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Rating:  - Lesser Known, Must See
Shadow of a Doubt is one of the best, most suspenseful releases in the Hitchcock canon. It's not as celebrated as other masterpieces such as Rear Window (Collector's Edition), Vertigo (Collector's Edition), and Psycho (Collector's Edition) but it is just as incredible.
The movie features Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane) and Teresa Wright (The Best Years of Our Lives) as Charlie, an uncle and daughter sharing the same name.
After Charlie comes to visit, the family finds out there's a serial killer on the loose, and Young Charlie starts to wonder if her Uncle could be the killer.
The DVD features a making of featurette and a few other things. But the big draw will be the film itself. One you can watch over and over and over again.
Must Have.
Rating: - Do You Believe a Stranger About Your Relative?
Things have gotten boring and routine in the Newton family, and Young Charlie (Teresa Wright) especially is feeling the boredom. So she decides to wire her favorite uncle to come for a visit. As it happens, Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is already planning a visit.
While Young Charlie is excited to see her namesake again, she can't help but notice that he is acting strangely. He's especially skittish around two men who arrive at the Newton house claiming to be conducting a survey. These men tell Young Charlie a strange tale about her uncle. Could it be true? Is so, what should she do?
I really have a hard time watching old movies because I often find them dull and slow. This one started out that way with the set up taking more time then I would have liked. This is especially true since I already knew where the story was going. Once it got there, however, things really heated up. I was watching the time, but only to figure out how much longer before I'd know how it all turned out. This isn't to say the second half was perfect. It includes a romantic sub-plot that, while important to the plot, feels forced on the story. This isn't the fault of the actors, all of whom do a great job bringing the story to life.
This movie is one of Hitchcock's lesser known efforts, and it's a shame. If you are looking for a good suspenseful movie, this one will certainly fit the bill.
Rating:  - Hitchcock's Personal Favorite
1943's SHADOW OF A DOUBT, written by Thornton Wilder, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten, was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite amongst his own films, and is widely considered his best film, as well as Teresa Wright's finest performance.
As the film opens, we meet the debonair Charles Oakley (Cotten). Oakley is seen lying atop his bed, smoking and pensively staring up at the ceiling, trying to come to some sort of decision. The atmosphere in the room is suffused with unease. The skyline outside the window is Newark, New Jersey.
We then cut to Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Wright), who likewise is lying atop her bed and staring thoughtfully up at the ceiling. The atmosphere is suffused with dissatisfaction. The town outside the window is Santa Rosa, California.
Young Charlie and Old Charlie are niece and uncle, and share an almost psychic bond. Young Charlie is chafing at the ordinariness of life in her small town. Old Charlie is chafing at a troubling and unusual situation in his life. Young Charlie decides to spice things up by inviting her uncle, a world traveler, to Santa Rosa, and sends him a telegram. Old Charlie decides to take up a more bland and mundane lifestyle and sends his niece a telegram telling her he will be arriving in Santa Rosa very shortly. Thus do innocence and worldliness collide.
When Old Charlie arrives, the family, especially Young Charlie, is ecstatic, but as the story slowly, deliberately, unfolds, it becomes clear that Old Charlie is hiding a dark secret. The mystery deepens when MacDonald Carey comes to town, showing an exaggerated interest in the Newton family. As it turns out, Charles Oakley certainly is hiding something, a something his adoring niece quickly discovers. Although she swears to keep his secret, Old Charlie prefers not to take any chances, and his niece and namesake soon begins to suffer a series of potentially deadly accidents. One of these accidents finally has results.
Cotten and Wright play off each other well as the close-bonded Charlies. Cotten is utterly contemptuous of Wright's innocence. She at first wishes she could shed her small-town ingenuousness, but then begins to realize how central it is to her conception of the good life. Cotten was known for his "bad guys," while the Academy Award-winning Wright is remembered as a serious actress devoted to playing only meaningful female roles in the sexist 1940s (her studio contract had a rider refusing 'cheesecake').
The Twenty-Something Wright is at the peak of her powers and reaches her highest standards in SHADOW OF A DOUBT.
Hitch himself appears as a card-playing passenger on a train, and the film is also notable as Hume Cronyn's film debut as a lighthearted neighbor who enjoys trading ideas on how to commit murder with Young Charlie's otherwise button-down Dad.
The pacing is a bit slow for a 200___ audience, but this moderately noir film is certainly worth enjoying.
Rating:  - Worthless!
I found the acting, writing, directing, music, and story as bad as bad can get. And that contrived, convenient ending--gads! Don't be suckered in by the name Hitchcock--which has much more glitter in it than real gold. Everything was right in your face--there wasn't the slightest bit of subtlty or subtext in the acting or writing. From the first few minutes on I couldn't believe that the story characters were real people--the acting was so bad--the actors were not feeling themselves as actual characters but were merely mouthing lines in a sterotypical fashion rather than as such characters would really feel and speak.
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS OVERRATED MOVIE--I TRASHED MINE RIGHT AFTER LAST FRAME; I WOULDN'T EVEN SELL IT OR GIVE IT AWAY!
Rating: - Hitchcocks favourite movie
This 1943 thriller from the master of suspense features Joseph Cotton as 'Uncle Charlie' and Teresa Wright as 'Young Charlie'. Cotten having made 'The Magnicent Ambersons' and 'Citizen Kane' with Orsen Welles in the previous two years was early in his career (Shadow of a Doubt was only his 5th film) proving to be a versatile and subtle actor.
Arriving to visit his family in California, Uncle Charlie is very popular with all the family, especially 'Young Charlie'. Hitchcock of course is very clever and allows Joseph Cotten to drop a few hints of his posible sinister side. But maybe its a double bluff from the master of suspense. There are many trademark Hitchcock moments, a few lovely set pieces. In fact early in the film he uses a shot that would be recreated in Psycho 18 years later.
The script is very good and the cast matches it most of the time with classy acting. Just occasionally I felt that the acting was a little wooden. I couldn't tell you where it happened, which is good because this means I'll have to watch the film again. The DVD has an interesting documentary about the making of the film with some of the surviving members of the cast.
For me this wasn't as good as 'North By Northwest', Psycho, Rear Window or 'Strangers on a Train' but it is a very good film, and one that I have only seen once. I am sure that with repeated viewings it will improve each time and regardless of my opinion if Alfred Hitchcock liked above of all his other films it must be worth getting.
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