Hitchcock’s favorite film, this 1943 feature has Teresa Wright in a fairly typical role and Joseph Cotten in an interesting departure rom his normal persona.
This movie is an excellent example of Hitchock’s high comedy in contrast with the suspense and violence on the surface of his films. As Young Charlie becomes more and more suspicious of her uncle, her family couldn’t seem to get any more mundane. The dinner sequence is an example: as Charlie becomes more and more uneasy about the family remembering the “Merry Widow” waltz, the father keeps blathering about murder.
The visual component of the film has all of the typical Hitchcock touches, though the increaing shadow on the town did get a tad wearisome. This was only Hitch’s second outing with Joseph Valentine. The film does however sport one of the finest shots Hitchock ever composed. As the train rolls into town, billowing smoke from frame left, the young brother stands in a vast open station and stares innocently up as he is slowly covered in the shadow that this train both literally and figuratively brings to the town.
This is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, not least because I’m a major Joseph Cotten fan. I was reminded of it recently while watching The Minus Man, which, while very different from Shadow of a Doubt, was also about a charming and likable serial killer.
I’ll register my vote for this being one of my favorite Hitchcock films, too. I have it on video tape – it might be time to dust it off and watch it again (I’d certainly be better able to comment more specifically with a more recent viewing under my belt).
And, of course, the trademark stairway scene*: Charlie coming down the stairway with the ring on her hand. In addition, Uncle Charlie tried to kill her by sawing a step on a stairway.
*Hitchcock often stages crucial scenes on stairways. I think I first made the connection with this film.
It’s the movie where the number two is a dominant visual theme.
Just as a start: There are two Charleys, there are two cops chasing Uncle Charley, two trains at the finale, the cafe is called the “Two O’Clock Club”… Most scenes happen twice, like the two Charlies each on a bed at the opening. I’m having mind fog and don’t recollect others, but the number two echoes and re-echoes through that film.