94. Shadow of a Doubt

This completes the Alfred Hitchcock portion of the exam. It's a top 100 film but still only his fourth highest ranked so that does show how well regarded the old boy is. Several critics actually consider this as his finest film. Are they just being contrary to show their film knowledge superiority, much like those who say Citizen Kane isn't as good as A Touch of Evil, or is this really better than Psycho and Vertigo and The Wrong Man? Well, since the director himself agrees with them maybe we should take this seriously.

Shadow of a Doubt starts off in New Jersey where Joseph Cotten is being hounded by some shady characters. He flees to visit his sister and her adorable family in California, including his namesake niece Charlie. The girl adores her Uncle but starts to suspect a darker side to him. It's just the little things, really, like his outbursts of misogyny and the fact that he has a ring engraved with the initials of a murder-victim. Nothing too concrete, but enough to cause suspicion (I could have written "a shadow of a doubt" there, but that would be very corny). Is he a murderer or just a bit creepy?

Hitchcock isn't called the master of suspense for nothing. Thinking back on this film, there really isn't all that much to it. Nothing particularly exciting happens — this isn't action packed like North by Northwest, for example — and the plot is refreshingly lacking in complex twists and turns. Out of this apparent simplicity, though, Hitchcock manages to generate a terrifying air of disquiet. Every look that Cotten makes, every revelation about the string of murders that he may or may not have committed, every newspaper article detailing the manhunt of another suspect who might exonerate him all serve to ramp up the tension. It's perfectly handled, but it wouldn't work without such a great performance from Cotten. He's wonderfully ambiguous — either a frightening and evil monster, or your favourite eccentric Uncle. Take this fantastic scene:



These are sentiments that you could easily agree with — a distaste for rich widows spending their unearned money while honest hard-working people struggle to make ends meet — but Cotten delivers it in such a way that he might be making a social point or he might genuinely want to kill them and steal their money. "They're alive. They're human beings!" cries his niece, to which he replies "are they?", but which statement is he questioning?

The supporting cast are all very good too, and it's great to see a young(ish) Hume Cronyn give some light relief from the uneasiness of the film by playing a neighbour who is obsessed with mystery novels and jokingly discusses ways to murder his friend without detection. It's funny really, that the guy who talks about murdering people is the comic relief, whereas the one who says all the right things is suspected of being a killer.

Is this the best Hitchcock film? I still prefer Vertigo myself, but I won't dismiss those who disagree as fools. It's certainly one that should be seen a lot more than it is, though. But then I could say that about most of the items on this list.