Religious theme
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Shadow of a Doubt
dlynch843 — 10 years ago(July 17, 2015 07:59 AM)
Young Charley is hopingpraying for a miracle when we first see her.
She's an intelligent person going through a tough time, mentally. But she's sees her Uncle Charley as a Saviour. The whole scene of Young Charely engineering a meeting with her Uncle has an other-worldly feel in this middle class householdher father half-rising out of his chair in wonderment over the coincidence of Uncle Charly and Young Charly crossing messageswe next see Young Charly at the telegram office, where the sound has an echo-y feel and she speaks of 'telepathy'but the mundane clerk doesn't get it. When Charly walks out of the office, she says in rapture, 'He heard me, He heard me.' Her prayer for a miracle has been answered.
But I think Hitch wants to tell a story of how a naive and simplistic religious look on life doesn't see life as it really is.
The most telling example of this is when Young Charly is walking back from churchand her Uncle is thereand he compares going to church to going to the movieshe wants to know if 'interest has fallen off.because the show's been going on so long" This is the most subversive line in a movie from the 40s I ever heard.
Or from any time,really. But Hitchcock always got away with controversial lines.
One more exampleright after the scene where her Uncle says he's going to stay
Young Charly is all by herself in her knowledgenot just about Uncle Charly, but I think she's doubting her belief in God. She looks UP at at he sky, with the knowledge that there's nothing up there to help her. It devastates her. Hitch could've shot her looking downwardbut It's important that she's looking up and seeing nothing. -
tmaj48 — 10 years ago(July 21, 2015 08:07 AM)
Uncle Charlie expresses contempt for religion because, as a psychopath, he sees
himself as a kind of a god, being able to decide who is immoral enough (in this
case, rich widows) to punish with death.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.