Once she knows, we watch to see what she does about it, knowing the conflict facing her because she loves her Uncle. The suspense is created by the fact that the audience knows Uncle Charlie is a killer and waits to see how young Charlie will figure it out for herself. Young Charlie takes on the guilt of her uncle because she knows about it and says nothing, and she is nearly killed because of this. The idea of guilt and transference is clearly important in Shadow of a Doubt from 1943, and part of the fascination one has with this film is in seeing the ways in which this theme is presented. For Hitchcock, the hero was always actually guilty of something, some sin in his life, which he would have to pay for by suffering through this period of false accusation. One way this was seen was that the hero or heroine would often be accused of a crime he or she did not commit, but there is more to it than that. Young thriller heroines from then on owe Wright’s Charlie a tip of the hat.One of the themes found in the films of Alfred Hitchcock is known as the transference of guilt, a theme Hitchcock first used when he was still working in England and that he continued with his American films. Still, she’s a plucky, all-American girl, and she rises to the occasion, but not without having to hold on to a terrible secret for the rest of her life. Hitchcock puts Wright through the wringer she goes from happy-go-lucky to guilty accomplice (not wanting to ruin her family’s reputation or break her mother’s heart by revealing the truth about Mother’s brother) to fearing for her life. Certainly Jack Graham, the young detective who woos Charlie, is no help.) (What goes unmentioned in this film, made during the height of World War II, is that there are hardly any young men around to play hero, so the responsibility falls to a young woman. Except that Charlie is actually the “Merry Widow” serial killer, and only his namesake niece recognizes the truth about her favorite uncle. Alfred Hitchcock’s movie starts out as a slice of picture-perfect Americana, with a nice, middle-class, Main Street family celebrating a reunion with beloved Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten). Think of what a poison pill Shadow of a Doubt must have seemed in 1943. Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten Get This MovieĬharlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright)
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