Above Suspicion

Above Suspicion.

Above Suspicion is a 1943 film based on the novel of the same name by Helen MacInnes.

Cast

Singing cast

• Joan Crawford — Frances Myles
• Fred MacMurray— Richard Myles
• Basil Rathbone — Sig von Aschenhausen
• Bruce Lester - Thornley

Non-singing cast

• Conrad Veidt — Hassert Seidel
• Reginald Owen — Dr. Mespelbrunn
• Felix Bressart - A. Werner
• Johanna Hofer - Frau Kleist

Plot

In the spring of 1939 in England, Oxford University Professor Richard Myles and his new bride Frances decide to honeymoon on the continent. Because they are American tourists and therefore "above suspicion," they find themselves commissioned by the British secret service to find a scientist who has developed a countermeasure against a new Nazi secret weapon, a magnetic sea mine. Without knowing his name, what he looks like, or where to find him, the couple look upon the search as adventurous and cross Europe seeking clues from clandestine contacts.

In Paris, Frances is given a hat decorated with a rose as a signal for their first contact, who silently instructs them to go to a café in Montmartre, where an unseen contact plants a tourist guidebook to southern Germany in Richard's coat. The couple notice a series of ink dots on a map in the book that linked together form a musical staff with the opening notes to the song "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose," which they deduce is their password. Three pinpricks in the same map direct them to the book's seller, A. Werner, in Salzburg. Werner informs them they must go to a certain museum where a man named Count Hassert Seidel, calling himself a "guide," suggests that they check into a guest house run by Frau Kleist. She provides them with a book on Franz Liszt with annotations that reveal their next stop should be the village of Pertisau in the Tyrol, where they should inquire about a doctor who collects chess pieces.

Some days later, the couple intends to go to a performance of Liszt but are advised against it by Thornley, a fellow houseguest and recent graduate of Oxford. They go anyway; and, during the same loud passage that Thornley had been practicing earlier in the night, a Nazi Colonel, the Commandant of Dachau concentration camp, is shot and killed. Officials insist on questioning the entire audience, but Richard and Frances are rescued by Gestapo Chief Count Sig von Aschenhausen, a former Oxford schoolmate of Richard's. Thornley later admits to Richard that he killed the Nazi as revenge for torturing and killing his Austrian fiancée. He also warns Richard that Thornley and his fiancée had once also been "above suspicion."

Frances and Richard go to the home of the chess collector, Dr. Mespelbrunn; but, while he does not seem to be present, Count von Aschenhausen is. They notice sheet music for "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" on his piano, but Sig does not respond to an identification signal that Richard gives him, and the couple becomes suspicious. They hear thumping noises upstairs and discover that Sig is holding Mespelbrunn prisoner. Mespelbrunn tells them to run and that the Gestapo is coming after them. The couple leaves the house just in time, and Hassert appears to help them free Mespelbrunn, who is the missing scientist "Dr. Smith". All four head for Innsbruck, and Mespelbrunn gives Richard the plans for the countermeasure.

The couple obtain counterfeit passports from an elderly couple named Schultz. Richard and Frances in disguise are to catch the train to Milan at separate stations; but, when the Schultzes are arrested by the Gestapo, the police are on the lookout for them. Frances is detained and questioned by the Gestapo; but Thornley, in Innsbruck as well to catch the same train, is able to find Richard. Richard, Thornley, and Hassert sneak in to where Frances is being held and kill all her captors, including Sig; but Thornley is also killed. After fooling the Nazi border guards, Hassert and the newlyweds finally find freedom in Italy.

Musical numbers

• "The Last Rose of Summer" - Richard
• "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" - Frances and Richard
• "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" - Frances and Richard
• "Oxford University Song" - Richard, Sig and Thornley
• "Who Is Sylvia?" - Richard