All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt

From the opening chase sequence to the scene where Charlie and the detective become locked in the barn, Hitchcock crafted the editing meticulously so that the tension builds with subtle hints of what is to come. Shadow of a Doubt features connecting sequences of shots that build suspense but need to be conjoined in order to progress the story forward. It is a small portion of a larger story that, when joined together, creates the entire narrative. Hitchcock understood the idea of the montage and how the act of cutting a piece of film is meant to join that piece of story to another. Of course the most elementary form is the juxtaposition of imagery in various sizes.” Montage means the assembly of pieces of film, which move in rapid succession before the eye and create an idea. Mosaic is assembling something to create a whole. We call it cutting, it isn’t exactly that. Lensed on location in Santa Rosa, California, The Shadow of a Doubt wasAlfred Hitchcock's favorite film.“Well you have two kinds of what we might call montage.

The casting, from stars to bit players, is impeccable the best of the batch is Hume Cronyn, making his film debut as a wimpy murder-mystery aficionado. Hitchcock) based their screenplay on a story by Gordon McDowell, who in turn was inspired by real-life 'Merry Widow Murderer' Earle Leonard Nelson. And what happens next? Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville (Mrs. Why, for example, has Uncle Charlie torn an article out of the evening newspaper? Rushing to the library, Young Charlie locates the missing item: the headline screams WHO IS THE MERRY WIDOW MURDERER? As the horrified Charlie reads on, the conclusion is inescapable: her beloved Uncle Charlie is a mass murderer, preying upon wealthy old women. Too, his manner of speaking is curiously unsettling, especially when he brings up the subject of rich widows, whom he characterizes as 'swine.' When a pair of detectives (MacDonald Carey and Wallace Ford), posing as magazine writers, arrive in town and begin asking questions about Uncle Charlie, young Charlie's curiosity is aroused. Uncle Charlie is his usual charming self, but he seems a bit secretive and reserved at times.

When young Charlie 'wills' that old Charlie pay a visit to her family, her wish comes true. Teresa Wright plays Charlie, a small-town high-schooler who enjoys a symbiotic relationship with her favorite uncle, also named Charlie (Joseph Cotten).

All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt