ABOVE SUSPICION (1943) **1/2 The bizarre pairing of Fred MacMurray
and Joan Crawford as an Oxford professor and his newlywed wife,
turning an easy spy trick during their honeymoon. His lines don't
allow him to play to his strength-blubbering indignantly, but he does
become pompous enough after the first half hour to tell an assassin
how to be a spy properly. Truth of the matter is that he's right, all
of the other spies are so transparent that it's a wonder they
survived even the opening credits with their cover intact. MacMurray
is strong and clever, he, of course, has to eventually save poor
defenseless Crawford. Oh, ok sure. It was a patriarchal culture then,
they thought they had to write 'em like that. There's a fair amount
of backhanded propaganda (the Germans don't have any nice customs,
they're rude, etc.) highlighted by Fred's observation that the main
thing he doesn't like about Germany is that it has "too many Germans
in it" (the good Professor may or may not be aware that he's actually
in Austria at the time he confesses the observation). It plays slow
building tension with big heads and wide angles, Hitchcockesque
except for the fact that there's not enough plot to pass as Alfred's
work-though there are the typically enormous holes in the plot big
enough to drive a u-boat race through.
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