![]() ![]() One understands immediately that something is not right here, with the subdued climax being the first of many such instances of this kind of behaviour in the film. The diegetic score, provided by an orchestra is already huge and only builds further and higher as the sequence progresses. As the landlady of the abode pulls down the window blind it recalls a coffin closing, our vampire put to rest. We cut from the credits to the far less glamourous sight of a Philadelphia brownstone, presented by way of a dutch angle, before meeting Uncle Charlie who is laying uneasily still in the middle of a bed (an image that would later be recalled as his namesake sits in a similar state). Shadow Of A Doubt opens with an image that David Lynch would pay homage to some years later with the opening moments of Mulholland Dr., as a group of people dance while the “Merry Widow” waltz plays out. As is the case with the Lynch film, Shadow Of A Doubt is a movies movie, a post-modern exercise that dissects the medium from the inside out. While initially liberated by the sudden arrival of her uncle, Charlotte’s excitement soon turns to suspicion, that greatest of Hitchcock feelings, and the situation spirals out of control. Teresa Wright is the co-lead, as the named-for niece of Charlie, Charlotte Newton. ![]() Joseph Cotten is the man, who goes by the name of Charlie Oakley and is quite the departure from the roles the actor is most fondly remembered for. The film itself tells the story of the return of a nefarious uncle to the bosom of his warm-hearted out-west family, the man on the run from a menace implied in the films opening moments. Anyone who has studied cinema is likely to be familiar with Shadow Of A Doubt: Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 film is the lead study in Bordwell and Thompson’s ‘Film Art – An Introduction’, with the opening section of the book relying upon the Hitchcock film to introduce a number of key film theory ideas.
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