Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten and Macdonald Carey in the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Shadow of a Doubt’

We return to the domain of psychological thriller with a look into Alfred Hitchcock‘s Shadow of a Doubt (1943). In what Alfred Hitchcock‘s daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, confirms here that Shadow of a Doubt was the director’s favorite of his own films owing to “the thought of bringing menace into a small town.” The screenplay was written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson and Alma Reville based on an original story by Gordon McDonell.

(From left, Teresa Wright as Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton and Joseph Cotten as Charles ‘Uncle Charlie’ Oakley in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt).

Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton, portrayed by Teresa Wright, is a bored teenager living with her family in Santa Rosa, California. Charles Oakley, having lived alone in a rooming house in New York when becoming aware of a pair of men waiting for him, flees to the community of Santa Rosa. Charles, or Uncle Charlie to Charlotte, gives his niece an emerald ring with engraved initials not belonging to his niece included within. Joseph Cotten portrayed Charles Oakley.

(From left, Patricia Collinge as Emma Newton, Teresa Wright as Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton, Joseph Cotton as Charles ‘Uncle Charlie’ Oakley, Henry Travers as Joseph Newton, Charles Bates as Roger Newton and Edna May Wonacott as Ann Newton in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt).

Patricia Collinge portrayed Emma Newton, the mother to Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton and sister to Charles ‘Uncle Charlie’ Oakley. Henry Travers portrays Joseph Newton, Emma’s husband and a banker whose bank would benefit from a deposit of $40,000 that Charles Oakley also looks to make; in contemporary valuation, that amounts to nearly $635,000. Edna May Wonacott and Charles Bates portrayed Charlotte’s siblings and other children to Emma and Joseph, respectively Ann Newton and Roger Newton.

(Macdonald Carey as Detective Jack Graham, Teresa Wright as Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton and Wallace Ford as Detective Fred Saunders in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt).

Two men appear on the heels of Uncle Charlie, ostensibly to interview members of the Newton household about the typical day in the family’s household. While a clear if implausible ruse given that detectives Jack Graham and Fred Sanders are with law enforcement, the family is slower to recognize the implications than Uncle Charlie. Charlotte isn’t far behind, having been asked out by the younger detective. Graham eventually acknowledges the suspicion central to a mystery that we’ll not mention for wishing to invite you to see where circumstances lead. Macdonald Carey portrayed Detective Jack Graham, whereas Wallace Ford portrayed Detective Fred Saunders.

(From left, Henry Travers as Joseph Newton and Hume Cronyn as Herbie Hawkins in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt).

Part of that unspoken mystery in humorously yet quite tantalizingly discussed between Newton family father, Joseph, and friend Herbie Hawkins discuss means for committing the perfect crime. Hume Cronyn portrays Hawkins. Herbie and Joseph trigger emotional responses from Uncle Charlie and Charlotte, who seek to protect different interests for quite distinct personal reasons. The intrigue grows to a fever pitch, with resolution coming in perhaps the least expected of ways.

(From left, actress Teresa Wright and director Alfred Hitchcock on set of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt).

The means of resolving the larger mystery between the antagonists and the protagonist has every bit of modern feeling to them as any movie that could be delivered today. The cinema of the solution shows weakness that being more than 78-years-old doesn’t explain away, though the suspense is no less true or compelling. I grant Shadow of a Doubt as directed by Alfred Hitchcock 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, November 6, 2021

Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore and the film ‘Citizen Kane’

The screenplay for the influential film Citizen Kane (1941) was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. The movie asks the fundamental question of what is a man, with the central figure of Charles Foster Kane ostensibly a compilation of William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Herbert Bayard Swope, Samuel Insull and Harold Fowler McCormick.

(Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in the film co-written, directed and starring Orson Welles, Citizen Kane).

Orson Welles starred as Charles Foster Kane in the film Citizen Kane, which he directed and co-wrote. The film begins with a turn of good fate that becomes a bane of the Foster Kane experience, though the reasons underpinning why aren’t really understood for much of the film. That the film uses the notion of flashback and multiple points of view through the course of the storytelling was highly innovative for the time and place in movie production.

(From left, Harry Shannon as Jim Kane, Kane’s father, George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, a banker who becomes Charles Foster Kane‘s legal guardian and Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane, Charles Foster Kane mother in Citizen Kane).

The beginning notion of this, of course, begins with the opening death of Charles Foster Kane at his Xanadu estate. We are introduced to the newsreel of Kane’s life, and the subsequent introduction of the underpinnings of a fortune and legal guardianship transfer from the home of Jim and Mary Kane to Walter Parks Thatcher. Harry Shannon, Agnes Moorehead and George Coulouris portray Kane, Kane and Parks Thatcher, respectively.

(From left, Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, Charles Foster Kane‘s best friend and a reporter for The Inquirer, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane and Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane’s friend and employee at The Inquirer in Citizen Kane).

Moving from the care of his parents to an accumulated wealth through the seed money from his parents in combination with the astute investing of Walter Parks Thatcher led to Charles Foster Kane moving into the newspaper business. An antagonism campaign through a brand of disreputable management of his newspapers led to a vanity perhaps rivaled only in the pages of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The effort led to a diminishing financial base, a dubious political career, and a quick transition from one marriage to another.

(From left, Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys, Charles Foster Kane‘s political rival for Governor of New York, Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane, Kane’s mistress and second wife, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane and Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane, Charles Foster Kane‘s first wife and niece to a United States president in Citizen Kane).

Ruth Warrick and Dorothy Comingore portrayed Emily Monroe Norton Kane and Susan Alexander Kane, the first and second wives of Charles Foster Kane. In looking for a measure of the man that Charles Foster Kane was and meant to be, the energy that Foster Kane put into his marriages in comparison to his newspapers, his political campaigns, his advocacy for the welfare of the less fortunate, and his means of defining love were all factors that very well offers hints to where the film was going. The rest of the way to the message of the film is something I leave for you and the film.

(Xanadu, the palatial estate of Charles Foster Kane, as presented in the film Citizen Kane. The name of the estate was inspired by an “opium-induced vision that English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge recorded in the poetic fragment” Kubla Khan).

The film Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning one for original screenplay. The means by which the storytelling and revelation of important facts in flashback and means that did not follow a linear format was both appreciated and executed well. That the impact offered the ability to really understand the measure of a man, without the people of the film really getting to take that measure, was ironic for the man. That the large impact of that allowed for looking back to what came before, too, definitely translates to the award that Citizen Kane did take home. I give Citizen Kane 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, March 31, 2021