Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

blanche-2 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.

arbarnes A lot of people seem to deride this film, but I found it quite enjoyable. It was Joan Crawfords last contract film at MGM, and far from walking through the part I personally think she sails along quite breezily and relaxed, which is just right for the character she plays. Basil Rathbone always makes a great, charming villain, and the much underrated Fred MacMurray comes across quite well as the hero. Casting of all supporting parts is excellent, and the MGM production values are faultless. The first half of the film is considerably better than the second as €"things become a bit chaotic and muddled towards the end -but its great to see a Hollywood film where the Germans actually speak German. There are also one or two quite extraordinary tracking shots, especially one in the concert hall, and in fact this whole sequence has an intensity that one wishes the entire film had. Still, if you can swallow the premise of the film and follow the logic of the "trail" you will perhaps be as entertained as I was by this one.

didi-5 Joan Crawford's last film for MGM doesn't exactly showcase her talents, and she soon after moved to Warner Bros. and her Oscar triumph in Mildred Pierce. She was just a well-dressed clothes horse for Metro by the 40s.This particular piece of hokum though teams her with the tiresome Fred MacMurray, Basil Rathbone, and, in his last film, Conrad Veidt. Veidt is as good as ever and his presence certainly lifts the film.It is a tale of intrigue and the fight against Nazism, but is hardly involving. I've seen much better movies on similar lines made before and after this one, and it isn't one I'd be that bothered about seeing again.

kryck "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.