Home video and soundtrack
- Originally made by RKO, film’s copyrights are now scattered worldwide
- Its many different standard definition transfers range from poor to superb
- Gaudy horror: The Master of Suspense’s only movie to be officially colorized
- Also his first to have its original mono soundtrack remixed into 5.1 surround
- Thankfully, there are three remastered and restored HD transfers to choose from
- Original tracks and new suites of iconic composer Franz Waxman’s Oscar-nominated score
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Suspicion: Writing on a Classic, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2: Home video and soundtrack
Married to a murderer? Cary Grant takes Joan Fontaine for a spin.
Contents
- Home video
- Soundtrack
- Related articles
Preserved transfers
French Éditions Montparnasse reissue DVD
As part of the RKO library, the rights to Suspicion are now split between different territories but though other labels are able to release many of those films, that doesn’t give them access to the original negatives and other pre-print materials archived in the States. Therefore, the earliest standard definition transfers were originally prepared during the VHS era from various good condition but unrestored TV and theatrical prints, and are still the most common overall. Those for Suspicion are a little lacking in detail and slightly cropped all around but serviceable enough, especially on smaller screens, and appear on the releases in this section.
Suspicion was originally due to be released on CED in 1981 but was cancelled, so its earliest quality home video release was the 1989 US Image LaserDisc, remastered and reissued six years later. Each had extensive sleeve notes, republished here and here. Also in 1989, the film was colorized – the only Hitchcock to be so – in standard definition but that version, whose gaudy palette hugely detracts from its moody, noirish visuals, has never been officially released on home video.
The UK, Spanish and Scandinavian discs set the standard here, looking ok but quite unexceptional, but note the Spanish’s English audio drops out briefly and is replaced by the dub. Their sole shared extra is a second transfer of the film sporting the 1989 colorization by American Film Technologies for Turner Entertainment. Unlisted on the UK and Spanish, it’s also dubbed on the latter. Based on a pretty poor theatrical print, it had a standard definition workflow and was mastered to NTSC videotape. It’s badly zoomed-in, blurry and totally unwatchable, with its gaudy, primary palette bleeding everywhere. The icing on the rotten cake is that it’s been mastered directly from NTSC-PAL, with all the added visual deficiencies that brings.
I’ve nothing against colorization in principle but this doesn’t even suffice for briefly sampling as a curio. In fact, it’s the kind of primitive mess that forever tarnished colorization with a bad name, despite it being poles apart from more recent, frequently excellent results, which can be barely distinguishable from films shot on period colour stock.
- US: Image LD (1989) LDDb
- UK: Universal DVD (2003, reissued 2007), also in 17-DVD H Collection, 17-DVD/19-film and 18-DVD/21-film Cary Grant: The Movie Collection
- Italy: Sony DVD (2005), also promoed w/Ciak and Edicola Amica mags in 5-DVD and 20-DVD CG Collections
The Italian is bare, except for its optional 1945 post-war release dub, while the Portuguese DVD, strangely, carries the ubiquitous “Hitchcock: The Early Years” featurette (1999, 24:34), despite it being mainly concerned with his ITV-owned British films. Lastly, the much-reissued German disc, with many more obscure releases I didn’t bother including here, has a transfer on a par with the UK but unfortunately it’s of a localised print, with translated substitutions of all onscreen text. It also has an optional 1965 dub recorded for the first TV broadcast; its first 1946 dub was for the post-war theatrical release (Illustrierte Film-Bühne Nr. 1). On the plus side, this DVD has the original trailer and one substantial extra: a 1988 documentary, Cary Grant: The Leading Man.
The first French DVD has some decent, unique extras and is beautifully packaged in a box with an illustrated booklet in French. There’s an analysis of the film’s ending (10min) and an interview with Hitch’s daughter Patricia (7min), both in English. Also present is a lengthier analysis in French courtesy of bilingual American author and critic Bill Krohn (24min), who is responsible for numerous Hitch books, essays and audio commentaries in both languages. However, the big caveat here is the film itself: the transfer is perhaps the worst of this batch, being dark, grimy and vertically stretched.
- Germany: Studiocanal DVD/alt (2002, Digipaks 2008, 2012), also in 2-DVD w/That Touch of Mink (1962), 6-DVD CG Collection and 6-DVD/9-film AH: Master of Suspense
- France: Éditions Montparnasse boxed DVD (2001, reissued 2005: Fnac), also in 5-DVD Coffret CG
- Éditions Montparnasse DVD (2003), also in 5-DVD RKO Polar, Les Incontournables de la RKO and 25-DVD Il était une fois, la RKO
Just as bad, it also has a horribly done 5.1 surround remix as its default audio track, though thankfully it’s the only release of this particular film to suffer the indignity. Unfortunately, it’s the majority of releases of various other Hitch films – Murder!, Rich and Strange, Lifeboat, Rope, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho – that are similarly afflicted. An optional 2.0 mono track is included but it’s unconfirmed whether or not it’s the original or, as has been the case with several of the foregoing films, simply a fold-down of the remix. The second French DVD’s remastered transfer gets back up to speed with the rest and its default track is original English mono with an optional 1946 dub from the film’s belated post-war release. However, its only extra is a two-minute intro – in French, natch.
- Spain: Manga DVD (2000, reissued 2004, Digibook 2013), also in 5-DVD CG and JF, 6-DVD AH and 8-DVD CG sets
- Vértice Cine Digibook DVD (2018)
- Scandinavia: Studio S DVD (2013)
- Portugal: Clássicos Público DVD/alt (2004) info – promo
- Japan: IVC DVD (1999, reissued 2004, 2013), also in 2-DVD w/Mr. & Mrs. Smith and 19-DVD AH: Meister of Suspense
Bootlegs: Brazil (Classicline BD-R), Chile (Cinematekka/box/box), Italy (Quadrifoglio BD-R, Sinister Film), Korea (Cine Korea, Cleo Entertainment), Spain (Resen BD-R), Taiwan (Bit Wel).
Lobster Films transfer
Japan BD
- Japan: IVC BD (2016, reissued 2019) and DVD (2019)
- Brazil: Versátil 3-DVD/7-film O Cinema de H, Vol. 2/alt (2019) info
Though it has light speckling throughout, especially over the opening credits, Lobster’s HD transfer is clean overall with lots of healthy grain but a little soft and lacking in detail, and generally darker than most of the others. Don’t get me wrong, it trounces everything above but for the foreseeable future it’s only the equal second best way to enjoy Suspicion at home. On the Japanese disc at least, it’s minimally cropped and displays the frame’s rounded corners in most shots. Visible corners are generally considered undesirable and the result of inaccurate matting or projection but I like the effect a lot and wish we saw it more often. Apart from optional Japanese subs, the region 0 Japanese BD is completely barebones but does come with an 18″ x 11″ reproduction poster. The Brazilian set from class outfit Versátil has 145 minutes of extras, an undetermined number of which pertain to the film.
Warner Bros. transfers
Mexican DVD (rear)
Finally, we come to Warner’s transfers, the first of which is a beautiful remaster of pre-print elements that positively sparkles on DVD and HD streams, the latter equalling the darker Lobster transfer, and is simply miles ahead of all the rest.
- Prime Video HD | iTunes
- US: DVD (2004)
- 2/4-DVD/4-film TCM Greatest Classic Films: Hitchcock Thrillers (2009)*
- France: only in box sets
- Mexico: DVD (2019)
- Brazil: DVD (2006)
*Initially two flipper discs, reissued as four singles
However, both are easily surpassed by Warner’s visually well-nigh flawless, BD-exclusive digital restoration. Unfortunately though, both Warner transfers use the same audio track which has room for improvement. The exact same region 0 BD has been issued in the US, UK, France and Spain with sub and dub options for all three languages. Most come in a plain keep case but the UK edition adds a slipcase with four art cards and a reproduction poster.
Extras on both formats are the “Before the Fact: Suspicious Hitchcock” featurette (21:35) and unrestored original theatrical trailer (1:40). Of course, the missing original ending, seamlessly branched, would be the ultimate bonus. Sigh. All respective extras are carried over on the US 2-DVD/4-film TCM set. The remastered but unrestored HD transfer is also found on the DCP from Park Circus and streaming services in some countries but it’s difficult to know exactly which for certain. That’s the advantage of physical media: with a little research you always know exactly what you’re getting.
UK BD
Screenshots
The screenshots below, in addition to those at the Hitchcock Zone, Caps-a-holic and DVDClassik, give an excellent indication of the variance in transfers.
DVD | BD
- Carriage: US, UK, UK col, De | US, Jpn
- Invite: US, UK, UK col, De | US, Jpn
- House: US, UK, UK col, De | US, Jpn
- Smoking: US, UK, UK col, De | US, Jpn
BD
Just the ticket: Warner Bros. BD
Soundtrack
For his sterling efforts on this film, composer Franz Waxman received his fourth of twelve Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score, following that for Rebecca. It was also his second of four collaborations with Hitch, preceding The Paradine Case and Rear Window. Sullivan’s Hitchcock’s Music has an excellent and informative chapter on Suspicion’s score, handily reprinted in its entirety for free.
- Hitchcock’s Music (2006) – Jack Sullivan | interview, podcast, video | review/#2/#3/#4
- Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood (2018) – Nathan Platte | book site, review
Suspicion’s original score recordings were played by the RKO Studio Orchestra conducted by Waxman himself and a portion was even recycled for Spellbound, which was ostensibly composed by Miklós Rózsa. Sadly, however, pickings are slim when it comes to the surviving cues. All eight of them (18:00) are collected on just one rare, deleted 4-CD Waxman compilation; congrats if you can score a cheap copy. A short suite (4:29) commencing with the Main Title is also available on a few MP3-only compilations.
- Intrada 4-CD Captains Courageous: The Franz Waxman Collection (2017) info
- Disques Cinémusique MP3 Best Joan Fontaine/Cary Grant/Franz Waxman Movie Themes and Best Film-Noir Music of the 1940
Lastly, for completeness’ sake, the Main Title (00:51) also appears on a great compilation licensed from the Museum of Modern Art that features much rare Hitchcock music, and on one other, more extensive, 2-CD set.
- Museum Music 23-tr CD AH: Music from His Films (1999)
- Elusive Sounds 20-tr MP3 AH: Memorable Music from His Films (2012)
- Milan 2-CD–alt/MP3 AH and His Music (2013)
An adapted suite recorded in 1985 has appeared on at least half a dozen LPs and CDs, not all of them kosher. They almost all have different sleeve titles but authentic, Hitch-themed copies all have just four tracks apiece. An excellent, full-bodied 1993 recording of the “Prelude/Sunday Morning” cues has appeared on various Silva Screen collections but a Hitchcock double album is the most comprehensive.
- Varèse Sarabande LP/CD–alt/MP3 Music from Four AH Films (1985) Utah Symphony Orchestra cond. Charles Ketcham (12:01)
- Silva Screen 2-CD/MP3 Psycho: The Essential AH (1999) City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Paul Bateman (4:40)
- DFPM MP3/CD-alt. A Tribute to Hitchcock Movie Themes (2003) Hit Crew Masters (2:29)
Franz Waxman, having produced a masterly score for Rebecca in 1940, went on in 1941 to compose Suspicion, Hitchcock’s second “English” picture (though it was made in Hollywood, the actors, the atmosphere and the novel on which it is based were all English). Joan Fontaine plays a woman who, upon realizing that she has a husband who is a playboy, a spendthrift and a liar, begins to suspect him also of wanting to murder her—though subsequent events prove her to be wrong. In Sunday Morning, Cary Grant begins to court Fontaine; in The Chairs are Back, Grant, having sold some valuable antique chairs in order to bet on the races, buys them back (having won).
In Melbeck’s Office, Fontaine learns that Grant is unemployed and in trouble; Looking for Johnnie depicts Fontaine’s anxiety that Grant is bent on murdering his friend (Nigel Bruce). Too Fast is the famous scene in which Grant takes Fontaine on a car-ride. She thinks he is trying to kill her, but he is merely driving fast and enjoying it. Waxman works within the late Romantic framework which was the stylistic norm in Hollywood at that time; yet because he was a composer and musician of distinction, highly intelligent and selflessly devoted to his work, he avoids cliché and supplies music which can always be listened to for its intrinsic qualities of invention (which can by no means be said of all film music). – Christopher Palmer, Music from Four Hitchcock Films (1985)
Music from Four Alfred Hitchcock Films (1985)
Suspicion: Writing on a Classic, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2: Home video and soundtrack
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
