They say, Never miff Mother. Personally, that sounds a trifle obscene to me.
Shadow of Suspicion (1944) has a tension between its plot and its characters. The former is intriguing, while the latter are irritating. A man comes to Chicago, establishes an account and deposits a check at a local bank, to be drawn on a New York bank, giving his name as Adams. Then it’s off to the local branch of Cartell & Co, a diamond broker recently robbed of a magnificent necklace.
He is intent on a $1500 ring (roughly $21,000 today), but the manager of this branch of Cartell notes his local funds are not yet available, and denies the sale. Adams then announces his name is Northrup, and this was a a test. The home office is concerned as there’s another valuable necklace on its way to the branch. The manager, suspicions aroused, suspects a double-cross, and calls the home office to see if there’s really a Northrup there, as he’s never heard of him. But there is a Northrup at the home office.
A yarn-spinning, old dude who comes to the phone, and soon is offering to come to Chicago to help entrap Adams / Northrup, who seems to be up to no good.
The machinations continue, and soon it seems as if only the pretty young secretary, a continual distraction to Adams / Northrup, has nothing to hide. Well, except her irritation with this persistent young man of many names.
The plot, taken on its own, is a lot of fun, if perhaps a trifle superficial. But the characters themselves tend to be an annoyance, in some ways caricatures of who they probably should have been. The plot keeps moving along, and while sometimes I was grinding my teeth, I was just a little too intrigued to not finish watching this admirably short movie (just over an hour).
But perhaps I was just stubborn.
