Shadow of a Doubt 1943
B
This isn’t Alfred Hitchocock’s most famous movie, but it has its admirers, including Hitchock himself, who said it was one of his favorites. Maybe my hopes were a little too high for it. While Hitchcock was famous for suspense, here he seems to have a hard time really winding the spring that much. It didn’t help that I had a hard time keeping my attention on the movie even though it was generally enjoyable. Because it is mostly a fairly simple setup, it does take a while for much to happen and it seems like the movie takes its time more than necessary. Joseph Cotten is great playing off type as a (likely) bad guy. His nearly adult niece is played very well by Teresa Wright who is pretty, smart, and kind of oddly smitten with her uncle Charlie (Cotton). Most of the rest of the characters do little to advance the plot, just fawning over Uncle Charlie. I hoped for more intrigue and twists, but there really isn’t that much here. Things just happen out of the blue and while things do get kind of suspenseful towards the end, it feels like Hitchcock is easing up too much (maybe because of movie codes?). I felt like some things weren’t really resolved which I will put in the spoilers. While I liked the cast and there are some good elements, like with many Hitchock movies, just a few elements don’t make a solid movie.
spoilers
The “other suspect” keeps you guessing on whether Uncle Charlie is guilty or not. They send Charlie’s picture to be looked at by witnesses, but then the police just wrap things up when the other suspect dies? They don’t even show the witnesses the picture of Charlie? Charlie himself seems to be really bad at covering things up, giving his niece a ring from a victim (expensive enough that it is likely to be a known piece of jewelry), expressing hate for rich widows, telling the niece she is stupid, but then practically telling her he did it by saying if he is caught he will be executed. Also it wasn’t clear to me that the step had been sabotaged, but I guess it is implied that it may have been sabotaged when she is fitting a piece of wood in. That’s what Wikipedia says anyway. Also, the garage door getting stuck is an odd thing, previewed for the audience when she is in the garage with the detective, and then definitely wedged closed by Charlie later (though the guy who sees it is wedged shut says nothing?). But did he close the door the first time? Maybe the door getting stuck just gave him the idea? If she was supposed to die, would anyone else have known about the door getting stuck? Was someone else supposed to discover her dead? If so, then the key wouldn’t be in the car since Charlie had it (did cars ever work that way?). If Charlie was supposed to discover the body, he could put the key in and get rid of the wedge, but it still might raise questions about him, especially since he is already being investigated for murder. It didn’t seem like a lock that the niece would end up in the garage by herself at just the right time for him to shut the door on her. The last thing was the attempt to throw the niece off the train. Again, I’m not really sure what happened and how Charlie ended up being the one to fall out. Did she even do anything? I feel like Hitchcock failed to adequately tell his own story.
Written: 04 Aug 2022
Owned on: Digital