Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright
Hitchcock

I've said this before, elsewhere, but I can never shake the feeling that Hitchcock is ever-so-subtly mocking his actors.  At least in his American movies.

Shadow of a Doubt takes place in an idyllic Southern California town.  Joseph Cotten, uncle Charlie, is a serial murderer.  His face is often cast in shadow to show us that HE'S HIDING SOMETHING.  Teresa Wright is younger Charlie, and, when big Charlie comes to visit, she's the one who gets wise to him.

"AND IT'S ALL MENTAL!!!"
Chill out, Teresa.

In another absolutely inexplicable choice of casting, MacDonald Carey, who was one of the main characters in Days of Our Lives for years and years, plays Teresa's love interest.  Hitchcock had good taste in actors; generally speaking, his lead actors tend to be pretty solid; take Cary Grant, his favorite leading man, for instance.  MacDonald Carey just so... smarmy.  Ugh.  Teresa Wright is another odd choice; she tends to play ingenues with overactive thyroids, and she annoys the crap out of me.

Check out this dialogue:

Teresa: Mrs. Henderson, do you believe in telepathy?
telegraph operator : Well, I ought to. That's my business.
Teresa: Oh, not telegraphy. Mental telepathy. Like, well, suppose you have a thought, and suppose the thought's about someone you're in tune with, and then across thousands of miles, that person knows what you're thinking about and answers you, and it's ALL MENTAL!!

Which wouldn't be so bad if Wright didn't all but shriek the last bit.

There's another scene where big Charlie brings little Charlie into a seedy bar and it turns out the waitress is an old friend.  Big Charlie tells little Charlie that they are the same, and little Charlie recoils.  Then big Charlie launches into a strange, philosophical rant.

"I didn't expect to find you in here"
although she can't be more than a year older than Charlie,
Louise is already callous and disillusioned.

..."You think you know something, don't you? You think you're the clever little girl who knows something. There's so much you don't know, so much. What do you know, really? You're just an ordinary little girl, living in an ordinary little town. You wake up every morning of your life and you know perfectly well that there's nothing in the world to trouble you. You go through your ordinary little day, and at night you sleep your untroubled ordinary little sleep, filled with peaceful stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly, inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie. Use your wits. Learn something."

Oh Hitchcock, you pessimist, you.