Shadow Of A Doubt is Hitchcock's first undisputed masterpiece. The director, in numerous interviews has claimed it as his personal favorite amongst all the films he made. The film explores Hitchcock's favorite theme of chaos lurking in the background of everyday life. In this case the life of an ordinary small town family circa 1940's Santa Rosa, California.
Theresa Wright plays Charlotte " Charlie" Newton a small town girl bored with the humdrum existence of her family. then news comes that her favorite uncle "Uncle Charlie", her mother's brother, is coming from the east for a visit.
We have already met Uncle Charlie Oakley, played by Joseph Cotten. He is living in a run down tenement in Newark, New Jersey. He is being watched and followed by two men, whom he goes out of his way to avoid.
He arrives in Santa Rosa, to a hearty welcome by everybody, especially his niece Charlie. She loves him dearly, but is puzzled by the way he can sometimes be cruel in word and gesture. Than two men arrive claiming to be journalists doing a survey of an ordinary American family. But it is soon revealed they are detectives on the trail of the Merry Widow murderer and Uncle Charlie is their primary suspect.
At first Charlie refuses to believe it, but slowly she comes to accept the truth about her uncle. Knowing she suspects, Uncle Charlie promises to leave Santa Rosa, but then strange and near lethal accidents begin to befall Charlie.
Shadow Of A Doubt is one of the first films to explore the concept of a serial killer in the context of every day life. A bit of dialogue early in the films tells of an accident Uncle Charlie had when he was six and injured his head. Is it placed there to offer an explanation for Uncle Charlie's future behavior as a psychopath? We never actually see any of the murders. Everything Charles Oakley thinks and feels is communicated through the excellent acting of Joseph Cotten. The details of death and murder are left to Charlie's father (Henry Travers) and his good friend Herb (Hume Croyn in his screen debut) to discuss on the porch each night as they explore their innocent fascination with true crime magazines.
Hitchcock captures everything that is good in small town family life in the same film that explores the nature of evil and the potential for murder in everyone.
At The Movie House rating **** stars
More poster art from Shadow Of A Doubt
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