A young woman in a small California town suspects her Uncle may be connected to a series of murders.
While Alfred Hitchcock had already made five films under the banner of Hollywood studios since his move from Britain, Shadow of a Doubt is widely considered to be his first truly American feature. The story was conceived by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder, best known for his play (and subsequent film) Our Town, a quintessential work of Americana about the daily lives of residents in an average town. Hitchcock's desire was to pull back theT rug and look at the darker side of this level of society.
The central plot of the film is echoed in a meta-text where supporting characters profess their affection for murder/crime fiction and comment on familiar tropes of the genre, unaware of what is happening under their noses. This device would be used again by Hitchcock on multiple occasions, most notably in his film Rope.
The film was shot on location in Santa Rosa, California where the story is set. In addition to using many prominent buildings in the town, local residents were used as extras and even in a handful of small speaking roles.
Starring in the film are Joseph Cotten (a recent breakout actor from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons), and Teresa Wright, fresh off an Oscar win from her work on the film Mrs. Miniver. Also appearing are Henry Travers Hume Cronyn, and Patricia Collinge, the latter contributing to the screenplay.
The release was met with critical praise across the board, and its story nominated for an Academy Award. It is regarded as one of Hitchcock's earliest masterpieces, and the director himself considered it a personal favorite. In 1991 the National Film Registry selected it for preservation.
Running time is approx. 1 hr, 45 min.
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