Rent Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

A Classic . . . Without a Doubt - Shadow of a Doubt review by CP Customer

Charlie is bored. Nothing much happens in her small town. Then Uncle Charlie arrives. Suddenly life isn’t so bad. But someone should have cautioned her to ‘be careful what you wish for’. Niece and uncle, heroine and villain, are linked by name and blood. And thus are their mutual fates entwined.

American Gothic. - Shadow of a Doubt review by Steve

Boosted by decent budgets, Alfred Hitchcock's early Hollywood films are objects of polished beauty. The editing acquires a poetic beat, the camera is liberated and penetrating, the perspectives are striking and persuasive but unpretentious. This is a chilling suspense thriller, with a touch of film noir. It was the director's favourite of his own work.

 It's American gothic, based on a real life serial killer and co-written by Thornton Wilder, the laureate of small town America. It is one of those thrillers where some terrible wickedness is visited on an idealised, artless backwater.  This provincial innocence is epitomised by Hume Cronyn and Henry Travers' comic double act as a pair of bickering true crime enthusiasts.

The danger comes from the more sophisticated serial killer (Joseph Cotten) who calls on the family of his sister. He establishes a bond with his teenage niece (Theresa Wright), but brings the horror of the world in his trail.  There's a superb scene at the dinner table when the murderer seeks to dispossess the girl's naivety with a bitter, cruel monologue.

Uncle Charlie wallows in the dark side. He takes her to a lowlife bar where they are served by a careworn waitress (Janet Shaw) who once was Wright's classmate. She is already trapped in a life of poverty, in contrast with the sheltered privilege of the niece's family. It's a brief, empathetic insight into human suffering, of a kind we don't necessarily go to Hitchcock for. 

Hitchcock's finest - Shadow of a Doubt review by JD

Hitchcock's daughter says in the bonus feature that this was his favourite film. It is one of his first in America. I don't think it is better than his more famous films (Psycho, Birds and Rear window) and I was not taken with the sudden switch from adoration to rejection of a niece for her uncle. Not well done and not elegent. An avarage 1943 B&W film.