Shadow of a Doubt

SHADOW OF A DOUBT is classic Alfred Hitchcock from 1943, an intense and enjoyable black & white thriller about a very different time.

Young Charlotte "Charlie" is at that age where teenagers find their home lives boring, their parents annoying and their siblings intolerable.

She's very excited when she learns her namesake Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton) is coming to visit their small town. Well traveled, perfectly coiffed and always bearing gifts, Uncle Charlie brings mystery and a worldly attitude to Charlie's little world.

What we soon learn is that Uncle Charlie also brings detectives on his trail, confident that he is a serial killer of widows and a world class thief.

Teresa Wright is terrific as Charlie's niece, innocence tinged with enough curiosity to find trouble.

Cotton is equal parts charm & menace in a terrific performance as Uncle Charlie. Hitchcock is in fine form, crafting what appears to be a quiet piece about a small town and then slowly raising the heat until the suspense oozes off the screen.

It's a clever screenplay by Thornton Wilder, well played by a great cast, including a very young Hume Cronyn, who spends much of the film discussing "the perfect murder' with Charlotte's father, a fellow mystery buff.

If only they'd look up from their hardbound mysteries and see the emerging drama happening all around them!

Terrific Hitchcock. There's no shadow of a doubt it gets an A.