![]() ![]() Shadow of a Doubt (1943) follows a widow murderer - a man who marries rich widows for their money and kills them - Charles Oakley, who goes to Santa Rosa California to escape the cops in Philadelphia who are looking for him (Spoto, 1992). The main characters in both films are doubles or doppelgangers, however the main characters are not the only things that are doubled in these two films sometimes scenes or locations are doubled as well. This paper will concentrate on two of Hitchcock’s films where the use of doubles and doppelgangers are prominent Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Strangers on a Train (1951). ![]() And as the imitative but inferior Stoker shows, it’s the kind of film that casts a long shadow.The concept of doubles and doppelgangers is prominent in many of Hitchcock’s films. It’s subversive, nail-biting, eerie, and gorgeously shot - no wonder Hitch often cited it as his finest achievement. Hitchcock picks at the placid surface of small-town America like a scab, imbuing each scene with deep-running undercurrents of menace. On the surface, Cotten is the local boy made good, but he’s actually rotten to the core. Written by Thornton Wilder, Shadow of a Doubt is essentially what would happen if you let loose a monster in Our Town. ( EXTRAS include a recycled but informative making-of documentary.) Joseph Cotten plays the original Uncle Charlie, a suave, beloved relative living with his sister’s family until his niece (Teresa Wright) uncovers the murderous secret behind his meticulously crafted facade, which propels the movie toward its iconic final sequence aboard a train. ![]() Hitchcock’s brilliant film (also newly available on Blu-ray) is still just as unnerving and masterful 70 years later. ![]()
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