This is Cary Grant first turn in a Hitchcock film; here he plays a charming, but loose and reckless gambling type Johnnie Aysgarth, who catches the eye of a young, shy and vulnerable English girl Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine). Over her father General McLaidlaw's (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) objections, he marries him. After the marriage things start to look suspicious. First she finds out that Johnnie has not stopped gambling like he promised. Then, things grow more serious, when Johnnie's friend Beaky (Nigel Bruce) is killed mysteriously. She then begins to think that he might be trying to kill her for her money. Things grow very dark and grave after that. The source material for this come from a novel entitled Before The Fact by Frances Iles, which was the pen name for one Anthony Berkeley. It was adapted for the silver screen by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrion and Alma Reville, Hitchcock's wife. Joan Fontaine's performance in the film was the only Oscar winning performance the Hitchcock wound up directing--which is a dirty shame on the part of the Academy.
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