In what way is Shadow of A Doubt different from all of Hitchcock’s other films? Do you know where he is hidden in the movie? Read on for some cinematic answers.
In an interview shortly before his death in 1980, Alfred Hitchcock stated that Shadow of A Doubt was his personal favorite of all the films he ever made. For this reason, the film stands apart from all the others. Produced in 1943, Gordon McDonell wrote the story and Thornton Wilder this screenplay about a handsome psychopath who preys on rich, unsuspecting women. The dialogue is crisp and real, the acting superb and the camera angles subtly build both the mood and suspense.
As in most of Hitchcock’s films, the master puts in a cameo appearance, but he is not easy to find. I saw the movie several times before I spotted his famous profile flashing on the seat of the speeding train at the movie’s onset that transports Charles Newton away from his misogynist past. Or at least so he hopes.
The stellar cast includes Joseph Cotton, who is excellent as Uncle Charlie, a sinister uncle returning to his family’s small town home. Patricia Collinge plays his unsuspecting sister, who welcomes him back into the family fold with unconditional love and support. Theresa Wright, who bears her uncle’s namesake, is perhaps at first the most taken with the uncle everyone so admires, but as the plot develops, she becomes his number one enemy.
The suspense builds from a myriad of small things: initials on a ring, the fact that he does not want his picture taken, a library newspaper clipping, his secretive nature and occasional outbursts. Still, only his niece seems to suspect the truth. Charles decides that she must die, as much for that as for the fact that she was becoming the kind of woman that he hates.
What are some of YOUR favorite scenes from this classic film noir?