Suspicion

I decided to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion for a few reasons.  First and foremost, I enjoy Hitchcock's work.  Not far behind that, I have come to the conclusion that it's never a poor choice to watch a Cary Grant film.  Thanks to the seemingly infinite supply of movies available to me (my own massive collection, Netflix by mail, on-demand streaming, etc.) I have been primarily watching films I have never seen before, often with very little in the way of foreknowledge.  That is fine most of the time, but I've had some bad luck with picking random Hitchcock movies to watch (read: they weren't classics) for this blog.  Will Suspicion break that trend?

Lina (Joan Fontaine) is well on her way to spinsterhood.  Yes, her case is hopeless, since she has no suitors, appears to not want any suitors, and she has reached the ripe old age of mmmaybe twenty-five (and that's pushing it).  Oh, and did I mention that she reads a lot and wears glasses?  Who would want to marry someone so repellant?

Disgusting!  I think I just puked in my mouth a little!

One day, Lina is singled out by the irrepressible cad Johnnie (Cary Grant), an infamous playboy.  For reasons that Lina is unclear on, Johnnie finds her abrasiveness appealing.  Very soon, Johnnie is courting Lina --- despite her family's misgivings --- and he finds all sorts of ways to woo her; he compliments her lower neck, he grooms her, and he nicknames her Monkey Face.

Johnnie, checking Monkey Face for delicious lice

That proves too much for Lina to deny and the two elope.  After a luxurious honeymoon, the pair move into a fancy new home together.  All of this would be wonderful, if not for the fact that Johnnie doesn't have a pot to piss in.  Somehow, the subject of money never came up in their courtship, and now both of them are unemployed without being independently wealthy.  That's not strictly true, I suppose; Monkey Face is the daughter of a wealthy old man (Cedric Hardwicke), so she should inherit some money someday.  In the meantime, though, Johnnie spends money he doesn't have quickly and frivolously, dodging creditors and lying with a smile whenever the subject of money comes up.  But when Lina's father dies under suspicious circumstances and doesn't leave Lina any money (not as long as she's married to that cad!), a darker side of Johnnie starts creeping in.  There is nothing concrete to indicate that Johnnie is up to no good, but Lina soon begins to piece together circumstantial evidence to arrive at a disturbing conclusion --- Johnnie is trying to kill her!

Literally spelling it out?  Subtle.

Hitchcock films are not famous for the acting performances, but Suspicion features the only Oscar-winning acting role from any Hitchcock film.  Joan Fontaine won Best Actress as Lina.  Personally, I don't get it.  Fontaine spent a good portion of the film making tragic faces away from Cary Grant.

Now, repeat thirty more times

I also didn't like the overall message of the character, but I'll touch on that in a bit.  From a performance standpoint, Fontaine was pretty good, but a touch melodramatic.  I've read a few opinions that her Oscar win was a belated award for her work in Rebecca, though, which does help explain this a bit.  Cary Grant being excellent definitely balanced out the unevenness of Fontaine's character.  Grant was his normal charming self for the most part, but it was interesting seeing him shift into the more serious moments.  The screenplay doesn't go as far with that darkness as I might have liked, but it's a good example of Grant's depth.

Shifty eyes, sinister milk

The rest of the cast was made up of character actors.  Cedric Hardwicke and May Whitty were okay as Lina's parents.  Heather Angel was fine as the pretty maid and Isabel Jeans was okay as one of the local gossips.  The only supporting character that really stuck out to me was the pleasantly dim chum to Johnnie, Beaky, played by Nigel Bruce.  It's difficult to play a clueless character without resorting to base physical humor or Dude, Where's My Car? idiocy, but Bruce was convincing as a man who could be counted on to always say the exact wrong thing.

"A toast: to whores --- a husband's best investment!"

As for the direction, Suspicion shows Alfred Hitchcock refining his craft.  There are a lot of clever bits in this movie, and most of them are extremely subtle.  The most memorable shot is of the possibly poisoned milk Johnnie brings Lina; the way it stays so brilliantly white while Johnnie is in shadows played perfectly into the tension of that scene.  There are other, less striking, examples of Hitchcock's craftiness, though.  I really liked how the plausibility of Lina's suspicions were handled; the point-of-view in this film was so definitely Lina's that the audience never sees Johnnie in a scene without her.  Who knows what he was up to when he was off-camera?  There was also the technical feat of superimposing Lina's face over an imagined tragedy, which looked very good for the time period.  Perhaps the greatest feat by Hitchcock in this film was how much he let the film rest on the shoulders of the main actors.  This is easily the most character-driven film of his I have seen and it was interesting to see him allow two flawed characters the room to grow.

The flaws in Suspicion are not just with the characters, though.  The ending is pretty terrible.  There are dozens of articles online about the supposed original or proposed alternate endings to the film, but I just want to focus on what made the final cut.  If you take the explanations given at face value, you are left with a huge anticlimax.  To say it is out of left field would be generous; I immediately drew comparisons to the end of Poochie from The Simpsons. 

If you choose to disbelieve the explanations given --- and that would be going against the obvious intent of the filmmakers --- then the ending's tone was off to an unsettling degree.  Whichever way you interpret the ending, I think it can be agreed that it is underwhelming, at best.  My larger problem with the film is the condescension that underlies the story.  If I was a woman, this movie would seriously piss me off.  Even if you choose to ignore Lina's willingness to turn a blind eye to just about everything with a passiveness that defies logic, there is still the whole concept of SPOILER: everything suspicious about Johnnie being her own fanciful imagination.  Really?  That's the explanation that ties up this plot with a little bow?  She's a woman and women are batshit crazy?  If that's the argument that the filmmakers want to propose, I'm fine with that --- it could be hilarious --- but it shouldn't be the key component to a twist ending.  The film seems to be building to such a promising end that the actual finale is incredibly disappointing.  The movie's not bad, but that ending nearly ruined it for me.

Check out this Belgian movie poster I found online for Suspicion!  Is it just me, or does it look like a dead Hitch next to Mr. Rogers?  Stick to beer, Belgians.  Movie posters are not your forte.

Gunga Din

Today, I decided to finally watch Gunga Din, which I have heard referenced as a favorite of all military men.  I have always enjoyed Cary Grant, but I've only seen a small fraction of his films; Gunga Din is one that I hear a lot about (it's been nominated for several AFI lists), but knew nothing about.  And today is Pearl Harbor Day, so I wanted to watch a great war movie; sure, I could have watched Pearl Harbor, but I wanted to see something good and inspirational instead.

Like a technologically advanced army fighting natives

Gunga Din is the story of three military buddies serving in Her Majesty's army in colonial India, around 1880.  MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) is a career soldier, a large man that is more than happy to brawl; Cutter (Cary Grant) is the goofy one, always on the hunt for treasure; and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is the one who is going to break up the gang, by becoming a civilian in a few days, getting married (to Joan Fontaine), and working in "the tea business," whatever that entails.  The trio have been fast friends for many years and shared many adventures across multiple campaigns, but their time as a trio is quickly coming to an end.  It would be bad enough if Ballantine was simply becoming a civilian (he could just re-enlist and fix that), but getting married and taking a dull joe job is a tragedy that MacChesney and Cutter can hardly believe.

Grant, preparing to audition for a role in Colors

While the kookiness of the characters is being explored, we also learn that the Thugee cult has returned to India, after many years, which means that there will be violent uprisings, right when Ballantine is set to retire.  Meanwhile, Cutter is looking for his next crack at immeasurable wealth.  The squad's Indian water-carrier, Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe), mentions that he has heard of a temple made of gold.  The two set out for the temple, which turns out to be the headquarters for the Thugees.  Oops.  Gunga Din escapes and notifies MacChesney and Ballantine, but what can they do?  Ballantine is a civilian now, and MacChesney is no match for a cult all by his lonesome.  What follows is a tale of the bond of brotherhood between military men and the sacrifices one makes for God and Country. 

I have to admit that I was surprised that the titular character in Gunga Din is not actually one of the main characters.  Knowing nothing about the plot, I thought "Gunga Din" might have been a battle, or a town, or an elephant or maybe the villain of the film; I did not expect it to be the relatively small (but important) Indian role played by a man of Russian and Jewish descent. 

He is only slightly darker than the eternally tan Grant

Of course, it's a slippery slope for me to criticize a movie released in 1939 for racially inaccurate casting; that was a tradition in Hollywood for decades, and continues today.  I suppose I would have been less surprised about the character if I had remembered the Ruyard Kipling poem of the same name, which inspired the film.  Then again, it's not like many movies are based on poems, right?

"Unless you count Troy, Jabberwocky, Beowulf, El Cid, Braveheart, The Nightmare Before Christmas..."

The acting in Gunga Din is an odd blend of classic Hollywood machismo and screwball comedy.  Naturally, that fits Cary Grant perfectly, and he is very enjoyable as a brave, loyal soldier with a tendency to act like a jackass.  Victor McLaglen was pretty good for the period, but the more comedic aspects of his performance have aged poorly.

Actual script line: "Ruh-roh..."

He was definitely a good soldier and I enjoyed most of his bantering with Grant, but some of his character's idiosyncrasies (like the elephant thing) seem absolutely random and corny now.  Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had the thankless task of being the straight man of the film; he was solid, but as the romantically conflicted character, he was a bit shallow.  Sam Jaffe was okay as Gunga Din, the water boy that really wanted to be a British soldier; it wasn't the most racially insensitive portrayal ever (that would be Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's), but I would have liked his character better if he wasn't ridiculously stupid.  Joan Fontaine wasn't much better as the wife-to-be who reasonably wants her fiancee to marry her and work a normal, 9-to-5 job; her argument makes total sense and is sympathetic, but the character whines and complains enough to make a nine-year extension with the army seem like a better choice.

Fontaine, the Yoko Ono of Gunga Din

I did like Eduardo Ciannelli as the villainous head Thugee.  Sure, he is just as white as Sam Jaffe, but his character was smart, devious and fanatical, without playing up a ridiculous accent.

I was very impressed with the direction of George Stevens in Gunga Din.  It's not that the acting is fantastic, or that the pace is perfect, but the cinematography is great.  This entire movie was filmed in California, and yet it looks like a location shoot.  I've read up on some of the scenes and am now more impressed than ever with the camera tricks used to make this feel authentic.

Example: this bridge was about six feet off the ground

More importantly than that is the epic scope of the film.  Even today, the size of the battles is impressive, even if it is not accompanied by the gore that Braveheart made commonplace in battle scenes.  The key to the epic-ness of Gunga Din is how effortlessly it conveys the bond of brotherhood between soldiers.  I have to admit that I wasn't really buying into this being a great movie for military men, but the end of the film is designed to make manly men weep.

Gunga Din isn't a perfect movie.  The comedic and dramatic elements battle for supremacy, with neither truly succeeding.  The shame that the titular poem alludes to --- which should be the central theme of the film --- does not really come across through the actions of the characters.  Despite all that, this is a pretty entertaining movie to watch, with Cary Grant being truly magnetic on the screen.

His Girl Friday

Doesn't Grant's leer and that tag line make this sound awfully sordid?

Humor is a funny thing.  See what I did there?  Hilarious.  But it's true; what is funny to you today might not be funny to you tomorrow, much less in a year or ten years from now.  Consider this: Jerry Lewis was extremely successful as a comedian and comedic actor.  Case closed.

I bring up the temporary nature of most comedies because, every so often, I find a film that is clever and funny enough to truly be one for the ages.  His Girl Friday, made in 1940, is one of those comedies.  When former ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) stops by her old newspaper building to ask a small favor of her former boss (and ex-husband), Walter Burns (Cary Grant), she happens to mention that she is going to be married.  Tomorrow.  To a deadly dull insurance salesman, Bruce (Ralph Bellamy), to boot.  In fact, the couple is supposed to catch a train out of town in two hours.  Walter can't let that happen; not only would he permanently lose his best reporter and the foil to his rapid-fire jokes, but he would lose out on the chance to become her husband again...and, given their relationship, maybe even her ex-husband again.  So, Walter hatches a plan --- well, more like a few dozen plans --- to keep Hildy in town, on the paper, and by his side.

This isn't the first time this plot made it to the big screen.  The play it is based on, The Front Page, was made into a film of the same name in 1931, and the film was a big hit, being nominated for Best Picture, Director and Actor Oscars.  For whatever reason Howard Hawks decided to remake the movie, but he made the clever choice to change the gender of Hildy's character from a man to a woman.  By making that change, the dynamic of the whole film changed from one that focused on the screwball antics of a boss trying to keep his favorite employee to a man desperately trying to win over his lost love.  You have to admit, the second one sounds more universally appealing.

What makes His Girl Friday different from so many other comedies, modern or otherwise, is its use of dialogue.  The script is witty, sure, but that's not all.  It is some of the fastest witty dialogue to hit the big screen, and the characters are often talking over one another, so you don't always catch the jokes.  That would be annoying, but there are so many jokes that you can't help but catch enough to make a viewing worthwhile.  Of course, that also means that you can catch new jokes every time you watch the movie, too.  A lot of the jokes make use of clever wordplay, some of the jokes work just because of their speedy delivery, but other jokes only make sense if you know what on Earth they are talking about.  For instance, when Walter is trying to describe Bruce to somebody, he says that "He looks like that fellow in the movies --- Ralph Bellamy."  It's true; Bellamy actually plays Bruce.  Walter also makes a reference Archie Leach, which is Cary Grant's birth name.  Clever stuff, if you can catch it all.

That really is a difficult task, with so many characters talking over each others lines.  Back in 1940, though, they didn't have multi-track recordings, so the fact that Howard Hawks was able to capture it all and make it sound good is very impressive in retrospect.  Hawks was one of the biggest directors in Hollywood's Golden Age, and he mastered just about every type of film.  This one, though, is definitely the crown jewel of his comedies.  It is often called a screwball comedy, but His Girl Friday is smarter and less physical than so many other screwball pictures.  Hawks did a great job with his casting (Cary Grant for a witty role is always a good choice), and his ear for conversational timing helps make this film stand out after all these years.

It doesn't hurt that he had Cary Grant being charming as the lead actor.  Really, who doesn't like Cary Grant?  Aside from his ex-wives, I mean.  Walter could have been an overbearing, power-hungry jerk, if played by the wrong person.  With Grant, though, even the character's snake-charming personality just seems endearing.  He also delivered some great lines perfectly; I laugh every time he tells Hildy that getting divorced sure makes a fellow feel unwanted.  I'm not terribly familiar with Rosalind Russell's body of work, but she is definitely impressive here.  It takes some serious talent to match Cary Grant's charm on screen, but she matches his charm and his delivery.  The funny thing about the character of Hildy is how strong of a female lead she is, and yet she is spending the entirety of the film trying to become more classically feminine; she's at her best and happiest, though, when she is acting as Walter's equal in all things.  The rest of the supporting cast is okay, but they are just there to give the main actors people to bounce dialogue off of.  Ralph Bellamy is fine as the nice (but boring) fiancee, John Qualen is amusing as a pitiful killer, and there are a handful of other recognizable character actors from the period, as well.

I think what I like best about His Girl Friday is just how equal Walter and Hildy are.  Hildy realizes early on that Walter is trying to get her working for the paper again, and she does her best to resist.  In many movies, though, we would just see everything from Walter's perspective and see how clever he is.  But this movie is more Hildy's story than Walter's; for every trick he plays and every lie he tells, she figures it out, eventually.  My favorite moments are when she confronts him with his lies and they just laugh together.  There's just something to be said for enjoying the absolute bullshit coming out of someone's mouth and being in on the joke, I guess.

I should point out that this film has become public domain, so many DVD prints are of pretty terrible quality.  So, if you're looking to pick up the movie and you see a $5 version and a $12 version, just suck it up and spend the extra money.  It's worth it.