Shadow of a Doubt

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Shadow of a Doubt

original film poster
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Jack H. Skirball
Written by Story:
Thornton Wilder
Screenplay:
Thornton Wilder
Sally Benson
Alma Reville
Starring Teresa Wright
Joseph Cotten
Macdonald Carey
Patricia Collinge
Henry Travers
Music by Original music:
Dimitri Tiomkin
Non original music:
Franz Lehár
Cinematography Joseph A. Valentine
Editing by Milton Carruth
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) January 12, 1943 (USA)
Running time 108 min.
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile
For other uses, see Shadow of a Doubt (disambiguation).

Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson and Alma Reville. It stars Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Patricia Collinge, Henry Travers and Hume Cronyn. This film is purported to be Hitchcock's personal favorite of all his movies.[1] David Mamet in his book Bambi vs. Godzilla also names it Hitchcock's finest film.

Shadow of a Doubt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story, Gordon McDonell. In 1991, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

A bored young woman living in Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Wright), is frustrated because nothing seems to be happening in her life. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley (Cotten), is arriving for a visit.

Two men show up pretending to be photographers and journalists working on a national survey of the average American family. One of them speaks to Charlie privately, identifying himself as Detective Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey) and telling her that her uncle is one of two men suspected of being a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer", with a modus operandi of seducing, murdering and robbing wealthy widows. Charlie refuses to believe it at first, but she cannot help noticing her uncle acting suspiciously on several occasions. Particularly chilling is a family dinner conversation during which Uncle Charlie reveals his hatred of rich widows, comparing them to fat animals who deserve to be killed.

Young Charlie's suspicions soon become apparent to Uncle Charlie. He confronts her and admits that he is indeed the man the police are after. He begs her for help; she reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon, to avoid any scandal in town that would ruin her family, especially her mother who dearly loves her uncle.

Then the news comes that the other suspect was killed fleeing from the police, and is assumed guilty. Graham leaves, and Uncle Charlie is relieved at first, until he remembers that his niece knows his secret. Soon, the young woman has a couple of potentially fatal accidents, falling down some steep stairs and being trapped in a locked garage with a car spewing exhaust fumes.

Uncle Charlie then announces that he is leaving by train for San Francisco. He forces his namesake to stay on board, trying to murder her by throwing her off. Instead, in the ensuing struggle, she pushes him away from her and he falls into the path of an oncoming train. At his funeral, Jack comes back to comfort Charlie; she tells him she had withheld some information about her uncle from him which would have confirmed him as the murderer, but he already knows and accepts it, realizing her difficult situation.

[edit] Production Notes

Shadow of a Doubt was both filmed and set in Santa Rosa, California, which was portrayed as a paragon of a supposedly peaceful, small, pre-War American city. Since Thornton Wilder wrote the original script, the story echoed his play Our Town, while adding some Hitchcock touches to a small-town American setting. In Patrick McGilligan's biography of Hitchcock he said the film was perhaps the most American film that Hitchcock had made up to that time.

The opening scenes take place in the Central Ward of Newark, New Jersey. The city skyline and landmarks such as the Pulaski Skyway are featured in the opening shot.

Charlie's family home is on McDonald Avenue in Santa Rosa, California. MacDonald Avenue, is named for the McDonald Mansion situated on several acres on the street. The McDonald Mansion was later used by Walt Disney for the movie Pollyanna. The stone train station in the film was built in 1904 and is one of the few commercial buildings in downtown Santa Rosa to survive the earthquake of April 18, 1906. Built for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, it is currently a visitor center. Some of the buildings in downtown Santa Rosa that are seen in the film were damaged or destroyed by earthquakes in 1969; much of the area was cleared of debris and largely rebuilt. The library was a Carnegie Library which was demolished as a result of the 1969 earthquakes after which it was considered structurally unsafe. Some of the hand carved stones from the demolished library make up a small stone fence encircling the Comstock Mansion on Mendocino Avenue. The old City Hall, located in the center of town, was built of marble and also demolished after the earthquakes because it was also thought to be structurally unsafe. When it was demolished, the demolition company that contracted the job went bankrupt trying to knock the building down.

Although the film was scored by Dimitri Tiomkin, in his first collaboration with Hitchcock, the famous Merry Widow Waltz of Franz Lehár is heard repeatedly as a leitmotif for Uncle Charlie, along with images of people waltzing.

Hitchcock has stated that Shadow of a Doubt is his personal favorite film.

[edit] Remakes

The film was adapted for Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater aired on January 3, 1944 with its original leading actress and William Powell as Uncle Charlie. (Patrick McGilligan said Hitchcock had originally wanted Powell to play Uncle Charlie, but MGM refused to lend the actor for the film.) In 1950, Shadow of a Doubt was featured as a radio-play on Screen Directors Playhouse. It starred Cary Grant as Uncle Charlie and Betsy Drake as the younger Charlie.[2] Joseph Cotten reprised the role on radio in the Academy Award Theatre production of Shadow of a Doubt which aired Sept. 11, 1946. [3]

The film was remade as Step Down to Terror (1958).

[edit] Cast

  • Alfred Hitchcock cameo: Hitchcock appears on the train to Santa Rosa playing cards with a man and a woman, at around 15 minutes into the film.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dirks, Tim. Shadow of a Doubt (1943). filmsite.org.
  2. ^ Other Cary Grant Radio Appearances. carygrantradio.com.
  3. ^ Old Time Radio (OTR) Drama and Adventure.

[edit] External links

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