Shadow of a Doubt (1943) on Netflix
In Santa Rosa, California, bored teenager Charlotte Newton longs for excitement. It arrives when her charming Uncle Charlie comes to stay, and two strangers begin asking questions about him.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1076,127 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Charlotte Newton, called Charlie, is bored by her routine in Santa Rosa, California, and thinks a visit from her sophisticated Uncle Charlie Oakley would liven things up. A telegram confirms he is coming, and his arrival delights the family and the town; he brings gifts, including an emerald ring for his niece. Charlie notices initials engraved inside it, which her uncle says the jeweler never mentioned. Two men posing as census takers arrive asking questions and trying to photograph him, and he refuses to answer them. Charlie begins to wonder what the uncle she adores is hiding from the family.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Estelle Jewellas Catherine
- Bill Batesas Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- Charles Blackas Teenager (uncredited)
- Harold Bostockas Bank Teller (uncredited)
- Nadine Dabneyas Girl Riding Bicycle (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Margaret McDonell, who led David Selznick's story department, told Hitchcock that her husband Gordon had an idea for a novel called "Uncle Charlie". It was based on Earle Nelson, a serial killer of the late 1920s known as "the Gorilla Man".
- Patrick McGilligan said Alfred Hitchcock first wanted William Powell as Uncle Charlie, but MGM would not lend him. Powell played Uncle Charlie in a Lux Radio Theater version with Teresa Wright.
- Alfred Hitchcock picked Edna May Wonacott to play Ann Newton while they waited for a bus. She had never acted before and Hitchcock's daughter coached her between takes.
- The film's night exterior scenes were lit with two generator sets, ten 150-ampere arc spotlights, and incandescent lights, totaling 3,000 amperes of electrical capacity, enough to light four city blocks. The crew finished the last night scene just hours before the Pacific Coast's wartime "dim-out" order went into effect.
- The stone railway station seen in Shadow of a Doubt was built in 1904 for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. It is among the few commercial buildings in central Santa Rosa that survived the earthquake of April 18, 1906.
- The Italianate-style house used for exterior shots of the Newton family home was built in 1872 and, as of 2024, is still standing at 904 McDonald Avenue in Santa Rosa.
- In his score, Dimitri Tiomkin uses Franz Lehár's "Merry Widow Waltz" as a leitmotif for Uncle Charlie and his serial murders, often distorted. The melody becomes an earworm for several characters, and Uncle Charlie distracts Young Charlie when she nearly identifies it at the dinner table.
- In 1991, Shadow of a Doubt was chosen by the Library of Congress for the United States National Film Registry, which deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
