train scene erect shadow of a doubt hitchcock

Psychotic serial widow murderer Uncle Charlie (an unnerving Joseph Cotton) hides from the authorities with his sister’s family in small town Santa Rosa. Shadow of a Doubt, co-written by Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s lifelong creative and romantic partner, with a huge assist by Our Town playwright Thornton Wilder, tells a darker, more unsettling, contained tale. Saboteur is Hitch in full tilt entertainment and escapist mode.

The picture is an underrated gem part of the Hitch “Accused Person on the Run who must prove their own innocence” genre he perfected, most notably in The 39 Steps (1935) and North By Northwest (1959). Saboteur, a rip roaring comic cross country adventure follows unfairly accused wartime factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) and suspicious yet whipsmart billboard model Patricia (Priscilla Lane) as they try to prove Barry is innocent of murder and sabotage. The two movies also share a distinction of showing, in snapshot, two sides of Hitchcock’s filmography. He even used the same cinematographer, Joseph Valentine, who would work one more time with Hitch on 1948’s Rope. Hitchcock made Saboteur (1942) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943) back to back.

Train scene erect shadow of a doubt hitchcock