Shadow of a Doubt (1943 movie)- Review

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Released: 1943
Country: United States

Genres: Psychological thriller

Main cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Macdonald Carey, Hume Cronyn

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review

Alfred Hitchcock's ''Shadow of a Doubt'' is yet another a wonderful psychological thriller, in which there are perfect thrills and a few scares. It is a powerful and engrossing one, and perhaps another masterpiece by Alfred Hitchcock.

This movie's protagonist is the teenaged girl Charlie, who is grumbling about their family life. Her joys know no bounds when she hears that Uncle Charlie- her mother's brother after whom she was named- is coming to come to them for a visit. She knows her life would become jollier if her uncle would come to visit them. Her uncle arrives.

We see that she perfectly adores her uncle, though she has never seen him much before. They are ''like twins'', she says. She thinks life is going to be wonderful as Uncle Charlie is now with them. But then she notices some weird things about Uncle Charlie, but she doesn't pay much attention to this.

Everything changes as two people want to take photographs of the family. Uncle Charlie refuses his photograph to be taken, but after his photograph is finally taken, he gets furious and takes away the negative roll.

One of them, Jack, wants Charlie as his guide around the town. Then, he tells her that they are looking for a criminal man, and Uncle Charlie might be that particular person. Charlie is shocked. She agrees to help them if she can. Later, she runs to the public library and from the newspapers, she becomes aware of a terrible fact.

As the young, yet brave protagonist Charlie, Teresa Wright is simply marvelous. Charlie is perhaps a very memorable character. We can easily see her bravery. This bravery and courage made her a quite memorable character to me. As the antagonist, Joseph Cotten gives a splendid performance. Uncle Charlie is certainly psychopathic, and has murdered several widows.

Other characters include Charlie's parents, played by Henry Travers, and Patricia Coolinge. As Jack, Macdonald Carey gives a good performance. Hume Cronyn gives a brilliant performance as Herbie, an eccentric neighbor who and Charlie's father always discuss about better techniques to murder each other! Edna May Wonkott gives a truly splendid performance as the nerdy bookworm sister of Charlie.

The film slowly becomes darker. Thrills are frequently present and it gets quite very engrossing. Aside from this, Teresa Wright as the innocent and brave protagonist and Joseph Cotten as the psychopathic antagonist contribute to make the film a great one. The camera work also is excellent, and the background music is generally very good.

On the whole, pretty excellent and indeed a great movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Thrills are frequent, and overall, the film is immensely likeable!

4 out of 5!