Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
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A young woman's idolization of her charming uncle turns to dread as she begins to suspect he harbors a dark, murderous secret.
The story
The story follows Charlotte "Charlie" Newton and her family who live in very quiet Santa Rosa, California. An unexpected visit by Charles Oakley, her charming and sophisticated Uncle Charlie, brings much excitement to the family and the small town. That excitement turns to fear as young Charlie slowly begins to suspect that her uncle may be concealing a dark secret. When two men appear at the Newton home pretending to survey a typical American family, Charlie deduces they are undercover detectives. They explain that her uncle is one of two suspects in a nationwide manhunt, leading Charlie to eye her uncle with growing suspicion and dread.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Charles Oakley, a suspect in a nationwide manhunt, visits his sister Emma and niece Charlotte "Charlie" Newton in Santa Rosa, California. While Charlie initially enjoys his visit, she notices suspicious details, like an emerald ring engraved with someone else's initials. Two undercover detectives, Jack Graham and Fred Saunders, visit the home and confirm Charlie's suspicions: her uncle is a suspect in the 'Merry Widow Murderer' cases. During a dinner, Uncle Charlie reveals his disdain for rich widows, and Charlie later discovers he admits to being a suspect. He attempts to manipulate her into keeping his secret to protect her mother's feelings. After the other suspect is killed, Uncle Charlie believes he is cleared, but Charlie remains terrified. He eventually attempts to murder Charlie by trapping her in a garage with exhaust fumes. Charlie steals his emerald ring, and Uncle Charlie, planning to kill her on a train to San Francisco, is instead pushed into the path of an oncoming train by Charlie. At his funeral, the town honors him, unaware of his crimes, while Charlie and Jack resolve to keep his secrets.
- First release year
- 1943
- Runtime (minutes)
- 108
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Writers
- Thornton Wilder · screenplay; Sally Benson · screenplay; Alma Reville · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Teresa Wright · Charlotte "Charlie" Newton; Joseph Cotten · Charles "Uncle Charlie" Oakley; Macdonald Carey · Detective Jack Graham; Henry Travers · Joseph Newton; Patricia Collinge · Emma Newton; Wallace Ford · Detective Fred Saunders; Hume Cronyn · Herbie Hawkins; Edna May Wonacott · Ann Newton
- Genres
- psychological thriller; film noir
- Themes
- Love and good order is no defense against evil
- Tone and mood
- psychological thriller; film noir; tense; intimate
- Premise and plot tags
- psychological thriller; film noir; serial killer; suspense
- Source material / true-story basis
- Gordon McDonell's idea called "Uncle Charlie", based on the true story of Earle Nelson, a serial killer of the late 1920s known as "the Gorilla Man".
- Reception
- The film received unanimously positive reviews upon release and is considered a major work of Hitchcock's, with various critics calling it his finest film or a masterpiece.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 100% · review count: 48; Metacritic · score: 94 · scale: 100 · review count: 15
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Story · Nominated
- Production trivia
- It was Hitchcock's favorite of all his films.; The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1991.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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