We don't recognize a problem until it's too late, and older Charlie serves as a kind of shadowy inverse twin to young Charlie - a darkness lurking beneath the surface of the ideal family, town, society or what have you. But a listless, bored Charlie (Wright) desiring excitement in her life seeds doubts very early on, except we don't really become aware of that until Uncle Charlie visits, which is the genius of Hitchcock. Set in the quiet, idyllic town of Santa Rosa where the local cop knows everyone by name, the prevailing theme centers on the Newton household portrayed as the ideal American family - the stereotypically average, normal family of that period.

And in revisiting it once again, I took more note and appreciation for the camerawork and cinematography in masterfully telling such a seemingly simple story. And on one such lazy Sunday, I first met the young impressionable Charlie (Teresa Wright) and her dubiously strange Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten).Īfter countless repeated viewings since then, I remain impressed by how beautifully the film continues to hold up. I was introduced to a whole host of classic black-and-white films in those days, like Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, William Wyler's Roman Holiday, Universal's iconic monsters, and, of course, many of Hitchcock's indelible favorites. Every Sunday afternoon, I would sit in front of our 25' Zenith console television, which was considered massive at the time, with the fake wood paneling all around and decorative metal handles along the bottom. But every time I watch this magnificent psychological thriller, I'm instantly whisked away to the 1980s.

Some of my favorite childhood movie-loving memories are forever associated with Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, which is not the central reason for the high rating, just to be clear.

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