A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 5 wins & 2 nominations total
Cedric Hardwicke
- General McLaidlaw
- (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
May Whitty
- Mrs. McLaidlaw
- (as Dame May Whitty)
Billy Bevan
- Ticket Taker
- (uncredited)
Faith Brook
- Alice Barham
- (uncredited)
Violet Campbell
- Mrs. Barham
- (uncredited)
Leonard Carey
- Burton
- (uncredited)
David Clyde
- Trunk Man
- (uncredited)
Clyde Cook
- Photographer
- (uncredited)
Alec Craig
- Hogarth Club Desk Clerk
- (uncredited)
Carol Curtis-Brown
- Jessie Barham
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn interviews, Sir Alfred Hitchcock said that an RKO executive ordered that all scenes in which Cary Grant appeared menacing be excised from the movie. When the cutting was completed, the movie ran only fifty-five minutes. The scenes were later restored, Hitchcock said, because he shot each piece of film so that there was only one way to edit them together properly. This is a technique called 'in-camera editing', a trick Hitchcock had already employed a year before during filming of Rebecca (1940), to prevent producer David O. Selznick from interfering with the final cut of the movie.
- GoofsAlthough Johnnie admits to Lina, after taking an extremely expensive house, that he is broke, they continue to live there, employ servants, and run a very expensive car. No explanation is made of how they can afford this. The job Johnnie later gets, in an estate manager's office, would pay only a small part of these running costs.
- Alternate versionsA colorized version of the film was produced. It has been available on VHS (Turner Home Entertainment) in NTSC format for a while. A dual black & white/colorized Region-2 DVD version has been released in 2003 by Universal in PAL format.
- ConnectionsEdited into Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
- SoundtracksWiener Blut, op. 354 (Viennese Blood)
(1871) (uncredited)
Written by Johann Strauss
Arranged by Roy Webb
Featured review
Cary Grant plays a real creep in this film, a guy who sponges off others and who is allergic to telling the truth. He marries a "spinster" (Joan Fontaine, uh...), the daughter of a wealthy man, but seems to have darker ambitions than simple gold digging. Hitchcock is masterful in building up our dislike of Grant's character over the film, and despite it being a quiet kind of film, he maximizes suspense in several scenes. I loved the little touches like the dinner party with the murder mystery author and her family, and the affable friend "Beaky" played by Nigel Bruce. Unfortunately the ending is just awful, which is a real shame since there were several other possibilities. Half a tick off for that, and frankly the deduction could have been more.
Favorite lines: Johnny (Grant): What do you think of me by contrast to your horse? Lina (Fontaine): If I ever got the bit between your teeth, I'd have no trouble in handling you at all.
And as a side note, never marry a man who:
...even if he is Cary Grant.
Favorite lines: Johnny (Grant): What do you think of me by contrast to your horse? Lina (Fontaine): If I ever got the bit between your teeth, I'd have no trouble in handling you at all.
And as a side note, never marry a man who:
- Sneaks into first-class and when caught, mooches off you (a stranger) to pay for him
- Constantly calls you monkeyface
- Touches your ucipital mapilary (I confess I just wanted to say "ucipital mapillary")
- Brags about having been with 73+ women
- You don't know diddly about, e.g. what his plans for making a living are
- Practically chokes on the idea of getting a job, and wants to borrow from others instead
- You catch lying to you more than once
- Sells your prized possessions to go gambling (I mean those family heirloom chairs, c'mon)
- Humiliates you in condescending ways with his buddy
- Has an excessive interest in your father's wealth
- Also has an excessive interest in non-traceable poisons
...even if he is Cary Grant.
- gbill-74877
- Feb 15, 2019
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Before the Fact
- Filming locations
- Big Sur, California, USA("Tangmere-by-the-sea" coast sea-cliff scenes)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,103,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $19
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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