 When Uncle Charlie comes to visit his relatives in the sleepy town of Santa Rosa, the foundation is laid for one of his most engaging and suspenseful excursions. Joseph Cotton stars as the charming Uncle Charlie, a beguiling killer who travels from Philadelphia to California just one step ahead of the law. But soon his unknowing niece and namesake, "Young Charlie" (Teresa Wright), begins to suspect her uncle of being the Merry Widow murderer, and a deadly game of cat-and-mouse begins. As his niece draws closer to the truth, the psychopathic killer has no choice but to plot the death of his favorite relative in one of Hitchcock's most riveting psychological thrillers. Storyline: Charlotte 'Charlie' Newton is bored with her quiet life at home with her parents and her younger sister. She wishes something exciting would happen and knows exactly what they need: a visit from her sophisticated and much traveled uncle Charlie Oakley, her mother's younger brother. Imagine her delight when, out of the blue, they receive a telegram from uncle Charlie announcing that he is coming to visit them for awhile. Charlie Oakley creates quite a stir and charms the ladies club as well as the bank president where his brother-in-law works. Young Charlie begins to notice some odd behavior on his part, such as cutting out a story in the local paper about a man who marries and then murders rich widows. When two strangers appear asking questions about him, she begins to imagine the worse about her dearly beloved uncle Charlie. Written by garykmcd Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on October 31, 2012 -- A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later? Serial killers weren't exactly the stuff of screen legend in 1943. Such bloodthirsty roles didn't garner much Academy respect, attract the attention of Hollywood stars or warrant their own television shows, much less fill audiences with anything more complex than dread. Hitchcock didn't flinch. Even with seventy years of gray in its wiry beard, Shadow of a Doubt remains one of the droll director's best; an undisputed masterpiece that has sadly, tragically fallen into obscurity. I'd wager most of you have never even heard of Hitchcock's second Universal picture, much less sampled its still-unnerving portrait of a monster hiding in plain sight. Joseph Cotten is both the killer and the idyllic mask of a smalltown man he wears, and it's in his performance as Uncle Charlie that the film gains traction and, soon, nail-biting momentum. Teresa Wright isn't overshadowed in the role of his niece either, solidifying Hitch's knack for casting as one of his foremost talents. Unlike Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt finds the director in complete control, taking calculated risks and reaping the rewards of his own filmmaking and storytelling prowess. Others would have concealed Charlie's true nature, delivering the revelation as a shocking turn of events as the film wound down. Hitchcock, though, plays his hand almost from the outset, sacrificing the surprise of a late-game plot twist for the slowburn, three-act suspense that permeates his greatest films. And because we're not the only ones privy to dear Uncle Charlie's extracurricular activities, his ability to come and go as he pleases is that much more disconcerting. Dexter and its ilk wouldn't exist without Shadow of a Doubt, and no Masterpiece Collection would be able to live up to its name without it. No Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection would be complete without Shadow of a Doubt, a classic only rivaled by the likes of Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho. And while it's a shame most people have never seen the film, there's no time like the present. Universal's Blu-ray edition is a strong one, backed by a striking restoration, a near-perfect video transfer and a solid DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix. Additional extras would have been most welcome -- and deserved -- but that doesn't prevent Shadow of a Doubt from taking its place near the head of the Masterpiece Collection table. Cameo: Shadow of a Doubt - 1942 - 0:17 - On the train to Santa Rosa, playing cards, back to the camera. Cast Notes: Teresa Wright (Young Charlie), Joseph Cotten (Uncle Charlie), Macdonald Carey (Jack Graham), Henry Travers (Joseph Newton), Patricia Collinge (Emma Newton), Hume Cronyn (Herbie Hawkins), Wallace Ford (Fred Saunders), Edna May Wonacott (Ann Newton), Charles Bates (Roger Newton), Irving Bacon (Station Master), Clarence Muse (Pullman Porter), Janet Shaw (Louise), Estelle Jewell (Catherine). IMDb Rating (07/25/14): 8.0/10 from 38,153 users IMDb Rating (12/22/12): 8.0/10 from 30,512 users Top 250: #239
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