Shadow of a Doubt is also the first Hitchcock film to feel like an American original. Although Hitchcock was given the idea for Shadow of a Doubt from the head of Selznick’s story department, he was lent out to another studio to make it, which gave Hitchcock the artistic license he needed to craft a masterpiece. This relationship would prove to be a difficult one for Hitchcock, who chafed at too much control from the powers on high, and he did everything he could to part ways with Selznick at the earliest opportunity. He was already the most famous and successful director in his native Britain, and Rebecca reflected his various preoccupations around innocence and guilt, love and marriage, although this time it was filtered through the obsessive control of producer David O. Hitchcock arrived in America in 1939 to make his first U.S. Wherever possible, I have focused on the films of my favorite director, Alfred Hitchcock, and 1943 provides me with a doozy of a film, one of the director’s best: Shadow of a Doubt. Sometimes I simply cannot find a book that I want to read and have more luck with a good movie. I’m grateful to Rich for providing a forum for folks to share their views and opinions, and I’m especially glad that he includes films here. Anybody who wants to can select a book or film from that year and put something together.

Over at Past Offenses this month, Rich Westwood is hosting a celebration of the best mysteries of 1943.

Hitchcock shadow of a doubt analysis