Above Suspicion *** (1943, Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt, Basil Rathbone, Reginald Owen) – Classic Movie Review 7805

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1943 jauntily escapist MGM wartime spy thriller Above Suspicion is taken from a Helen MacInnes bestselling novel and stars Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford as Oxford professor Richard Myles and his new wife Frances Myles, who are above suspicion as honeymooners in 1939 Paris, but in fact they are helping the British find a secret agent. The Nazis are soon brought to heel under the might of the Hollywood stars.

Above Suspicion is uneven as drama and cardboard looking as a movie, but the star turns and the script’s good bits carry it along, and there is a fine, on-form support cast and fast-paced direction from Thorpe. MacMurray and Crawford make a very lively duo, while Basil Rathbone is chilling as a Gestapo nasty called Sig von Aschenhausen and Conrad Veidt is most engaging as an underground agent, Hassert Seidel.

The screenplay by Keith Winter, Melville Baker and Patricia Coleman is based on the novel by Helen MacInnes. Robert Planck shoots in black and white. The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is Conrad Veidt’s sole colour movie.

Also in the cast are Reginald Owen, Felix Bressart, Richard Ainley, Ann Shoemaker, Cecil Cunningham, Sara Haden, Steve Geray, Ludwig Stossel, Bruce Lester, Johanna Hofer, Lotta Palfi, Alex Papana, Rex Williams, Hans von Morhart, William Yetter, William Davis, Lisa Golm, Ivan Simpson, Arthur Shields, Henry Glynn, Eily Maylon, Matthew Boulton, Marcelle Corday, Frank Lackteen, Charles de Ravenne, Andre Charlot, Frank Arnold, George Davis, Jack Chefe, Felix Basch, Edit Angold, Lisl Valetti, Paul Weigel, Otto Reichow, Frank Reicher, Peter Seal, Nicholas Vehr, Henry Victor, Egon Brecher and Walter O Stahl.

Sadly, it was Crawford’s last film at her studio MGM after a reign of 17 years.

Tragically, Veidt died of a heart attack at 50 soon after shooting on 3 April 1943. His passions were animals, theatre, cinema, fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golf. He died while playing golf.

Above Suspicion is available on a Warner Bros Archive Collection DVD [Region 1] [US Import].

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7805

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