Shadow of a Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

What Is It?: A thriller of the highest order about an Uncle who may not be what he seems to his loving neice.

What About It?: Maybe Hitchcock's greatest film, oddly and woefully overlooked among contemporary film lovers, this is truly a Lost Classic in every sense of the term. The primary pleasure in this is you may not have seen it, and now you get to. Shadow boasts what might be Hitch's best screenplay -- written, in part, by Thornton Wilder, and a sublime performance from Joseph Cotten as Uncle Charlie and an atypical Hitchcock heroine (not blonde, not evil, not doomed) in Teresa Wright. It's about family, identity and loss of innocence.

Why Should I See It?: Because you love movies and you want to see one of the best ever made. Duh.

What Else Is It Like?: The Fallen Idol, Suspicion, Blue Velvet.

Reserve it at the Multnomah County Library.

-- ddt/pdx