164. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

Synopsis

Uncle Charlie goes to visit his family in Santa Rosa, California. What they don't know is that he is a SERIAL KILLER! dum dum dum!

Review

Hitchcock is a master. There are few characters with the capacity for menace that Uncle Charlie played perfectly by Joseph Cotten has in this film. Uncle Charlie is a pretty scary character because he isn't a socially inept serial killer, he is actually just the opposite, a charmer as well as a bit of an asshole.

Hitchcock has the amazing ability for creating characters that even if they are stereotypical are utterly convincing. The whole family in the film is convincing, the geeky neighbour is convincing and this makes the menace of the villain all the more worrying. If there is one thing I would change in this film it would be that Uncle Charlie would kill Charlie, but it would be unthinkable in the days of the production code.

Still this is one of the great Hitchcock films and if you have any interest at all in crime stories this is definitely a film you should pursue. No one does them better than Hitchcock and actors don't come much better than Cotten.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

* Alfred Hitchcock cameo: Hitchcock appears on the train to Santa Rosa playing cards with a man and a woman, at around 15 minutes into the film.

* The house of Charlie's family is on McDonald Ave., in Santa Rosa.

* The stone train station in the film was built in the year 1904 and is one of the few commercial buildings in downtown Santa Rosa to survive the earthquake of April 18th, 1906. Built for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, it is currently a visitor center.

Trailer: