie (for {{ITV}} and {{PBS}}), with Lina played by JaneCurtin ([[WTHCastingAgency of all people]]) and Anthony Andrews as Johnny.

''Suspicion'' was a critical and commercial success. It received three AcademyAward nominations, losing Best Picture to ''Film/HowGreenWasMyValley'' but winning Best Actress for Joan Fontaine--the only Oscar ever given for an acting performance in an Alfred Hitchcock film. Among the actresses Fontaine defeated for her Oscar was her sister, Olivia de Havilland, who had received a nomination for ''Hold Back the Dawn''. (De Havilland would later go on to win Best Actress twice).

* HappyEnding: A somewhat controversial one. In the source novel, Lina is right about Johnny. He is a criminal, and he is going to poison her with the glass of milk (the novel ends with Lina knowing this and drinking the milk anyway). The book ends with Johnny apparently getting away with it. One alternate ending considered for the film was for Lina to drink the milk, but not before sending off a letter that exposed Johnny's crimes. The final ending used for the film has Lina being wrong about Johnny, with him admitting that he was going to use that poison on ''himself'' rather than go to prison for embezzlement. They elect to face the future together. Hitchcock later claimed that RKO demanded the HappyEnding because they were nervous about Cary Grant playing a villain. Other sources claim that studio memos show Hitchcock was on board from the start with making a movie about a woman's imagination rather than the dark ending of the book.

* GoldDigger: Johnny may or may not be a murderer but he seems perfectly happy to live a life of leisure on Lina's money.

Remade as a UK/US MadeForTVMovie (for {{ITV}} and {{PBS}}) in 1988 with Lina played by JaneCurtin ([[WTHCastingAgency of all people]]) and Anthony Andrews as Johnny.

* TravelMontage: Some still pictures along with stickers on luggage to indicate Johnny and Lina's honeymoon.