Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Pjtaylor-96-138044 'Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)' is certainly not Hitchcock's finest - though he himself considered it his favourite - as it succumbs to a slow pacing and general lull in interest - or specifically tension - due to its mostly nonchalant nature. This unconventionally domestic film-noir thriller still sits comfortably in the iconic director's repertoire as an early example of his ability to eek suspense from a seemingly simple and mundane situation, though, here in the long term. The flick is surprising in the minutia rather than the overall arc - it's pretty obvious from its title and opening where it's going - and the excellent performances sell this kind of unsettling, long-term, intention-turning home-invasion that only really escalates because our protagonist can't let go of the information she's found out, never-mind the fact that she just had to find it out in the first place. Curiosity really did kill the cat in this one and it is interesting that ignorance truly would have been bliss for all the major players here. But once you know, you can't go back and its this central theme that's incredibly interesting, compelling and not all that often explored. Neither is the true tear she feels between family and morality, which is also a gripping and complex problem to grapple with. Indeed, the feature works on many levels and has many levels to it, with some unconventional aspects even coming in the form of what's not there as much as what is, but there's not a full exploration of all of these ideas and some of them are just mere moments. It will pay off more if you're willing to get on-board with the deeper messages and moral quandaries it may present, but is still an engaging and entertaining affair even on its surface. 7/10

Antonius Block Hitchcock said this was his favorite film, and there is a quiet evil about it that makes it truly horrifying. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is on the run from the law on the East Coast, and he settles in with his sister and her family in Santa Rosa. Trouble is just behind him though, and it gets worse when his niece (also 'Charlie', named after him, and played by Teresa Wright) begins to suspect him of being the "Merry Widow Murderer".I considered a slightly higher rating, but thought the pace in the first half of the movie was a little slow. Some of the tension is also missing because we're pretty darn sure Uncle Charlie is guilty. On the other hand, there is a real small town feeling to this setting, helped in no doubt by Thornton Wilder being one of the screenwriters, and the characters of Charlie's father (Henry Travers) and his friend (Hume Cronyn) passing the time by talking about the perfect murder are absolutely priceless. The second half, including the increasing revelation of Uncle Charlie's dark views of humanity and the lengths to which he will go to protect himself, is what make the film so sinister. As the movie came out during WWII, it seems to have a direct parallel to the evil leaders loose in the world, particularly in the film's final scene.

christopher-underwood With the rousing score of Dimitri Tiomkin and the wonderful camera work, this captivates from the very beginning. We switch from the tight, small lodging out into wide open and view a chase on foot from above, runners and shadows racing before us as we wonder just what is afoot. As it happens we are to find out that Joseph Cotton's character is guilty almost straight away yet spend the rest of the film in suspense as we doubt ourselves. This partly because of the tale of his personal history and partly because of the love and affection of his niece, a wonderful performance from Teresa Wright. Shot largely on location and using a lovely old property in which the large family tumble this way and that in marvellous abandon while the lady of the house tries to maintain control. I learn from the extras that in the end, more shots were required by Hitch and so a set had to be built anyway replicating the building. A very fine, involving, moving and suspenseful film.

brchthethird By now, this is the fourth Hitchcock film that I've seen and it certainly is a better representation of what I understood his work to be than SABOTEUR was. SHADOW OF A DOUBT, which Hitchcock said was his favorite, is a rather simple tale that explores one of his favorite themes: mistaken identity. Joseph Cotten (THE THIRD MAN) plays "Uncle Charlie" who visits his family for a visit in Santa Rosa, California. However, he's not quite what his young niece Charlie remembers. One thing I've noticed about Hitchcock's films is the various ways he's able to create tension and suspense in a way that keeps the viewer hooked. Some of the elements he uses includes light and shadow, camera angles, the score, etc. All of them came together in a rather cohesive way that kept me interested in seeing where the story would go. This film also captures an America in transition. The world created here isn't the paranoia-filled one of SABOTEUR, but still one where suspicion is very palpable and there's a sense that trust is becoming less of an innate quality in Everytown, USA. Like in SABOTEUR, there are two characters who serve as thematic counterpoint to each other. Here, they are the two Charlies. Joseph Cotten's character is somewhat of an idealized figure for his young niece (Teresa Wright), but the reality of how cynical and pessimistic he really is gets revealed over the course of the film. I thought it was a brilliant way of showing how expectations measure up when faced with reality. There's also the "is he/isn't he?" sense of if he's really even the person he purports to be, which plays into the themes of suspicion and trust. One thing I wasn't entirely expecting was the awkward sexual tension (in a few scenes) between the two Charlies, which added an incest layer that helped to flesh out the tense relationship between them. If there's anything weak about the film, the ending was a bit abrupt and a romance that develops between young Charlie and a detective seemed to be shoehorned in (and provided for an unnecessary coda. Still, I liked this film very much and it bodes well for the successive Hitchcock films I'll be viewing later this month.