Rent Suspicion (1941)

B&W or Colour - Suspicion review by JD

A historic masterpiece. This 1941 film appears to be shot in B&W. You are however given the choice of watching in colour. The colours in some scenes are a bit surreal but generally good. Were all the frames individually coloured in? Wow. The plot is very delicately balanced. Is she paranoid or is he a ba***rd? You spend the whole film deciding. By today's standards it is a good film. By those of over 70 years ago it must have been impressive.

Very good but not the best - contains key spoilers - Suspicion review by CSF

A very good old fashion film by genious Hitchcock. Bearing in mind the story happened in 1941, it shows that Americans of the time were not very affected by the war in Europe. It takes place in London, so there should have been a mention of the war. The white cliffs of England look like a painting by Turner. Perhaps, in that case, the black and white would have been more realistic. For this part, Hitchcock should have chosen a woman not as beautiful as Joan Fontain but that was not Hollywood style. The film is like a tennis match: your mind looks at one character then the other one, almost at the same rythm as in a tennis match! It is love-love at the beginning and at the end.

Contains key spoiler. - Suspicion review by Steve

This was one of a few Hitchcock films made in Hollywood but set in England and with a predominantly British cast.

It is a thriller from a novel by Francis Iles about a frumpish spinster (Joan Fontaine) who marries a dangerous sociopath (Cary Grant) and grows to fear for her life.

And there is a lot of the problem. In 1941, Fontaine was a very beautiful young woman and there is little about her character that is unappealing. And Grant, the best screwball actor of the era, was a limited dramatic performer and his portrayal is idiotic. The film continually stretches plausibility until it eventually rips apart during a conclusion purely devised because RKO wouldn't let Cary Grant play a murderer.

Having said all that... it is a very entertaining film, and is suspenseful in spite of its flaws. Fontaine does her best and got the Oscar better deserved for Rebecca, as another vulnerable new wife, enmeshed in the shadows of an unfamiliar house.