Joan Fontaine, pictured here with Cary Grant, passed away on Dec. 15, 2013 at age 96
This is the second week in a row that I have had to begin with the sad news of another death of a film legend.
Joan Fontaine, the actress who gained fame for playing threatened wives to possibly dangerous husbands in the early 1940s, passed away at the age of 96 last week.
Her most famous roles are both associated with Alfred Hitchcock, who directed both the 1940 film Rebecca and the 1941 movie, Suspicion, for which she won the Academy Award as Best Lead Actress.
The plot-line of Suspicion follows Lina (Fontaine), a very bookish and spinster-like lady, who by chance meets a charming yet mysterious playboy, Johnnie (Cary Grant) on a train.
At first she puts up a cool guard against the man, but inside she is smitten – despite her conservative parents’ negative opinion of the chap.
She rebels against them and secretly marries this man that she barely knows.
It does not take long for her to grow suspicious of her new husband. She quickly learns of his penchant for lying, gambling and back-handedness, along with his surprising lack of money or desire to find work to pay for their extravagant lifestyle. When he receives a job offer from a relative she is relieved, though he is soon fired under suspect circumstances.
Following a business partner’s death, which could have been accidental or not, Lina decides to investigate Johnnie’s interest in murder mystery novels which have similar aspects to the real life death.
All of this leads to the memorable climax of the movie.
This film has the usual Hitchcock touches – intrigue, mystery, dry humour and several stunning shots. Fans of the director know of his amazing touch in sequences such as the shower scene in Psycho, or the crop-duster attack in North by Northwest, and the attempted murder in Dial M For Murder, yet one scene from this film which should be included in the above list is a suspenseful take in which we watch Johnnie carry a glass of milk in the dark from the kitchen to Lina’s room.
The audience, along with Lina, are left wondering if the glass contains poison.
Hitchcock masterfully placed a light within the glass so that the only thing that would stand out in the dark house is the mysterious beverage.
Other scenes worth looking for are the dinner sequence in which a group of guests discuss murder – the dialogue, direction and acting make it highly entertaining. Also, the Scrabble scene is just one example that illustrates Hitch’s interesting use of subjective storytelling that leaves us wondering what is real and what is not.
Finally, it is well recorded that the studio would not allow Hitchcock to end the film the way he wanted to, though he maintains enough intrigue and mystery in order to keep the ending exciting and somewhat open-ended.
Fontaine is brilliant as the lovely woman whose world quickly unravels around her as she notices more and more frighteningly dangerous signs in her husband’s actions and behaviour. She brings the more fragile and timid aspects of the character to life in a realisti way.
Grant channels his usual suave and sophisticated persona, along with a boyish frivolity and a mysterious air (this was the first of four films he would do with Hitchcock).
Nigel Bruce (best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes’ pictures) is excellent as Beaky, the likable yet slightly dim-witted friend of Johnnie’s who is always putting his foot in his mouth. Cedric Hardwicke and Dame May Whitty are very solid as Lina’s traditional parents.
Suspicion is a fine film that not only showcases the skill of its director, but also captures the amazing acting talent of the 1940s starlet Joan Fontaine.
She was one of the last remaining legends/Oscar winning leading ladies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, along with her sister Olivia de Havilland – 97 (the two had a many-decades-long feud which lasted right up until Fontaine’s death) and Luise Rainer – soon to be 104.
Sadly, Joan Fontaine’s death signals the closing pages of a very soon-to-be bygone era.