shadow of a doubt uncle charlie arriving

Claiming that they have nothing to hide, she steals the bit of paper, but can’t make anything out of it.

Stuffing it into his pocket, he goes upstairs, but Charlie is curious. He pretends to play a game with Ann where he tears up the section of the paper he was reading. Uncle Charlie finds something in the newspaper that disturbs him. A neighbor, Herbie (Hume Cronyn) shows up to discuss crime fiction with Joseph. Uncle Charlie gives everyone gifts, including a ring to Charlie that has an inscription inside, but one from someone else to someone else. Uncle Charlie distracts them so that no one does actually give us the title. During dinner that night, Emma begins to hum “The Merry Widow Waltz,” but no one can remember what it is called.

When Uncle Charlie arrives by train, they are all excited to see him, especially Charlie who feels that they are like twins, partly because she was named after him and partly because he seems to bring that excitement that she really wants out of life. Uncle Charlie’s sister, Emma (Patricia Collinge) is young Charlie’s mother and the family is completed with brainy little sister Ann (Edna May Wonacott) and a younger brother. Charlie decides to send a telegram to her uncle Charlie hoping that he will come visit them to make things more exciting and she is stunned when the telegram from her uncle arrives–she calls it mental telepathy that they were thinking of the same thing at the same time.

Her father, Joseph (Henry Travers) can’t understand her, but promises that things will get better. His niece, Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) lies around her bedroom bored to tears with her life in the small town and wonders if anything exciting will ever happen. He sends a telegram to his family in Santa Rosa, California, informing them that he will soon arrive for a visit. His landlady tells him that two men have been looking for him, so he languidly gets himself together, goes downstairs and immediately loses the two men who are following him. The opening credits show a ballroom with couples dancing to “The Merry Widow Waltz,” an image that will be reprised throughout the movie.Ĭharlie Oakley (Joseph Cotton) lies on his bed in some nameless Eastern city, a pile of money laying on his bedside table. This review contains plot spoilers, so beware reading the entire summary below if you want to be surprised! It combines many of his best filmmaking techniques, it is tremendously suspenseful, and the very heart of the movie is loss of innocence.

Of all the films Hitchcock made in his lifetime, this was his very favorite. Is this Alfred Hitchcock’s best movie? The Master thought so.

Shadow of a doubt uncle charlie arriving