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Movie Monday - Shadow of a Doubt
As the US Supreme Court hears arguments to decide if Obamacare (and he is beginning to "own" that appellation, though it started as a right-wing slam, and wear it with pride.) is constitutional or not, let's go back almost 70 years and look at a classic movie which looks at evil in our backyard.
In fact, Alfred Hitchcock spent his film career presenting evil in mundane situations. Most of the time, his protagonists are plodding along with average lives (whether it's the Robert Cummings character in Saboteur, the Margaret Lockwood character is The Lady Vanishes or the Teresa Wright character in Shadow of a Doubt) when fate intervenes to spiral them on a different, deadly path.
It's Shadow of a Doubt which I want to recommend viewing today. It's been on my movie package recently and although it's almost a septuagenarian it's even fresher and edgier than it must have appeared when it was first released in 1943 during the dark days of the Hays' Office Movie Code. (Was the revelation that Uncle Charlie was OK until his childhood bike accident [therefore he was somatically not genetically "warped"] a sop to that office?)
Hitchcock has said that this movie was a favorite of his and given his penchant for showing the underbelly of respectability that makes sense.
For those of you who don't know this movie, a very short summary: Niece Charlie living with a charming family in a prosaic middle America town is delighted when her Uncle Charlie (for whom she is named) comes for an extended visit. Soon she and we learn Uncle Charlie may be hiding a dark, murderous side and Charlie must "save" her family.
As summarized, it could be a CGI action thriller from today but SoaD relies only on nuance and mind games and as we watch Uncle Charlie rapidly becomes a pillar of the community, Charlie begins to unravel his layers of evil and we watch both of them engaged in a battle for survival.
Though stylized camera shots and evocative music, Hitchcock quietly says: This is real evil right in your backyard. You really don't have to go out into the world to find it.
Watch Charlie emerge from her cocoon of family protection into an avenging angel and don't miss the shot of her black suit with its replica of Zeus' thunderbolt worn as a very large suit pin (talk about symbolism!) just before she enters the train on which Uncle Charlie is leaving town.
Hitchcock ties up the pieces at the end and you get your happy ending. Uncle Charlie is dispatched, Charlie gets her man but then.......
As you look at that train scene, we, the audience, know that Charlie has positive proof of her uncle's guilt but she is still allowing him to leave town even though she has been told by the detectives they could lose his trail if this happens. However, knowing her mother would be devastated with a scandal involving her brother, Charlie is willing to move Uncle Charlie along to other venue where Hitchcock leave no doubt that he will continue his murderous ways. (The coquettish wave he gets from a middle-aged woman passenger says all.)
Of course, in proper Hollywood style, Uncle Charlie gets his "just desserts"; assisted by his niece but only because she is fighting for her life. We can assume that if Uncle Charlie had left quietly, Charlie would have allowed this. And that's what makes Hitchcock so fascinating after all these years. He is probably the most equivocal director using that most unequivocal props. Here they are a young virginal girl, a happy family, and a perfect home town. First you watch Hitchcock for the story; then you watch him for what's really happening.
I could write a book about Hitchcock. In fact, as I type I have before me The Art of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto which will take you further into the world of this film genius. Take a look at this book but then don't forget to watch the films. They are the gift that keeps on giving.
In fact, Alfred Hitchcock spent his film career presenting evil in mundane situations. Most of the time, his protagonists are plodding along with average lives (whether it's the Robert Cummings character in Saboteur, the Margaret Lockwood character is The Lady Vanishes or the Teresa Wright character in Shadow of a Doubt) when fate intervenes to spiral them on a different, deadly path.
It's Shadow of a Doubt which I want to recommend viewing today. It's been on my movie package recently and although it's almost a septuagenarian it's even fresher and edgier than it must have appeared when it was first released in 1943 during the dark days of the Hays' Office Movie Code. (Was the revelation that Uncle Charlie was OK until his childhood bike accident [therefore he was somatically not genetically "warped"] a sop to that office?)
Hitchcock has said that this movie was a favorite of his and given his penchant for showing the underbelly of respectability that makes sense.
For those of you who don't know this movie, a very short summary: Niece Charlie living with a charming family in a prosaic middle America town is delighted when her Uncle Charlie (for whom she is named) comes for an extended visit. Soon she and we learn Uncle Charlie may be hiding a dark, murderous side and Charlie must "save" her family.
As summarized, it could be a CGI action thriller from today but SoaD relies only on nuance and mind games and as we watch Uncle Charlie rapidly becomes a pillar of the community, Charlie begins to unravel his layers of evil and we watch both of them engaged in a battle for survival.
Though stylized camera shots and evocative music, Hitchcock quietly says: This is real evil right in your backyard. You really don't have to go out into the world to find it.
Watch Charlie emerge from her cocoon of family protection into an avenging angel and don't miss the shot of her black suit with its replica of Zeus' thunderbolt worn as a very large suit pin (talk about symbolism!) just before she enters the train on which Uncle Charlie is leaving town.
Hitchcock ties up the pieces at the end and you get your happy ending. Uncle Charlie is dispatched, Charlie gets her man but then.......
As you look at that train scene, we, the audience, know that Charlie has positive proof of her uncle's guilt but she is still allowing him to leave town even though she has been told by the detectives they could lose his trail if this happens. However, knowing her mother would be devastated with a scandal involving her brother, Charlie is willing to move Uncle Charlie along to other venue where Hitchcock leave no doubt that he will continue his murderous ways. (The coquettish wave he gets from a middle-aged woman passenger says all.)
Of course, in proper Hollywood style, Uncle Charlie gets his "just desserts"; assisted by his niece but only because she is fighting for her life. We can assume that if Uncle Charlie had left quietly, Charlie would have allowed this. And that's what makes Hitchcock so fascinating after all these years. He is probably the most equivocal director using that most unequivocal props. Here they are a young virginal girl, a happy family, and a perfect home town. First you watch Hitchcock for the story; then you watch him for what's really happening.
I could write a book about Hitchcock. In fact, as I type I have before me The Art of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto which will take you further into the world of this film genius. Take a look at this book but then don't forget to watch the films. They are the gift that keeps on giving.
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