Things I learned from watching this drivel
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Shadow of a Doubt
nomad472002 — 11 years ago(November 13, 2014 06:25 AM)
- It is possible for a man to marry and murder several merry widows, without ever having been photographed
- A man who has obtained $40,000 by murder will leave the money casually strewn about his rooming house room.
- A dotty old landlady who finds said $40,000 in $1,000 bills strewn about said rooming house room, will think nothing of it.
- A man travelling across the country from coast to coast will be followed by police, even though they don't know what the man they are looking for looks like.
- If there is an article in the paper about murders you have committed, it is a good idea to draw attention to yourself by trying to remove said article, since your brother in law will immediately suspect you if he reads the article.
- It is a good idea to give someone a ring obtained by murder, without first checking to see if there is any engraving inside.
- It is a good idea to open a bank account, and deposit $40,000 in $1,000 bills.
- If you suspect someone of something, perhaps murder, it is a good idea to confront them with your suspicions. It is an even better idea not to go to the police, or to reveal your suspicions when they come to you.
- A middle-aged woman will allow two men into her home to do a "survey".
- Bad news can kill a middle-aged woman.
- It is possible to sabotage a stair plank, without leaving any marks on the wood.
- When caught in a garage with a car engine running, it is not possible for a woman to kick open a flimsy garage door, or to drive the car through it.
- If police suspect one of two men of murder, if one of them flees and is killed, they will immediately conclude that he is the guilty party.
- If a police detective leaves several addresses where he may be reached, a woman in distress will not be able to find him at any of them.
- A woman on a train will not notice the departure of the train until it is moving too fast to get off. She will not be able to extricate herself from a man's grasp.
- Police will not arrest a man in a small town to avoid embarrassment. Instead, they will attempt to arrest him as he flees.
- When discussing at dinner the murder of several merry widows, it is a good idea to lament the worthlessness of their lives, and compare them to animals.
- A man who is unable to throw a woman from a train can succeed in throwing himself off the train.
Good grief.
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Trax-3 — 9 years ago(September 21, 2016 08:50 PM)
The suspension of disbelief involved in watching any fictional film must be especially traumatizing for you. I suggest you never watch any fictional film again.
The suspension of disbelief required here is far greater than in your average movie.
Frankly, it requires more than I could spare.
Still, the film is solid to about half way point, then it falls apart for me, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot to like here. The film isn't stagebound like so many of his films nor is it infested with injudicious use of poor special effects so typical of Hitchcock.
Hitchcock made more than a few great films but he also made a lot of mediocre to decent thrillers and this is one of them. -
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Trax-3 — 9 years ago(September 23, 2016 03:20 PM)
I've currently rated 510 feature films on IMDB, most them falling into two groups - late 30s to early 50s and 2000+. Mind you, I tend to watch films that interest me and mostly those that are well regarded, I don't really come across truly bad films very often if at all.
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avatar1140 — 11 years ago(November 13, 2014 06:15 PM)
To your credit, I agree with most of these, especially with 18. However, we have been spoiled in this day and age by top-notch premium cable shows (like Dexter) whose attention to detail is extraordinary. Dexter (specifically seasons 1 through 5) is far more believable as a serial killer than Uncle Charles. You would never hear Dexter say a monologue about his victims, the way Charles did, in front of others for example.
All in all, I think the film still scores as a work of art. Perhaps not "believable" enough for a modern audience, though. -
moviebuf-11 — 11 years ago(November 30, 2014 06:55 PM)
I love this movie but do have to agree with some of your observations. I think I might be able to challenge a few of them, but mostly from memory. I need to see it again to be sure
- Do they ever say that he actually married any of the women he killed? I thought he just kind of ingratiated himself into their lives and then stole whatever money, jewelry, etc. he could get his hands on. Unless there was an actual wedding, it's not necessarily unusual that they wouldn't have any photographs of him lying around. (Or, maybe he was careful enough to destroy any incriminating pictures before he fled.) He made a point of telling his sister that no pictures of him existed.
- I agree it's wildly unlikely that Joseph would have read a newpaper article about the shadowy Merry Widow Killer and said, "I'll bet that's my good ol' brother-in-law Charlie!", but I think it was more a way of showing how paranoid Charlie was becoming. He was a complex character, teetering between hubris (like his openness about his money, see #7) and paranoia. Finding a story about the murders in the local paper in California might have jolted him into realizing he wasn't any safer there than he was on the east coast.
- Totally valid points, but if young Charlie had gone to the police right away the movie would have been 30 minutes long. Plus, in her mind she was trying to "protect" her family from the scandal about her uncle, however misguided that decision was. Back in those days a big scandal like that could stigmatize the entire family, unlike today's 24/7 news cycle where scandals are pretty much a daily occurrence, cause some eyerolls, and then are forgetten quickly.
- It's not a stretch to believe an early 1940s "housewife" would have allowed what she believed to be quasi-government agents to come into her home for a survey about the "average" American family. People had a much different view of government agents back then than they do today, and the 1940s were a time of WW II-era patriotism and strong support for government and country.
- Young Charlie's mother idealized her brother to such a degree that young Charlie was afraid it would literally break her mother's heart to find out who he really was. Certainly illogical, but young Charlie led a quiet, sheltered life and was shattered to find out the truth about the uncle she hero-worshipped, so she assumed it would be even harder on her fragile mother.
- Most people don't scrutinize each step as they walk up a flight of stairs at their own home, so it's not a stretch to think Charlie wouldn't have noticed that a plank was loose before she went upstairs.
- Could she have driven the car through the garage door, or was the car locked from the inside? (I can't remember if she was inside or outside the car while it was running, but I think there was a clear reason why she was unable to drive it, like it was jammed or something.)
- Jack was in love with young Charlie and wanted to spare her and the Newton family as much as possible by not arresting him in front of the entire town. This wouldn't have happened in real life, but how many old movies don't take liberties like that for the sake of romance?
- Uncle Charlie's dinner table speech about the worthlessness of the rich widows was key to showing just how reckless he was (just like flaunting the $40K), and his way of justifying to himself why they needed to be gotten out of the way. I saw that scene as one of his breaks with reality, to show what a delusional sociopath he was.
I don't know if you agree with any of these points or not, but it is a great movie and like many classics, the viewer needs to suspend a degree of disbelief.
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Moscoso1967 — 10 years ago(July 25, 2015 07:17 AM)
Well, some of your points might seem indeed implausible but are necessary for the movie. If you only want to watch movies which are "realistic" and where everything is plausible, I think you'll have a hard time finding any.
- It is never said that he'd married any of these widows!
2., 3. & 7. are there to establish the character and show the audience that there's something not quite right about him and the money. Like in "Psycho" when Janet Leigh's character changes her clothes we can see the money lying on her bed and she's changing her underwear from white to black.
If Charlie would have just arrived as a wealthy man or would have hidden the money and the audience wouldn't have seen it, he wouldn't have appeared as such a suspicious character right from the start. - They don't know what the widow killer looks like and they have no photograph of Charlie, who is one of the two suspects. But they have found out where Charlie lived and they have seen him when he left the house (so they know what he looks like, they just don't have a photograph which they could show to witnesses) and followed him.
- That's a stupid thing to do, unless there is something in the article which might seem incriminating to him, in that case it is possible he was just panicking and wanted to let the article disappear. But what the storyline about the article does is finally arouse the niece's suspicion and when she goes to the library we too finally find out what the crime is the uncle might have done.
- Again, something which would be a very stupid and unlikely thing to do but essential to the plot as this is the only real evidence which connects him to the murders (the money alone wouldn't be enough, as there could be other explanations for it, like he could have stolen it somewhere else).
- Well, she liked and idolized her uncle and therefore didn't want to believe the accusations at first. Plus if she would have gone to the police straight away this would have been a very short movie (like many other movies would be too). And by confronting him she wanted him to go (so he wouldn't be arrested in this town) and it also helps to create more tension in the movie and leads to the attempts to murder the girl.
- That isn't that implausible, if you think of all those actual cases where some gullible people let people into their house because they say they are coming from x or working for x, or give them their money because they claim to be their nephew of whom they've never heard before. And if it's someone "important" or if it seems to be an honour to be picked, e.g. if they say they come from the government or the TV, many people are just too willing to open up their doors. So, even if it's a stupid thing to do, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would fall for this trick.
- I don't know whether they meant it that literally, that she's got such a weak heart that she would die. I thought it was meant more metaphorically (but I could be wrong), and she wants to spare her mother the grief and the hurt it would cause if she would find out that her beloved younger brother is a murderer.
- She didn't look as she stepped on the stairs, but if I remember it correctly she did examine it at night.
- As a rather petite woman, I doubt I would be able to kick open a slammed garage door and I'm not sure whether a woman back then would have even thought of it. Nowadays you always see women kicking, fighting and jumping around in films, but back then it wasn't considered a very feminine thing to do, so I don't think Hitchcock would ever show a woman kicking a door open.
I agree with you, I thought she could have used the car but Hitchcock needed her trapped in the garage with seemingly no way to get out, to increase the tension and the drama, while we see the uncle deliberately trying to drown out any noise and telling everyone that there's no need to hurry. - I don't think they've just concluded that the other guy is the guilty party because he fled and was killed but didn't they find something incriminating (I can't remember that scene in detail right now)?
- That part of the plot seemed pretty silly, but it was necessary that she couldn't reach him.
- She noticed the departure of the train as soon as it started to move but couldn't get off as he was holding her back. I don't know whether you've ever been grasped by a bigger and much stronger man, but it is absolutely plausible that she wasn't able to extricate herself from his grasp.
- Well, the guy who promised not to arrest him in this town is supposed to be in love with the girl and that's the reason why he does it in this movie (actual police procedure is another thing, but it's just a fictional movie or otherwise you must hate many other crime movies and thrillers too, like "Silence of the Lambs" which is just ridiculous if you compare it to reality).
- Just another part of the story which makes him look even more guilty and sheds light on his personality and enlig
- It is never said that he'd married any of these widows!
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rsgre — 10 years ago(August 31, 2015 12:34 AM)
Good original post and good responses everyone ! Yes, I had a lot of problems with the plot the first time I saw it, but over time and multiple viewings, I forgot about them and just enjoyed the story. The plot is definitely a stretch.!!
RSGRE -
mucher1 — 9 years ago(July 09, 2016 03:33 PM)
- What $1000 bills? If you look closely, they are Mexican one peso bills, just like this one:
http://www.cdncoin.com/product-p/400165973.htm
I'm guessing the real $40K (together with the jewelry) was kept in a safe deposit box somewhere
- What $1000 bills? If you look closely, they are Mexican one peso bills, just like this one: