Shadow of a Doubt
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Movie Reviews of Shadow of a Doubt
Movie Review: Lesser Known, Must See
Summary: 5 Stars
Shadow of a Doubt is one of the best, most suspenseful releases in the Hitchcock canon. It's not as celebrated as other masterpieces such as Rear Window (Collector's Edition), Vertigo (Collector's Edition), and Psycho (Collector's Edition) but it is just as incredible.
The movie features Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane) and Teresa Wright (The Best Years of Our Lives) as Charlie, an uncle and daughter sharing the same name.
After Charlie comes to visit, the family finds out there's a serial killer on the loose, and Young Charlie starts to wonder if her Uncle could be the killer.
The DVD features a making of featurette and a few other things. But the big draw will be the film itself. One you can watch over and over and over again.
Must Have.
Movie Review: Never gift engraved hot jewelry!
Summary: 5 Stars
Hitchcock's favorite Hitchcock according to Hitchcock. Over-the-top performances by Teresa Wright (on a loss-of-innocence journey) and Joseph Cotton (on the run as a serial killer who is also a close family relative). There is a play-off between melodrama and suspense that just keeps building. Up to the last few reels, doubt lingers as to who really is the serial killer (the script could go in at least two directions). Film score by Dimitri Tiomkin is a knockout underlining and amplifying the unrelenting tension. Hitchcock experimented with overlapping and simultaneous dialog to good (often amusing) effect. There are a few plot discrepancies (such as an apparently free telegram service and detectives who prefer to do just about anything except make an arrest); Hitchcock's continuing fixation on trains (coming and going); and an exaggerated, station-platform shadow "cast" by an arriving train (carrying Cotton's character into the small town where Wright's character and her family live). Film restoration is outstanding. So are the extras.
A white-knuckle ride from beginning to end!
WILLIAM FLANIGAN, Ph.D.
Movie Review: Portrait of Evil
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent film, beautifully scripted and beautifully acted. Cotton as the sinister 'Uncle Charlie' is especially creepy and realistic. His niece, Charlie the Younger if you will, is also excellent as the girl who almost falls in love with her long lost Uncle only to grow increasingly suspicious of this handsome but truly odd man.
Cotton, as it turns out, is a serial killer, having killed at least three wealthy widows for their money. But, to my way of thinking, the most fascinating part of his portrayal is not that he is an oily con man but, in many ways, he's exactly the opposite. He's idiosyncratic to the extreme with an extraordinarily crabbed view of life in general and especially, from his point of view, parasitic heiresses who deserve no more than extermination.
His niece becomes increasingly alarmed at her Uncle's philosophy although she doesn't want to believe the worst. The film is largely about her coming to grips with a painful reality and what both she and her Uncle do about it. Fascinating. Did I say I liked it?
Ron
Movie Review: Hitchcock's noir classic deserves to be seen
Summary: 5 Stars
"Shadow of A Doubt" deserves to be ranked along Hitchcock's films like "Vertigo", "Psycho", "Rear Window", "North by Northwest" and "Strangers On A Train" as one of his best--if not the best which can be argumentable. In fact the theme of the killer masquerading as a suave, likeable gent was a first for cinema---and Hitchcock was the innovator of this theme which would be repeated many times later in other films. Although one reviewer complained that the identity of the "Merry Widow" killer is revealed earlier in the film--I believe was Hitchcock was wise in letting us in on it because what was suspenseful about the film was how far the killer would go to conceal his identity--and to what extent he would do to kill his niece. Joseph Cotton would never have a role like this with so much psychological depth and Teresa Wright, who recently passed on, was perfectly suited as the heroine who knows the ugly truth. Also the literate screenplay by Thorton Wilder also added to make this a screen classic--no wonder Hitchcock listed this as his favorite American film.Movie Review: One of my favorite Hitchcock films
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a huge Hitchcock fan and I've always wondered why you don't hear as much about this movie as some of his others. It lacks the glamour quotient of, say, north by Northwest or It Takes a Thief, which may have something to do with it. But Hitchcock's at his best when he's layering trait upon trait in a character and slipping little "tells" into the story, and he's superb at that here.
The story's simple: A black sheep uncle settles down with his sister's family in a small California town, much to the joy of his teenage niece. Soon, though, she begins to notice something odd about her beloved Uncle Charlie. Hitchcock never makes the mistake of too much information, and tosses cliffhanger after cliffhanger into the final 30 minutes.
If you collect Hitchcock, this one definitely belongs in your collection.