Movie Review: Shadow of a Doubt

Tania Says:
Believe it or not, I have never seen a complete Hitchcock movie. I have seen parts of them or bits and pieces but I have never watched one from beginning to end. So – this was my first. It’s very sad that I haven’t seen a Hitchcock film before but I am excited that I get to see a bunch now that are all on the list! And I am glad that Shadow of a Doubt was first because I really liked it and it made me excited for more.

If you haven’t seen Shadow of a Doubt, it is about a small town family who are living a small town life. Charlie, the family’s teenage daughter, is especially bored with the small town life and hopes things change for the family when her exciting Uncle Charlie comes to visit. When Uncle Charlie arrives everyone is so excited and things are going great and then young Charlie starts to figure out that her Uncle may not be all that great and in fact could be a serial killer. The movie does a great job of walking that line of “is he or isn’t he?” and you can feel the suspense as Charlie looks for more and more clues. This is what I always imagined a Hitchcock movie would be – suspenseful, a little creepy and intriguing. I thought this movie hit all those notes. It is an earlier Hitchcock film so some of the dialogue is clunky for sure, and the name Charlie is spoken a little too much (170 times!!!!) and some of the scene transitions or editing is choppy and a little incoherent but overall it is a really good movie.

Theresa Wright plays young Charlie and I think she does a great job. She’s charming and spunky in the beginning and plays the transition from being Uncle Charlie’s biggest fan to his not biggest fan really well. Joseph Cotton plays Uncle Charlie and also does a great job on that same fine line of “is he or isn’t he?” I think he is sufficiently creepy. Also in the film is a very young Macdonald Carrey who is known to me forever as Dr Tom Horton on Days of Our Live.

I think this was a great movie to initiate me into the world of Hitchcock and I am excited to see more.

Josh Says:

******Please note that Tania used the name Charlie 9 times in her review above.*********

I was really excited for this one. I've seen quite a few Hitchcock movies and remember looking forward to watching reruns of the old Alfred Hitchcock presents series as a kid with my parents. That this is widely documented as his personal favorite and one that I hadn't seen had me going into it with some pretty high expectations.

To say I was disappointed would probably be an overstatement. I liked this movie. I just didn't love it the same way as I do Rear Window, M for Murder, Psycho, The Birds or even the Revenge episode of Hitchcock Presents.

As with any good Hitchcock work (and it is good, please don't get me wrong), it's all about the story and much less about anything else. Like any of his other works, you are tightly riveted to the story and constantly trying to get one step ahead of him, anticipating the great reveal, second guessing yourself all along the way only to find out that............ok, no spoilers.

James Cotton was really good and most definitely creepy enough for the part, Theresa Wright does a pretty good job as the young girl with the bright fairy tale view of the world. The most under-rated performance has to be that of Patricia Collinge as the mother. She's just perfectly oblivious and obedient in that way that I always picture the Moms of the 40's and 50's but assumed they never talked about, at least not in the negative light that I thought she was portrayed here.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Hitchcock (who isn't) but if I had it to do over again, I'd go into it without the knowledge that it was his favorite film as the expectations that brought were bound to go unfulfilled.