From the 1940s: Shadow of a Doubt

1943 Drama 

From Universal Pictures

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring

Teresa Wright

Joseph Cotten

Macdonald Carey

Henry Travers

Patricia Collinge

Hume Cronyn

Wallace Ford

Of all his films, this was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite.  It was Teresa Wright's favorite, too, among her parade of hits.   When I know things I am real eager to engage myself in any film.  If I've already seen it and didn't quite get the acclaim its makers saw, I am all for seeing it again in the hope I'll change my mind.  Sometimes I do change my mind, too, and sometimes I don't.  

My experience was that I was always up for a Hitchcock film and he usually sold me.  This film is no exception.  It has an excellent cast, good acting, tasty dialogue and always the anticipation of how it's going to turn out.

The master's hand is seen in every area... there's mystery, cleverness, sparkling dialogue and nefariousness.  We know we can count on it.  It's fun to see the clever camera work, great locations, the gorgeous, blonde leading ladies, the double entendres, the stylishness, the... oh wait.  I forgot which Hitchcock film I was reviewing.

There is still the clever camera work but the rest is gone.  Teresa Wright is not a blonde.  But this movie, which takes place in a small California town and concerns itself with ordinary people (well, ok, except one) caught up in extraordinary circumstances is a favorite plot line of the master.

Charles Oakley (Cotten) is an East Coast serial killer.  The authorities call him the Merry Widow Killer because he murders well-to-do, recent widows knowing they've come into large amounts of money.  Those same authorities are closing in on Charlie so he heads west to Santa Rosa to stay with his sister and husband (Collinge & Travers) and their three children.  The eldest of the  three (Wright), also named Charlie after her favorite relative, is  excited about his visit.

It isn't long before Charlie begins to suspect her uncle isn't exactly what he presents himself to be.  She's not sure at first what's at issue here but she finds it odd that he gives her an emerald ring which she notices that has someone's initials engraved on it and it's apparent to her that her uncle had no idea.  

Then two men appear at the door.  The younger one (Carey) says they are conducting a survey which finds both Charlies suspicious.  The older one (Ford) takes Uncle Charlie's picture as his niece stands surprised when her uncle takes the film and destroys it.

Uncle Charlie later, while reading the paper, tears out a section and destroys it, making young Charlie the most wary she's been thus far.  She walks to the library, finds a copy of the paper and the article he tore out.  It was about the Merry Widow murders on the East Coast.  She even comes across the name of one murdered widow whose initials are the same as on the ring.

The next day Charlie's father is discussing how to commit the perfect murder with his good friend Herbie (Cronyn) and Uncle Charlie breaks into their conversation and suddenly and carelessly blurts out that elderly widows are fat, wheezing animals and adds what happens to animals when they get too fat and old?  His niece runs out of the room.

Cotten, Wright and Collinge

She tells Carey that she suspects he's a detective and that Uncle Charlie is the Merry Widow Killer.  The detective confesses and tells her to be careful.  Charlie, however, drops one innuendo after another to her uncle who says, slyly, what are you trying to tell me?

Soon she does tell him that she knows he's the serial killer but she's not going to say anything because it will devastate her mother and all that she wants if for Uncle Charlie to leave.  He refuses.

The following day Charlie is going down the back stairs of the home when one stair breaks away and she barely escapes injury.  We see her examining the stair and then looking suspiciously at Uncle Charlie.  Next she sees that there's a car running in the garage.  She goes to check it out, finds no one but as she notices the key is not in the ignition, the garage door closes and she is unable to open it.  Herbie hears her calls and opens the door.

Finally Charlie gathers up all her nerve and tells her uncle that if he doesn't quietly leave she is going to kill him.  Uncle Charlie, to his sister's dismay, suddenly announces he is talking the train to San Francisco along with a new friend, a recent widow.

The family goes to the train to see him off with Charlie acting a little pouty and morose.  Uncle Charlie invites the three children on the train to show them around as it gets time to leave, he holds back Charlie as the young kids disembark.

Hitchcock hated his endings to be revealed so I shall honor that although it's not exactly difficult to find it out or even figure it out.

We usually associate the words mystery or thriller when speaking of a Hitchcock film.  I thought the film fell short in both categories.  Mystery?  In what way?  Maybe the ending remained a mystery but really?  In the 1940s in an American film, is there really any doubt as to how this is going to turn out?  It might have been a mystery had we not known for sure if Uncle Charlie was the serial killer but we knew that right off.  

Thriller?  Is that to imply an edge-of-your-seat situation because that's where I usually am when a thriller captivates me?  A thriller because of the broken stair and the garage scenes?  Hmmm.  Tension, yes... thriller no. While we're at it, some even call it a film noir and I only vaguely see a connection to that.

No, c'mon, this is really a simple drama, a good one, mind you, that we wouldn't give much of a mind to had it been directed by someone other than Hitchcock.  

Hitchcock with his two stars

The movie was hailed by critics when it was initially released but the public held no such notions.  It took years for it to gather the acclaim that it has today.  I suggest that even uninformed audiences of the time could see potholes in the script, which generally had to do with those detectives.  We are asked to believe that they traveled across the entire country to check out a man whose name they don't know and whose face is not known?  Really?  After such a short time it was rather surprising to hear the detective and the niece declare their love and after doing so do almost nothing to demonstrate it. 

If the father and his buddy are such crime buffs, how come they didn't come up with any ideas that Uncle Charley might be the killer?  This seems like a plot point that could have put them in danger and maybe created that thriller.

Further, it seemed so implausible that young Charlie, a pit bull of a minor detective who has developed such a disgust for her uncle, wouldn't turn him in and would just allow him to walk away.

Oh do forgive me but what about this title... Shadow of a Doubt?  Who had that?  We don't.  Young Charlie doesn't.  Without a Doubt might have been more suitable.

These potholes might have been okay for some of the director's lighter fares but not a serious drama.  It simply makes me not hold the film in the high esteem that others do.  Again, however, I do like it.  I really, really do.  (Thanks, Sally.)

And one of the reasons I do is the cast.  Any time Cotten appears against type as a villain I enjoy him so much.  His gentlemanliness and kindness always show through and he simply makes for a fascinating serial killer.  Wright, strong, assertive and putting herself in danger, has her best role and I am not looking to question why she considers it her favorite role.  Neither actor was a first-choice.  Hitchcock wanted to reunite his Suspicion stars, Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant, but they were busy.

Wright was thrilled that she was loaned out from Samuel Goldwyn studios to work with Hitchcock and she had much admiration for how he worked and how he allowed her to work.  She was happy that she was being reunited with Collinge who both made their film debuts two years earlier in The Little Foxes and Wright had worked with Travers in Mrs. Miniver in 1942.  Wright would also go on to make another film with Cotten (The Steel Trap, 1952) and one with Carey (Count the Hours, 1953).

Henry Travers and Hume Cronyn

Collinge only made a few movies.  Too bad.  She fascinated me as a character actress.  I always found a great inner strength in her although her behavior often betrayed that.  Loved, too, her daffy nature that always poked my funny bone.  (Weren't she and Travers a little old for having a 7-year old?)  This was Cronyn's first movie where he first displayed that suspiciousness and wiliness that would become a part of so many of his characters.

One of those who adapted the screenplay was the acclaimed novelist/playwright Thornton Wilder in his only such assignment.  Did he want to present a darker version of Our Town?  Oh, I kid the novelist-playwright.  It's been said he wrote all except the dialogue between the young children.

Why did Hitchcock consider this to be the favorite of all his films?  I don't think we should jump to any conclusion why that is, especially not that it was necessarily the best movie (script, writing, acting, etc) he ever made.  It could be anything.  He has always said that filming in Santa Rose was his most pleasant filming location.  He claimed the townspeople were so nice to him when he was feeling down about being so far away during wartime when his mother was dying.

Here's the trailer:

Next posting:

A B-murder mystery from Universal