Suspicion

Suspicion, motion picture about a woman who begins to suspect that her husband is a murderer. Released in 1941, the film was based on a novel by Frances Iles and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Joan Fontaine won an Academy Award and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for her performance as the heiress Lina McLaidlaw, who marries Johnnie Aysgarth (played by Cary Grant) after a whirlwind romance. Soon after the marriage the heiress learns that her husband is a liar and a thief. When his friend is discovered dead she begins to suspect him of murder as well. Eventually she becomes convinced that she may be her husband's next victim. Suspence builds in the film's final scenes as Aysgarth delivers to his bedridden wife a glass of milk that appears to be poisoned.

Director

• Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

• Cary Grant (Johnnie Aysgarth)
• Joan Fontaine (Lina McLaidlaw)
• Cedric Hardwicke (General McLaidlaw)
• Nigel Bruce (Beaky Thwaite)
• Dame May Whitty (Mrs. McLaidlaw)
• Isabel Jeans (Mrs. Newsham)
• Heather Angel (Ethel, maid)
• Auriol Lee (Isobel Sedbusk)
• Reginald Sheffield (Reggie Wetherby)
• Leo G. Carroll (Captain Melbeck)
• Maureen Roden-Ryan (Winnie, maid)
• Carol Curtis-Brown (Jessie Barham)
• Constance Worth (Mrs. Fitzpatrick)
• Violet Shelton (Alice Barham)
• Pax Walker (Phoebe, the maid)
• Leonard Carey (Jenner, the butler)
• Gertrude W. Hoffman (Mrs. Wetherby)
• Kenneth Hunter (Sir Gerald)
• Clyde Cook (Photographer)
• Faith Brook (Alice Barham)
• Dorothy Lloyd (Miss Wetherby)
• Rex Evans (Mr. Bailey)
• Edward Fielding (Antique shop proprietor)
• Hilda Plowright (Postmistress)
• Ben Webster (Registrar)
• Gavin Gordon (Bertram Sedbusk)
• Nondas Metcalf (Phyllis Swinghurst)
• Lumsden Hare (Inspector Hodgson)
• Clara Reid (Mrs. Craddock)
• Vernon Downing (Benson)
• Billy Bevan (Ticket taker)
• Alec Craig (Hogart Club Bit)
• Aubrey Mather (Mr. Webster)
• Elsie Weller (Miss Wetherby)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Actress (1941): Joan Fontaine
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (1941): Joan Fontaine

Trivia

• Hitchcock planted a light inside the glass of milk that Aysgarth brings to his wife in order to make the scene look more sinister.
• Hitchcock shot several conclusions to the film before deciding which he would use. He originally preferred an ending that featured the heiress, convinced that her husband is going to murder her, drinking the poisoned milk that he offers her because she will not betray her love for him. However, audiences would have been appalled that Grant, one of the greatest film stars of the time, would portray a man who would murder his own wife. Hitchcock responded to these audience concerns by making the ending less sinister, but also more ambiguous.

Quote

• Johnnie Aysgarth: “If you’re going to kill someone, do it simply.”