Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Essay assignment question: The notion that "the image doesn’t lie" is a traditional cultural platitude, but Hitchcock would probably argue that "the image is deceptive." Indeed, Hitchcock's films often explore a disjointed relationship between "image" or "appearance" and "truth." Offer a careful analysis (segmentation) of the dinner scene(s) in Shadow of a Doubt

Charming home-cooked dinners

In the following dinner scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt we see that reality is not as it seems. Dinners are reunions of loved ones and they are meant to bring joy. The reality of these dinners is that they are not charming, but interactions of deception among personalities.

In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Uncle Charlie has just moved from Philadelphia to live with his sister and her family in Santa Rosa. We learn further in the film that he is a murderer and knowing this on re-watching of the film one can see the faux reality that Uncle Charlie’s creates. We see in the first dinner scenes how he wants to be seen. At the dinner Uncle Charlie presents himself as a wealthy man who has travelled and lived on a yacht. The truth is that we saw him living in a seedy one room boarding house in Philadelphia and he is a bitter murderer.

He bestows gifts on the family that appear to be from a kind and generous uncle. The reality is that the items were purchased with money he stole from wealthy widows he seduced and killed. One present is even a ring engraved with a dead woman’s initials.

Instead of having happy Uncle Charlie that Niece Charlie dreamed of having and bringing happiness to her family, Uncle Charlie begins talking about how the world was a wonderful place then and is not now.

This pessimistic attitude is countered by Charlie’s ear to ear smiles that they are all happy now. They are happy now, but soon more dark shadows will come to the family via Uncle Charlie.

There is a second dinner scene. Between the first and second dinner scene Charlie was talked to by a detective. He starts to crumble her happy bubble as he informs her that her uncle is one of two men that they want to arrest. He does not specify the criminal activity. He has cast a shadow of a doubt that causes her to investigate her uncle. At the library she finds an article about the Merry Widow Murderer and sees one widows initials on the inside of Uncle Charlie gifted ring to her. She knows he is the killer.

Charlie’s attitude begins to darken and change as she has the weight on her shoulders of being the only one that knows that her uncle is an evil presence in the house.

The second dinner scene begins with Charlie snapping at her mother who is humming the merry widow tune. It is a sweet tune just as Uncle Charlie was supposed to bring happiness; the happy tune is now horrific as she knows her uncle is the Merry Widow Murderer.

Little Ann feels the undercurrent of something being wrong with her uncle when she asks to switch seats and not have to sit next to him. These are foreboding signs at the start of the second dinner. The truth is out and now Charlie has to sit at dinner with her family and uncle knowing that he is a murder but she can’t say or do anything about it. It is a kind of trapped nightmare.

Charlie’s first comment to her uncle in fact is about her dreaming ‘perfect nightmares’ about him. “I slept alright, and I kept dreaming perfect nightmares about you, Uncle Charlie...You were on a train, and I had a feeling you were running away from something. And, and I saw you on the train and I felt terribly happy...Well, he has to leave sometime. I mean, we all realize he has to leave sometime. We have to face the facts.”

This is Charlie’s first negative jab at her uncle. The second is when she tells him he can throw away the newspaper, “we don't need to play any games with it tonight." At this time he senses a change in her attitude as he looks down and thinks after this comment. She has changed and is darkening but he is smart conman and can pick up on things about people.

Her mother is giddy over Uncle Charlie bringing wine for dinner and that he promised to give a talk to the ladies in her club. This begins his diatribe against women. He says women here keep themselves busy but city women are different: “middle-aged widows, husbands dead.” He says the widows are left with a lot of money that their husbands worked for all their lives. The widows waste the money on the best hotels, on bridge and jewelry. They are “Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.”

Charlie raises her voice and declares, "They're alive! They're human beings!" He nastily replies, "Are they? Are they Charlie? or are they fat wheezing animals, ?” She looks away from him, he is confirming to her what she already knows but hearing it from him disgusts and worries her.

As Charlie sits there tormented, her father and his friend talk about murders. Charlie finally loses her composure and yells at both of them, “Do you always have to talk about killing people?”

“Can’t we have a little peace and quiet here without dragging in poisons all the time?” The Charlie at the beginning of the film talking sweetly to her parents in her bedroom would never have talked to her family that way.

Charlie runs out of the house and her mother is worried that something is wrong with her. Uncle Charlie takes this chance to run after her to confront her about his suspicion that she suspects him. The scene concludes with him confessing to her but asking for her silence. She replies,” How could you do such things we thought you were the most wonderful man in the world.” She had illusions of who she wanted him to be but the reality she found was a nightmare.

There is in this film the obvious image of deception which is Uncle Charlie who is a murderer. The second deception is the image of the peaceful family at dinner. Every person has inner depth and tensions. They may be unexpressed tensions such as Ann wanting more attention for her reading prowess or Charlie wanting something more of her life than suburbia.

“For Alfred Hitchcock family relationships are a source of endless provocation. The family, in course of its natural and normal existence, produces the most oppressive of tensions and the calm matter-of-factness with which it does so is what it so is what makes it so frightening” (Deutelbaum 153). The reality is that there are no uncomplicated meals as humans we are too complex. Although unmeaning, there are deceptions we hold deep inside.

Works Cited

Deutelbaum, Marshall, and Leland A. Poague. A Hitchcock Reader. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Feedback from Denah. I agree with her assessment however to me it seemed to me like it was more of a story-driven question. It would have been an enormous paper if I included all the camera visuals and editing.

Your PAPER: B

"While your paper is perfectly written, it is not clear that you are talking about a film (it could be a play, a novel, etc.) - as your focus is on the story and what happens not so much HOW it is presented and constructed via editing, perspective or point of view and framing (the size of people or things in the image and what impact they have). Otherwise, nice work!"