Day 91: Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Another film in Hitchcock's cannon. Hitchcock often said this was his favourite film.

Hitchcock considered this a "family film," and his intention was to "bring violence back into the home, where it belongs." The film features the Newton family, a personification of the average American family. The family is happy, but their daughter Charlie, is bored and wants some excitement in her life. Much to her delight, her uncle Charlie (whom she is named after) decides to come for a visit. Charlie does indeed bring some excitement to the family, as police after him as a potential suspect in a series of murders.

Joseph Cotton is excellent as Uncle Charlie, and he makes the film. The film is somewhat irregular for a Hitchcock film in that the audience is aware of Charlie's guilt from the beginning, so it's not a case of mistaken identity as is Hitchcock's standard mode-of-operation, but instead, the film is carried on the performance of Cotton. The film highlights that horror can be very close to home, even at one's own dining room table. At a time when WW2 was ravaging the world, and Americans were fearing evils abroad, they were reminded that evil can be found a lot closer, and in the least suspecting places.