Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Hume Cronyn, Wallace Ford, Henry Travers, Clarence Muse, MacDonald Carey, Patricia Collinge

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Summary: A favourite of Alfred Hitchcock himself, with an exceptional script by the playwright Thornton Wilder, 'Shadow Of A Doubt' anticipates such family menace dramas as 'Cape Fear'. Young Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) lies on her bed in Santa Rosa, California, bored with her small-town life and family. Meanwhile, her namesake, Uncle Charlie, lies on another bed thousands of miles away in Philadelphia surrounded by discarded bills, deep in secret thoughts. The two are linked - psychic twins - and when Charlie goes to send for her uncle, she finds a telegram announcing his visit already waiting for her. Uncle Charlie brings happiness into the Newton home and a special pleasure to Mother. Yet Charlie feels a tension, as if her double - played with razor-thin menace by the mild-mannered Joseph Cotten - has brought violence into her home as well. Subtle clues add weight to Charlie's vague doubts, and this growing knowledge shocks her out of the warm sense of safety that she has held in her small world. However, her intuitive understanding is a long way from allowing the young niece to challenge her uncle, and the tense cat-and-mouse play between the two is powerfully dramatized, showing Hitchcock in his best form.

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Alfred Hitchcock considered this 1943 thriller to be his personal favourite among his own films, and although it's not as popular as some of Hitchcock's later work, it's certainly worthy of the master's admiration. Scripted by playwright Thornton Wilder and inspired by the actual case of a 1920s serial killer known as "The Merry Widow Murderer," Shadow of a Doubtsets a tone of menace and fear by introducing a psychotic killer into the small-town comforts of Santa Rosa, California. That's where young Charlie (Teresa Wright) lives with her parents and two younger siblings, and where murder is little more than a topic of morbid conversation for their mystery-buff neighbour (Hume Cronyn). Charlie was named after her favourite uncle, who has just arrived for an extended visit, and at first Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) gets along famously with his admiring niece. But the film's chilling prologue has already revealed Uncle Charlie's true identity as the notorious Merry Widow Murderer, and the suspense grows almost unbearable when young Charlie's trust gives way to gradual dread and suspicion. Through narrow escapes and a climactic scene aboard a speeding train, this witty thriller strips away the fa ade of small-town tranquillity to reveal evil where it's least expected. And, of course, it's all done in pure Hitchcockian style. --Jeff Shannon

Aspect Ratio:	1.33 Full Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Beyond Doubt The Making Of Hitchcocks Favourite Film, Production Drawings, Art Gallery, Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Year:	1942
Release Date:	October 17, 2005
Runtime:	103 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	823 620 2
Label:	The Hitchcock Collection
Keywords:	Shadow, General, Doubt, Thriller
Genre:	Thriller