Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Thornton Wilder (screenplay) &
Sally Benson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

16 August 1943 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A Blast of DRAMATIC Dynamite exploded right before your eyes!

Plot:

A young woman discovers her visiting "Uncle Charlie" may not be the man he seems to be.

Plot Keywords:

Widow | Suspect | California | Visit | Detective

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Thur. July 23

8:45 AM

TCM

Cast

Teresa Wright	...	Charlotte 'Charlie' Newton
Joseph Cotten	...	Uncle Charlie Oakley
Macdonald Carey	...	Jack Graham
Henry Travers	...	Joseph Newton
Patricia Collinge	...	Emma Newton
Hume Cronyn	...	Herbie Hawkins
Wallace Ford	...	Fred Saunders
Edna May Wonacott	...	Ann Newton
Charles Bates	...	Roger Newton
Irving Bacon	...	Station Master
Clarence Muse	...	Pullman Porter
Janet Shaw	...	Waitress Louise Finch
Estelle Jewell	...	Catherine

Also Known As:

Shadow of Doubt (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Spain:13 | South Korea:15 (2004) | Brazil:14 | USA:PG (re-rating) (1984) | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 | Ireland:PG | Peru:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #9011) (original rating) | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

904 McDonald Avenue, Santa Rosa, California, USA

Company:

Skirball Productions

Trivia:

Hitchcock wanted William Powell to play Uncle Charlie, but MGM refused to lend the actor for the film. So the role went to Joseph Cotten.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Uncle Charlie leaves his room, the two men outside follow him. A shot from above shows them with very short shadows, showing that is around noon. They separate for a short while and when they meet, their shadows are much longer, though not enough time has passed for it to be that much later.

Quotes:

Emma Newton: Don't whisper. When you whisper, anyone could hear you a block away.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Stepfather (1987)

Soundtrack:

Merry Widow Waltz

Quiet, remarkable thriller

Top-drawer Hitchcock. It's got everything you'd expect from the director - although he's sparing with his usual tropes of tension-building. The story is strong enough without it.

From the start there's something different about this film, something that one only really encounters in Psycho. Following the ballroom titles (David Lynch cannot possibly have begun Mulholland Drive unaware of this tiny, recurring set piece) we meet the first protagonist Charlie (Joseph Cotten). He's in a state closer to that of Camus' disengaged fumeur Meursault than any other conventional leading man. The rest of the film pans out in this ambiguous way. Whomsoever Charlie meets or has to engage with, his manner is wretchedly bipolar - either violent or ebullient. His is the world-wearied end of the family that he goes to visit. This much steadier, morally ring-fenced world has it's own version of Uncle Charlie in the eldest daughter by the same name. Teresa Wright (a dead ringer for Ellen Page) has all his sensitivity but none of his front-line experience of life. The film charts her awakening.

A brilliant, adult and humorous film I found myself laughing out loud and close to tears - the unsullied joy of the family at the opening is disarmingly unaffected. It's also one of the most sexually electric films I've seen in a very long time. 8/10