Shadow Of A Doubt

Year: 1943

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Hitchcock

Review

of all of his films, this is hitchcock’s favorite. hearing that was quite a surprise to me because i found the film to be fairly run-of-the-mill. i understand that it’s one of his first american films and that the subject matter (a family member being a murderer) is horrifying, but i didn’t feel that it had some of the artistic touches or filmic challenges that lifeboat or vertigo or some of his other greats had. i also didn’t think that teresa wright was all that spectacular. i thought that cotten had the role pretty well nailed down and without his performance the film would not have been nearly as good. i liked the secondary characters – especially the little girl and the neighbor and the father who constantly talk about the perfect murder. i also liked the score and some of the more subtle visual touches. other than that it was a pretty average hitchcock film for me.