The split opinion on "Shadow of a Doubt" is not surprising. Many video and DVD viewers watch this after being enveloped by the Hitchcock canon "Psycho," "Rear Window," and "Vertigo." Toss in "The Birds" even the underrated remake of "The Man Who Knew too Much," and you have five films with spectacular sequences (the shower murder, the assassination attempt in Royal Albert Hall, Jimmy Stewart's flashbulb defense) that pushed cinema in breathtaking directions. Of his best-loved films, "Shadow of Doubt" is his least showy: a character study of an all-American family facing (and denying) the presence of evil in their home. As so many have already noted, the performances are uniformly superb, allowing the central relationship between young Charlie and her mysterious Uncle Charlie to take on disconcerting edge rarely found in the cinema of 1943. Hitch asks the question: What would you do if you suspected a relative of serial murder? Like real life, his answers are frustrating and gray. To the many who find the film slack, I suggest they watch it again now that their expectations are lower. Like Hitch's best films, it improves with each viewing.
Review of Shadow of a Doubt
