Young Charlie at first refuses to even consider that her uncle could be a murderer, but she cannot help noticing him acting strangely on several occasions. This murderer has a modus operandi of seducing, murdering and robbing wealthy widows. One of them speaks to Charlie privately, identifying himself as Detective Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey) and telling her that her uncle is one of two men who are suspected of being a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer". Two men show up pretending to be photographers and journalists working on a national survey of the average American family. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley (Cotten), her mother's brother, is arriving for a visit. She is frustrated because nothing seems to be happening in her life and that of her family. The plot centers around a bored teenager living in Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Wright). Hitchcock on his part seems surprised to see that he has somehow been dealt a full suite of spades, a Grand Slam bridge hand. Harry is not interested and keeps playing bridge. Harry is eager to help Otis, who is feigning illness in order to avoid meeting fellow passengers, but Dr. Charlie Oakley is traveling on the train under the assumed name of Otis. Alfred Hitchcock appears about 15 minutes into the film, on the train to Santa Rosa, playing bridge with a man and a woman (Dr and Mrs. Starring Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, and MacDonald Carey, SHADOW OF A DOUBT was one of Joseph Cotten's finest roles. Some 67 years after its release the film is still quite watchable and the suspense is more riveting than any 3D or special effects movie. While many films of the day were musicals about how the boy gets the girl, SHADOW OF A DOUBT truly is a film that has not aged much. It was Hitchcock's only "purely American" movie, and the movie was years ahead of itself in suspense, intrigue, and dialogue. The movie, made in 1943, was unlike any movie Hitchcock had done before or for that matter after. When I first saw the classic SHADOW OF A DOUBT when I was younger, I did not realize it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
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