V his is an excerpt from a biography of Alfred Hitchcock. He says the incidents that marred the production of Suspicions and illustrate what we saw during the "Hollywood mode of production". You'll notice: - the source of the history of film and processing - the time before the adaptation (storage of raw material) - the differentiation of tasks and division of labor (working at least for the scenario writer, the wife of H. and his principal collaborator) - the level where the decision is taken on the title - the importance of public opinion (denial of L. Olivier, Gallup, preview ...) - the importance of censorship (not suicide as a pregnant woman in the book) - the 'happy ending' - ... and the relative unpredictability of the reaction of the viewer.
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"The English novelist Anthony Berkeley Cox was published in 1932 (under the pseudonym Francis Iles) a book entitled Before the Fact, which he had sold the rights three years later RKO. It was one of the titles that Hitchcock detained immediately when he discussed the project with Arthur Edington in June 1940. ....
The RKO tried since 1935 to produce a film version of the novel. It was at that Emmlyn Williams asked to write the screenplay, while Louis Hayward was to play the role of the husband. In 1939, RKO contacted Robert Montgomery and Geraldine Fitzgerald, and then (Lawrence) Olivier desired to make this film with a newcomer to partner, Maureen O'Hara. In May 1940, that Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent was finalizing ( Correspondent 17), professional journals indicated that it was a mistake from RKO to Laurence Olivier in the shoes of a murderer. In June, during his meeting with Edington, Hitchcock explained that Alma, Joan and himself would change history by putting the nasty actions of the husband on behalf of the fevered imagination of a woman suspicious and neurotic. it is crucial to insist on that, Hitchcock has always insisted that the situation was quite different: he wanted, he explained later, staying very faithful to the novel ....
Raphaelson ... accepted the proposal to work with Hitchcock. For their part Alma and Joan added scenes on the indications of Hitchcock. In late March, the scenario was hopelessly confused, real mixture of moods, styles and motivations that could never make a homogeneous film ....
There was first the problem of the title. At the time, the studios were wont to hire Gallup to ask viewers across the country to respond to proposals as they are submitted. the original title Before the Fact ( Before the facts) did not inspire many people. Hitchcock had originally thought Fright Fright, RKO to Suspiscious Lady ( A suspicious woman ) and Gallup had tested fifty titles sometimes pretty crazy. .... Only a few days before the November release of the film, that senior officials of the studio opted for a title for which Hitchcock was fighting since early summer., Suspicion (French Suspicion ) ....
Nobody knew quite what would be the end of the film. It was not only foreign to the methods of work of Hitchcock, but it also put the players in the most absolute confusion as they do not know what was the purpose of any sequence. ...
Alma and Joan worked hard at various possible endings. according to one version, Cary Grant devait, dans une brusque impulsion d'héroïsme assez mal justifiée, s'engager dans la Royal Air force afin de se laver de ses ignominies passées. Cette solution, rapidement abandonnée, le voyait mourir, patriote et repentant, ce qui évitait par la même occasion de recourir au suicide ou a l'assassinat. ...
Ils (Hitchcock et ses collaborateurs) envisagèrent , en dernier ressort, de passer outre aux objections du censeur devant le suicide d'une femme enceinte en ajoutant une scène où Fontaine rencontrerait secrètement un autre homme (le code admettait parfois le suicide quand il s'agissait d'un pécheur ou d'une pécheresse). la réaction à l'avant première was very clear. When the film, still untitled, was projected to pasadena with this final scene, the audience roared with laughter, so that Hitchcock and his team had to turn to other coils. Alma and Joan then devised a new ending, but the variations were so numerous, so we did not know very well what story was being told. A decision was finally made: the supçons Fontaine were based on his own neurosis, so that Grant was guilty of levity and indiscretion against the taxman.
... Yet to the surprise of everyone, the audience liked the movie, although critics were divided on the end. "
From PP 267-268Donald Spoto, Real Life of Alfred Hitchcock, Ramsay Pocket Theater, 1994 (1983), 615 p.
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