Un espion a disparu

American honeymooners (Fred MacMurray, Joan Crawford) are recruited by British government to spy on the Nazis just before WW2 starts. They have to contend with Nazi Basil Rathbone and a host of others who may or may not be on their side. Decent wartime thriller with some light comic touches. MacMurray and Crawford both do fine, though it doesn't seem like the part quite fits Joan. This was her last movie for MGM before departing for Warner Bros. Nice support from Rathbone and Conrad Veidt. It's the kind of movie that you feel could have been so much better in the hands of a different director and perhaps different leads. Joan reportedly wanted Alfred Hitchcock to direct. It does seem somewhat up his alley but he certainly would have had the script rewritten significantly. I'm sure it would have been a much better film with Hitch at the helm. As it is, though, it's an agreeable time-passer. I love Fred MacMurray's closing line.

Well, if Joan Crawford didn't know the end was near for her at MGM, she knew it when she was handed "Above Suspicion," based on the novel of the same name by Helen MacInnes. I read the novel years ago and confess I don't remember much of it.

The year is 1939, before war breaks out. Crawford plays a newlywed, and Fred MacMurray her American husband, who teaches at Oxford. The couple are asked by the foreign office to track down someone while honeymooning in Germany, a man who can help the Allies regarding a German secret weapon. This weapon is a magnetic water bomb that is pulled to a ship and explodes. At first, it's fun; then it becomes dangerous.

This is an entertaining film in part thanks to a good cast of Crawford, MacMurray, Basil Rathbone, and Conrad Veidt. There are some suspenseful sequences. There is also some real stuff of spy books and films - special hats, song codes, codes on maps and in books.

"Above Suspicion" doesn't seem very big budget and despite some Bavarian costumes and quaint German towns, it's all Hollywood set. Given the huge films Crawford took part in at MGM, this black and white movie must have seemed like a come-down. It was. Louis B didn't want over the hill actresses - i.e., those over 30. There's nothing special about her part, which could have been done by any MGM stock player. And at 38, for those days, she was a little old to be a bride. Better things were on the horizon for Crawford, though she couldn't have known it at the time.

Worth seeing.

Above Suspicion (1943)

An odd movie even for its time, being clearly anti-Nazi and a bit of an American adventure on behalf of the British, but set in the months before the war began, earlier 1939. Yet it was made and was released in the thick of the war, four years later, well after even the Americans were involved. It must have seemed a bit lightweight at the time, and it certainly is a bit breezy now, too.

Joan Crawford is at her best when life is going wrong, when the screws are applied or when she has to be a tough and independent women. Here she plays a cheerful and rather carefree newlywed. What Crawford character is truly carefree? Well, in this case her husband is perfectly cast, because Fred MacMurray knows what carefree is better than anything. When the Nazi threat becomes violent, things turn out rather okay, at least at first. The only other actor of note is the Nazi figure, played by the guy who plays Sherlock in all those B-Movie Sherlock Holmes films, Basil Rathbone, and you can't quite make him out as the evil menace he needs to be.

Of course, our leading odd couple has been chosen for this mission by some knowing British officials who see the American innocence as a perfect cover for what is actually pretty dangerous stuff. And the movie, despite all these essential weaknesses, is really fun and a bit dramatic and very well made. Yes, it's a good movie, if far from a great one in either importance or effect.

The director, Richard Thorpe, is one of the step-in-when-needed guys with a bunch of B-movies under his belt, and an assortment of mediocre oddballs (a Tarzan movie, the last Thin Man, a Presley movie--Jailhouse Rock--some Westerns, and so on). It might be a miracle this is as workable as it is. The script is fair, but the mood and the setting is terrific. And really, as mismatched as they seem, Crawford and MacMurray are not half bad together. They certainly are trying very hard.

If you like the kind of spy-romance yarns spun out by Hollywood in the 1940s--the kind with tongue-in-cheek dialogue that lets you know you're not supposed to take any of it too seriously--you'll enjoy this amusing, yet suspenseful film in which Conrad Veidt plays a "nice guy" for a change. Honeymooners Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray are asked by British intelligence to do some spying while on their European jaunt. The agreeable pair go along with a plan that has them on the trail of an agent and in and out of dangerous situations as they are pursued by Basil Rathbone, chilling as usual as a Nazi.

Good entertainment with some amusing dialogue and light-hearted performances by Joan and Fred that indicate they should have been teamed more than once. As it is, this is Joan Crawford's last film at Metro after seventeen years with the studio and comes just two years before "Mildred Pierce" at Warners. Good cast and fine production values make it an absorbing treat.

"Above Suspicion(1943)" was the last film Joan Crawford made under her Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract. Crawford had strictly made films for the studio since 1925. She left,because she was dissatisfied with the mundane scripts she was offered.Looking at this film,we can see her point.Here's an espionage thriller that has a great premise and a good cast,but falters midway through.The plot is basically about honeymooners(Crawford and Fred MacMurray)being ask to do spy work in Nazi Germany. They must get information about a secret German mine.Along the way,they encounter colorful characters that lead them to clues.They even witness an assassination of a German leader in an opera house.The first 45 minutes is extremely suspenseful and Crawford and MacMurray have great chemistry together.However,the rest of the film is less than plausible and the ending leaves much to be desired.The problem,though,is with the director,Richard Thorpe.Not one of MGM's best directors,Thrope puts too many unnecessary scenes in the film,that distract from the plot.In addition,he wastes the talent of some great character actors,putting them in one-dimensional roles.Basil Rathbone was great at playing sinister roles.Here he plays a conniving Nazi,but has very little to do.The major miscasting was letting Conrad Veidt play a charming spy.Veidt was marvelous at playing an acid-tongued Nazi officer,most notably in the classic,"Casablanca(1943)." In other hands like Alfred Hitchcock or Fritz Lang,this film could have been first-rate.Crawford wouldn't have a hit movie until "Mildred Pierce(1945)",where she gave perhaps the best performance of her career as a self-sacrificing mother. As it is, the film isn't a bomb,but there are much better spy thrillers out there.I give it 2 1/2 stars out of four.