Jeff’s Watchlist: Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Just watched Shadow of a Doubt after watching this interview with Hitchcock on the Dick Cavett Show. Shadow of a doubt is a fantastic movie. Spoilers from beyond here, the movie is 76 years old, okay. The ending is exiting, and exhilarating to this day.

47 years ago was this interview. 6/8/1972. This interview is fantastic, and I immediately wanted to take a look at this movie. I watched it on YouTube, really great quality.

The cinematography of the movie really blew me away, I thought the contrast and choice of slow setups was fantastic. I feel that when you follow characters like that and the camera doesn’t deviate from showing the body of the actors like a stage play, it gives the viewer an omniscient view of the movie, we know what’s up, not like slight of hand cinematography where an object is obscured behind another object, or off screen, for dramatic effect.

I loved the ending, and the lead up to the ending, so basically the whole move. Disclaimer: I did end up watching this movie in two parts, feel no repercussions on that, a lot of course is from another time. On the other hand the slow burn and the classic Americana was so great. When we see uncle charlie’s madness at the dinner table talking about how useless these old ladies are to him- I was thinking, no one is going to call him out on that? The last moments with the fight on the train is exhilarating for such a aged film, really, in 2019 I was rooting for Charlie to take out Uncle Charlie so hard. Why are there names so similar?

I loved the scenes of crossing the road in the 40’s. My favorite scene was the bank scene, making papa a fool in front of his coworkers, but as far as we know Uncle Charlie is a total bad-ass who puts people in their place and has stacks of cash to back up his IDGAF attitude. Each family member is so great in the story, for now I rate this movie 8/10.