Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and which starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton.  It received one Academy Award nomination, Thornton Wilder (author of Our Town) for Best Original Motion Picture Story (won by William Saroyan for The Human Comedy).

In the film, Charlie (Wright) is a young woman living with her parents and younger siblings in the beautiful town of Santa Rosa, CA, 55 miles north of San Francisco with a population then of about 13,000.  She anxiously awaits the visit of her Uncle Charlie (Cotton), for whom she was named and whom she adores.

We learn early on that Uncle Charlie is suspected of being a serial killer, known as the Merry Widow Murderer.  A police detective tells Charlie what he knows, causing her to doubt her uncle.

Charlie notices Uncle Charlie's suspicious behavior, such as his cutting out an article about one of the murders from her father's newspaper.  Uncle Charlie gives Charlie an emerald ring with one of the murder victim's initials inside.  In addition, Uncle Charlie says the following:

 

"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."

Charlie responds, "They're alive! They're human beings!"

Uncle Charlie retorts, "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?"

Charlie is afraid to say anything to her mother who also adores her brother.  However, she confronts her Uncle who then confesses he is a murder suspect, asking for Charlie's help and promising her he will soon leave Santa Rosa.  

Charlie agrees to help, but instead Uncle Charlie tries to kill her.  First, he cuts away some wooden steps on an outdoor staircase causing her to almost fall.  Then, Uncle Charlie traps his namesake in the family's garage with a car's motor running.  Finally, when he is leaving town,  Uncle Charlie tries to push his niece in front of an oncoming train.  Luckily, Charlie fights back and Uncle Charley becomes the victim.

Hitchcock considered Shadow of a Doubt to be his favorite film.  His daughter, Pat, said, "he loved the thought of bringing menace into a small town."  And not only into the town, but right into his own family's home as well.