SHADOW OF A DOUBT
Not Rated

When asked to pick the favorite film he had made, Alfred Hitchcock always said, “Shadow of a Doubt.”

Yet somehow, this movie gets lost amidst the flashier “The Birds,” “To Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest.” Perhaps it is because its cast included Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright instead of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. And unlike Tippi Hedren wandering around “The Birds” with a gash in her forehead, there is no bloodshed. In fact, we get about halfway through the film before we even realize a crime has been committed.

Young Charlotte (Wright), nicknamed Charlie after her favorite uncle (Cotton), says that she and Uncle Charlie are like twins. Hitchcock sets this theme in motion in the opening shots. We see some establishing views of Philadelphia, including exteriors of an apartment building. The camera takes us inside one of the rooms and there, lying on the bed, is Uncle Charlie. Beside him, overflowing from a table onto the floor, is a lot of money. Carrying duality further, Uncle Charlie soon is on the run from two men.

Across the country, in Santa Rosa, Calif., we see the same establishing shots and the camera again takes us into a bedroom. This time it is young Charlie lying on the bed, complaining that her life is dull and nothing exciting ever happens. She wishes that Uncle Charlie would come “and shake us all up,” an instance of being careful what you wish for if ever there were. As it happens, he is on his way.

In one of those cinematic moments that Hitchcock does so well, Charlie and her family arrive at the train station on a bright, sunny day to greet her uncle’s train. As it pulls into the station, it casts a long, foreboding shadow. Maintaining the theme of duality, Uncle Charlie leaves on a train toward the end of the film.

Before long, two “survey takers” arrive at Charlie’s home to interview the “typical American family.” The two (there’s that twin thing again) turn out to be detectives, hot on the trail of one of (again) two men suspected of being the Merry Widow Strangler. Uncle Charlie is one of their suspects, and as much as she fights it, Charlie comes to wonder if the detectives aren’t right.

What Hitchcock did with “Shadow of a Doubt” was bring crime, darkness and subversion into a quiet little town where such things did not exist. He showed us that even the “typical American family” could have evil behind its doors.

One of Hitchcock’s trademarks is his use of the close-up to help us understand the characters. During a dinner table diatribe about wealthy widows, the camera gets in so close to Uncle Charlie that we can count his pores. Joseph Cotton turns to the camera and the image is chilling. But perhaps the most malevolent scene, showing us the evil in Uncle Charlie, occurs when he grabs the upper neck and chin of Charlie as he tells the detectives how lucky the family is to have her. It is one of the most unnerving scenes in any movie.

The final payoff does not disappoint; this is a movie that is nearly perfect from its opening to closing frames. Everyone has his favorite Hitchcock film, but it says something that “Shadow of a Doubt” was his. Rent it and decide for yourself.