Shadow of a Doubt

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

Teresa Wright plays Charlie, a small-town high-schooler who enjoys a symbiotic relationship with her favorite uncle, also named Charlie (Joseph Cotten). When young Charlie "wills" that old Charlie pay a visit to her family, her wish comes true. Uncle Charlie is his usual charming self, but he seems a bit secretive and reserved at times. Too, his manner of speaking is curiously unsettling, especially when he brings up the subject of rich widows, whom he characterizes as "swine." When a pair of detectives (MacDonald Carey and Wallace Ford), posing as magazine writers, arrive in town and begin asking questions about Uncle Charlie, young Charlie's curiosity is aroused. Why, for example, has Uncle Charlie torn an article out of the evening newspaper? Rushing to the library, Young Charlie locates the missing item: the headline screams WHO IS THE MERRY WIDOW MURDERER? As the horrified Charlie reads on, the conclusion is inescapable: her beloved Uncle Charlie is a mass murderer, preying upon wealthy old women. And what happens next? Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville (Mrs. Hitchcock) based their screenplay on a story by Gordon McDowell, who in turn was inspired by real-life "Merry Widow Murderer" Earle Leonard Nelson. The casting, from stars to bit players, is impeccable; the best of the batch is Hume Cronyn, making his film debut as a wimpy murder-mystery aficionado. Lensed on location in Santa Rosa, California, The Shadow of a Doubt wasAlfred Hitchcock's favorite film.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/07/2006
UPC:	0025192831324
Original Release:	1943
Rating:	PG
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:48:00
Sales rank:	18,692

Special Features

Closed Caption;Beyond Doubt: The making of Hitchcokc's favorite film; Production drawings by art director Robert Boyle; Production photographs and more!

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Joseph Cotten	Charlie Oakley
Teresa Wright	Charlie
Macdonald Carey	Jack Graham
Hume Cronyn	Herbie Hawkins
Henry Travers	Joseph Newton
Edna May Wonacott	Ann Newton
Wallace Ford	Fred Saunders
Irving Bacon	Station Master
Charles Bates	Roger Newton
Patricia Collinge	Emma Newton
Clarence Muse	Railroad Porter
Janet Shaw	Louise
Estelle Jewell	Girl Friend
Minerva Urecal	Pani Henderson
Isabel Randolph	Pani Green
Earle Dewey	Pan Norton
Eily Malyon	Librarian
Edward Fielding	Doctor on Train
Sarah Edwards	Wife on Train
Vaughan Glaser	Dr. Phillips
Virginia Brissac	Dr. and Mrs. Phillips
Grandon Rhodes	Reverand MacCurdy
Ruth Lee	Mrs. MacCurdy
Edwin Stanley	Pan Green
Frances Carson	Pani Poetter
Byron Shores	Detektyw
John McGuire	Detektyw
Constance Purdy	Pani Martin
Shirley Mills	Young Girl
Shirley Knight	Actor
William Lanteau	Actor
Tippi Hedren	Actor
Mark Harmon	Actor
Charley Bates	Roger Newton
Dimitri Tiomkin	Composer

Technical Credits

Alma Reville

Thornton Wilder

Sally Benson

Joan Harrison

Gordon McDonell

Alfred Hitchcock	Director
Alma Reville	Screenwriter
Thornton Wilder	Screenwriter
Sally Benson	Screenwriter
Jack H. Skirball	Producer
Joan Harrison	Screenwriter
Gordon McDonell	Screenwriter
Bernard Brown	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

One of Hitchcock's best films of the 1940s, Shadow of a Doubt is both a fascinating psychological case study and a scathing portrait of the American middle-class family. The film is often considered one of Hitchcock's darkest, and the director himself reportedly claimed it as his favorite. Cynicism underlies all the proceedings, from young Charlie's "miraculous" summoning of her Uncle Charlie (tantamount to calling up the Angel of Death) to Uncle Charlie's chilling exposition of his view on life, relayed to his niece: "You live in a dream. Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you ripped the fronts off houses you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it?" This is one of Hitchcock's most unsettling films, preoccupied like many other Hitchcock works with good vs. evil, and the capacity for evil that lurks within us all; and it is also one of his most stylized, gorgeously shot by Joseph Valentine. Featuring stellar performances from Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten (as well as Hume Cronyn's comical debut as a dim-witted, self-appointed murder "expert"), Shadow of a Doubt is a memorable experience as both a major Hitchcock film and an enduringly creepy commentary on human nature.