Suspicion (1941 Alfred Hitchcock)

In Francis Iles' book 'Before the Fact' (1932) a ne'er-do-well husband cheerfully murders his father-in-law and wallflower wife. The Hays Office though isn't going to let you make such a film - why was that fair? Why were films subjected to more control than books? The screenplay was drafted by Alma and Joan Harrison, then elaborated by Samson Raphaelson (a frequent collaborator with Lubitsch).

Cary Grant was persuaded to appear thinking he would be that murderer. Film also features Joan Fontaine - 'Behind the leading lady's back, the star told close friends he had a genuine impulse to strangle the leading lady - an enmity that informed his mercurial performance' (McGilligan) - and  Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Cedrick Hardwicke, Isabel Jeans and Leo G Carroll.

Hitch was also to have his murderer-hero have an affair with the maid, and an illegitimate child, but censorship precluded that too. So in the original ending, Grant was to poison his wife with the milk, but she had written a letter to her mother revealing the truth about him - the next morning "Cary Grant, whistling cheerfully, walks over to the mailbox and pops the letter in" (Hitch to Truffaut). That sure sounds like an ending. But the censors interfered and thus we were left to this misdirection ending in which Grant isn't the murderer after all. I mean, it sort of works... He's just a bastard...

In terms of style it's lesser Hitch, with memorable 'Murder' scene over scrabble and the lighting of the main hallways which evokes a spider's web (Harry Stradling). Franz Waxman scored, for RKO.