![]() ![]() Among other things, this has the impact of emphasizing the darkness of Uncle Charlie’s room. To start, it occurs right after a quick snapshot of comforting neighborhood activity: young kids tossing a ball around in the beautiful afternoon sun. The opening shot of Cotten’s Uncle Charlie - which shows him lying on his bed, straight as a board - is intensely creepy for a few reasons. And this connection is never made more provocatively than in the introductory shots for each character, two frighteningly similar compositions that simultaneously speak to character-related concerns and Hitchcock’s larger thematic interests: evil lurking in the shadows of a hyper-idealized small-town. ![]() As Hitchcock shows us, they are linked on a subliminal level, too, an unconscious current that connects their thoughts, dreams and desires. ![]() ![]() The film’s crucial relationship is that between Uncle Charlie (Cotten) and his niece, Young Charlie ( Teresa Wright), two people bonded by name and blood. Much of the power in Shadow of a Doubt stems from its eerie, disquieting examination of the effects of blood-related ties. In this vein, then, it’s reasonable to praise Stoker as one of those rare remakes that’s able to embody both the surface elements (character names, plotting) and hidden undercurrents (the shadow world, the presence of the supernatural, incestuous desire) of an original work. But a closer look at Hitchcock’s film reveals a deeper, more spiritual connection between the two works - one revolving around the vampire mythos. At this point, comparisons between the two films have remained generally superficial, the most obvious cue being a name, Uncle Charlie, shared the by respective characters of Joseph Cotten and Matthew Goode. This month, however, sees its individual, standalone release on the format, and the timing couldn’t be more appropriate, for Park Chan-wook’s Stoker - an explicit reworking of Hitchcock’s 1943 small-town thriller - receives its own Blu-ray release today. Note: The following piece contains spoilers for both Shadow of a Doubt and Stoker.Īlfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt is already available on Blu-ray, as a component of the sizeable Hitchcock box-set that was released last October. ![]()
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