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Shadow
of a Doubt (1943)
In one of Alfred Hitchcock's most suspenseful thrillers
(and his personal favorite)
- the cynical, film-noirish, war-time film was shot on location in the
small, story-book town of Santa Rosa, California - a representative
place of wholesomeness, law-and order, and middle-American
values within a family. The script by Thornton Wilder (plus Hitchcock's
wife Alma Reville, and New Yorker writer Sally Benson) was
based upon an unpublished, 6-page short story outline titled "Uncle
Charlie" by Gordon McDonell - the source of the film's sole Oscar
nomination. It was remade as the film-noirish Step Down to Terror (1958) by
director Harry Keller.
In the film's main plot, Uncle Charlie, a
psychotic killer whose namesake niece, an adoring teenager-heroine
also named Charlie, was emotionally excited by news of the arrival
of her worldly uncle. Young Charlie has wished for change and excitement
in her boring life, and was psychically linked to her favorite uncle
- but then she slowly began over time to intuitively suspect that
her beloved relative was a wanted mass murderer who had brought dark
corruption with him. She used clues including a newspaper article
and an engraved ring stolen from a woman he had murdered. When
Uncle Charlie came to recognize her suspicions about his evil, murderous
secrets, her life became endangered.
The many themes in the film included a belief in superstition
(and good and bad fortunes), telepathy, domestic menace, and the
preponderance of opposites (doubles or twinning).
- during the titles sequence that included views of
Gay Nineties bourgeois couples dancing, the tune of Franz Lehár's
"Merry Widow Waltz" (in Dimitri Tiomkin's Original Score) played
as a thematic leitmotif [Note: A real-life mass murderer in the mid-1920s
named Earle Leonard Nelson, dubbed with the macabre nickname "Merry
Widow," strangled middle-aged women until he was hanged in 1928]
- the opening sequence introduced the chilling, twisted,
devious homicidal character of Uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten)
- the "Merry Widow Murderer" - evil personified from
the very first scenes, as he laid on a bed in a Dracula-like vampirish
position; he knew that two men were looking for him: "They aren't
exactly friends of mine. They've never seen me. That's odd, isn't
it?", and then dared them from his window to locate his evil guilt: "What
do you know? You're bluffing. You've nothing on me"
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Uncle Charlie (and Young "Charlie") Similarly Lying
on Bed in Two Different Locations
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- Uncle Charlie elusively disappeared and fled from
Philadelphia, after committing a third murder of a rich widow by
strangulation; he suspected that his apprehension by police was
imminent, and schemed to drop out of sight by sending a telegram
about his visit and arrival to his adoring, middle-class relatives,
including his unsuspecting, talkative, oblivious older sister Mrs.
Joseph (Emma) Newton (Patricia Collinge) in California
- members of the Newton family
included precocious teenaged daughter "Charlie" (Charlotte)
Newton (Teresa Wright), Charlie's symbiotic namesake and his young
favorite niece, two additional younger children: congenial Roger
(Charles Bates) and 9 year-old, spectacle-wearing, bookish Ann
(Edna May Wonacott), and Emma's bank clerk husband Joseph Newton
(Henry Travers); Young Charlie was introduced lying fully dressed
in the same supine position on her bed as her Uncle Charlie in the first scene
Joseph Newton (Henry Travers)
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Mrs. Joseph (Emma) Newton (Patricia Collinge)
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Ann (Edna May Wonacott)
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- Uncle Charlie's train arrived in the clean, quiet,
small and traditional, bright town of Santa Rosa, California, as
black funereal smoke belched into the sky and a dark, tarnishing
shadow was cast over everything to symbolize his ominous arrival;
his coming into the town, walking first hunched over and
with a walking stick, suddenly changed - he was walking erect,
smoking a phallic cigar, bringing sexual tension and hiding his
proclivities toward sexual violence and incestual interest in the
Newton's family niece; during Charlie's visit, "Charlie" offered
her room to her Uncle
- the first evening following dinner after
Uncle Charlie had presented gifts to everyone, he met privately
in the kitchen with the elated young "Charlie" who mentioned telepathic
twin-ness similarities and affinities between her congenial and
suave Uncle Charlie and herself - she was named for the uncle she
idolized: ("I can't explain it but you came here and Mother's so happy and I'm glad
that she named me after you and that she thinks we're both alike.
I think we are too. I know it. It would spoil things if you should
give me anything....we're not just an uncle and a niece, we're
something else. I know you...we're sorta like twins, don't you
see?"); she placed her hand trustingly in his as he 'wed' his twin with his
gift of an emerald ring; she was overjoyed, but Uncle Charlie became
apprehensive when she noticed its initial engravings: ("'TS from
BM' - those must be someone's initials") and refused to return
it
- as young Charlie returned to the dining room, visions
of the waltzing couples in the ballroom from the beginning of the
film (and from the idealized past) were superimposed over him -
mysteriously marking and linking him - along with the humming of the
tune of the Merry Widow Waltz
- the film was enriched by the running dialogue between
Joseph and his neighbor and brother-in-law Herbie Hawkins (Hume
Cronyn in his film debut), who morbidly debated about the
best techniques to commit the 'perfect murder' - both were mystery
buffs who read pulp murder-mystery crime stories
- later in the evening, Uncle Charlie suspiciously
absconded with a page from the family's newspaper, possibly because
of an offensive article; in his room later in the evening, young
Charlie spotted her uncle's coat pocket
bulging with part of the evening's newspaper and called him out; he
grabbed and gripped her wrists tightly, and violently wrenched
down on them - causing her fearful shock, pain, and anguish: "Uncle
Charlie, you're hurting me"; he excused his behavior by claiming
the paper had a gossip article about a friend
- a possible explanation for Charlie's aberrant behavior
was that he had suffered a terrible bicycle accident and
skull fracture that nearly killed him when he was a child; the
life-altering incident utterly changed him forever, and he would
regularly "get into mischief"
- as he had proposed the night before, Uncle Charlie
visited the local bank to transfer some money ("thirty or
forty thousand, just to start things off right") from the
East and put it into Joe's bank after opening up an account; at
the bank, a middle-aged woman Mrs. Potter (Frances Carson) flirtatiously
admitted to being a rich widow (a "merry widow"?) who
delighted in spending her late husband's money
Uncle Charlie at the Bank Depositing $40K Into a
New Account
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Mrs. Potter (Frances Carson) - Uncle Charlie's Rich
Widow Acquaintance - A New Possible Victim
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- at first, young Charlie was fascinated by her uncle's
wit, urbane and worldly sophistication - but then a "shadow
of a doubt" slowly began to emerge; the first suspicions about
Uncle Charlie arose when he vehemently refused to
take the government's national poll survey and have his photograph
taken by interviewer Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey) and photographer
Fred Saunders (Wallace Ford) [Note: it was soon revealed to a stunned,
young Charlie that both Graham and Saunders were police detectives
investigating Uncle Charlie as a murder suspect]
- a cat-and-mouse game soon developed between the
two Charlies, that turned out to reveal that they were diametrically-opposed opposites
- later that evening, young Charlie rushed to the
town's Free Public Library just as it was closing at nine pm, to
view the contents of an article that Uncle Charlie had suspiciously
cut out of her father's newspaper; in the reading room, she reacted
dramatically -- her eyes widened as she found damning evidence
that her Uncle was the "Merry Widow Murderer -- Strangler
of Three Rich Women" - and that he was the object of a nationwide search
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The Town Library Sequence - Young Charlie's Discovery
of Her Uncle's True Identity
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- she also put two-and-two
together - the initials engraved on the back of the emerald ring
given as a gift to her by Uncle Charlie matched the initials of
the murderer's third widowed victim (Thelma Schenley (TS) from
husband Bruce Matthewson (BM)) - it was the film's major turning
point - emphasized by the camera's overhead shot isolating her
at a distance from behind - among the dark shadows
- in a key dinner table speech the next evening (staged as practice for a speech
he had promised to give to the town's womens' club), a contemptuous,
misogynistic monologue was delivered by Uncle Charlie - about his
hatred for rich, lazily fat, detestable, middle-aged widows; he
was viewed in profile for most of the speech, as the camera moved
even closer: "...Women keep busy in towns like this. In the cities it's different. The
cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands
who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working.
Then they die and leave their money to their wives. Their silly
wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them
in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands, drinking
the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing
all day and all night, smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry
but of nothing else. Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women"
- midway, when young Charlie objected to his degrading assessment and characterization:
("They're alive! They're human beings!"), Uncle Charlie turned
toward the camera, in gigantic close-up and coldly asked: "Are
they? Are they, Charlie? Are they human or are they fat wheezing animals,
hmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?"
- slightly later after she dashed outside from the
table and was pursued by Uncle Charlie, the two entered the nearby 'Til-Two cocktail
lounge - a smoke-filled, noisy and dark bar populated by war-time
sailors and less-than-respectable, downtrodden ladies both inside
and out; the two Charlies sat at one of the booths for an ominous
discussion; at first, they faced each other as the mentally-disturbed
Uncle Charlie began to act aggressively toward his niece: ("...Now
look, Charlie, Something's come between us. I don't want that to
happen. Why, we're old friends. More than that. We're like twins.
You said so yourself...."); she took the emerald ring from her
pocket and returned it to him by placing it on the table, as their
drink order was brought
- during their booth conversation, he
told her how she hadn't experienced - as he had - how the world
was a living hell filled with foul swine within houses; he began
lecturing her, accused her of knowing nothing about the real world,
and confronted her about what she knew about him: "You
think you know something, don't you? You think you're the clever
little girl that knows something. There's so much you don't know.
So much. What do you know, really? You're just an ordinary little
girl living in an ordinary little town. You wake up every morning
of your life and you know perfectly well that there's nothing in
the world to trouble you. You go through your ordinary little day
and at night you sleep your untroubled, ordinary little sleep filled
with peaceful, stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares! Or did
I, or was it a silly inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're
a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do
you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you rip the fronts
off houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter
what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie! Use your wits. Learn something"
- as she approached closer to him and learned the truth,
she realized that he was aware of her knowledge and suspicions; she had
to decide whether she should reveal her findings to the authorities
or protect her family
- after her confrontation
in the seedy bar with her uncle, she departed as they continued to
discuss Uncle Charlie's future in town; she reluctantly agreed
to not say anything if he promised to leave town in a few days,
to avoid any scandal and to protect her mother from knowing that
her younger brother was a murderer
- the film's plot was turned upside-down when a noon
broadcast heard by Charlie's father reported the death of another
Merry Widow Murderer suspect in the state of Maine; Joe and Herb
were blissfully ignorant of the criminal murderer in their own
midst; Jack Graham also notified Charlie that their search and
job had ended; he also felt compelled to tell her of his love:
"I love you, Charlie. I love you terribly. I know it's no
time to tell you now and I'm sorry. Do you mind?" [Note: The other
murder suspect, actually innocent, died a horrible death at an
airport when he was fleeing from police and ran into a plane propeller.]
- Uncle Charlie was relieved, but still felt he wanted
to remain in Santa Rosa, but that meant that he had to eliminate
young Charlie - he made two failed 'murder' attempts to kill her
- by a tampered-with broken step on the back stairs, and by a malfunctioning
garage door paired with toxic fumes of carbon monoxide poisoning
- after a clash of wills with her Uncle, while everyone
else attended Uncle Charlie's Women's Club lecture, young Charlie
frantically searched for the allegedly misplaced emerald ring (that
she had given back to her Uncle) in his room; once everyone returned
from the talk, in an intense tracking shot from her Uncle Charlie's
POV, young Charlie was seen gliding down the
stair railing, with the incriminating, offensive, condemning object
(the emerald ring) framed in a gigantic closeup on her right hand;
Uncle Charlie surrendered to her by announcing to everyone that
he was departing on the train for San Francisco the next day (on
the same train as widowed Mrs. Potter, his next victim)
- after farewells at the station, Uncle Charlie held
back his young niece Charlie from exiting his train car; in
the thrilling concluding scene on the
moving train in the platform between train cars, there was a struggle
between them as the train began to move faster; he seized
her as she panicked and tried to break away. His face was absolutely
monstrous as he advanced on her; she struggled into the space between
the cars, while he gripped her mouth and throat and opened the
door to fling her onto the tracks. He explained his homicidal intentions: "I've
got to do this, Charlie, so long as you know what you do
about me." He twisted her around in his tight embrace, as
she grappled with him. He lifted her off the ground - her legs
dangled in the air. Her black-gloved hand gripped the door handle
and then lost its hold
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Uncle Charlie's Failed Murder Attempt
of Young Charlie on Train - Death of Uncle Charlie
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- both watched the passing
blur of landscape and tracks (two parallel railway tracks became
one), delaying the inevitable plunge into death. Uncle Charles prepared
her by waiting for the right moment of lethal speed and exhilaration
(and sexual receptiveness), educating her to the monstrous world
that he earlier said she must learn - as his twin: "Not yet, Charlie,
let it get a little faster! Just a little faster! Faster! Now!" She
twisted and reversed positions on him, upset his balance and pushed
him away - he fell headlong into the path of an oncoming, speeding
train on an adjacent track. Her act freed him from his (and her)
nightmares and from his curse to kill - she fulfilled her earlier
threat ("I'll kill you myself"), aiding her uncle to embrace death
- the image dissolved to the recurrent
one of dancing couples twirling to the Merry Widow Waltz
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Uncle Charlie: The Suspected 'Merry Widow Murderer' Pursued by Two Men
in Philadelphia
"Charlie" (Charlotte) Newton (Teresa Wright)
Black Smoke Signaling Charlie's Arrival
"Uncle Charlie" Arriving
in Santa Rosa, CA
Young Charlie Greeting her Uncle at the
Train Station
Uncle Charlie's Gift of an Incriminating, Engraved Emerald
Ring to Young Charlie
The Film's Leitmotif: "The Merry Widow" Waltz, With Dancing Couples
Joe's Neighbor
Herbert Hawkins (Hume Cronyn) - Murder Mystery Buff
Young Charlie Briefly Assaulted by her Uncle Charlie For Noticing Stolen
Newspaper Pages
Government Survey Taker - Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey)
- Eventual Love Interest for Young Charlie
Saunders - Snapping an Unpermitted Picture of Uncle Charlie
Jack Graham Revealing Himself to Young Charlie As a Detective Trailing
Uncle Charlie as a Murder Suspect
"Horrible, faded, fat greedy women!"
"Are they? Are they, Charlie?"
Close-up of Uncle Charlie Viewed in Profile During His
Hateful Dinner Table Speech About Detested Widows
Ominous Discussion Between Uncle Charlie and Young Charlie
in a Bar Booth
Uncle Charlie Promising to Leave Town in a Few Days
Clash of Wills: The Tracking Shot of The Incriminating
Emerald Ring on Young Charlie's Finger
The Struggle Between Them On the Train Platform Between Cars
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