50 Fun Facts About Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt held which special place among Alfred Hitchcock's own films, by his repeated account?

It was his personal favourite, a verdict Hitchcock gave television interviewers in 1969 and 1972. His daughter Pat said the same.

In Shadow of a Doubt, which quiet California town is home to young Charlie and the Newton family?

Santa Rosa played itself, because Hitchcock shot the film on location in the real town. He chose it as a picture of the average American small city.

In Shadow of a Doubt, which tune gets stuck in young Charlie's head after her uncle arrives?

The Merry Widow Waltz doubles as a clue to the killer's press nickname, and the score keeps bending it out of shape. Uncle Charlie cuts in at dinner just before she can name it.

Which Citizen Kane actor plays the charming but murderous Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt?

Joseph Cotten was a founding member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre company before Hollywood called. Hitchcock cast him as a killer an entire town adores.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what lavish gift does Uncle Charlie give his niece soon after arriving?

An emerald ring is the present, and it comes with a catch: young Charlie spots a stranger's initials engraved inside. They match one of the murder victims.

In Shadow of a Doubt, how does Uncle Charlie die while trying to murder young Charlie?

He is hit by an oncoming train after trying to throw his niece from a moving carriage. She fights back and pushes him into its path instead.

Which Pulitzer-winning playwright did Hitchcock hire to script Shadow of a Doubt's small-town world?

Thornton Wilder got the job because Hitchcock admired Our Town, his play about everyday life in a small American town. He worked from a story outline only a few pages long.

Henry Travers, the father in Shadow of a Doubt, later played which It's a Wonderful Life character?

Clarence Odbody, the guardian angel who shows George Bailey a world without him, came three years after Travers played Joseph Newton. It became his best-known role.

Emma Newton in Shadow of a Doubt was named after which relative of Hitchcock's, who died during filming?

His mother, Emma Hitchcock, died in England while the film was in production. He was thousands of miles away, shooting in California.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what do two undercover detectives pose as to get inside the Newton home?

Survey takers was their cover: the pair claim to be interviewing a typical American family for a national poll. Young Charlie soon works out who they really are.

Which Mrs. Miniver Oscar winner plays young Charlie, the suspicious niece, in Shadow of a Doubt?

Teresa Wright went after the part herself once she had read the script, because she loved Hitchcock's films. It followed Oscar nominations for each of her first three pictures.

In Shadow of a Doubt, where does young Charlie race at night to read the newspaper story her uncle hid?

The public library is shutting as she arrives, and the stern librarian scolds her before letting her in. Inside, she reads that police are hunting a serial killer.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what job does young Charlie's mild-mannered father, Joseph Newton, hold in town?

Bank clerk Joseph Newton is mortified when Uncle Charlie strolls up to his window and loudly jokes about embezzlement. The visitor then opens an account with $40,000.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what grim pastime does Joseph Newton share with his next-door neighbour?

Plotting perfect murders is their idea of fun, with poisoned mushrooms and blunt instruments weighed up as methods. Neither man notices the real killer staying in the Newton house.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what does young Charlie vow to do if her uncle settles in town?

Kill him herself is the threat, a long way from the niece who idolised him at the start. He has just reminded her that she no longer holds any proof against him.

At the end of Shadow of a Doubt, what do young Charlie and Jack Graham decide about her uncle's crimes?

They keep them secret, so the town buries Uncle Charlie as an honoured citizen. A glowing eulogy drifts from the church while the two talk outside.

What card game is Alfred Hitchcock playing during his brief cameo appearance in Shadow of a Doubt?

Bridge is the game, and the joke is in his hand: Hitchcock is holding every spade in the deck. A fellow player tells him he doesn't look well.

Which Shadow of a Doubt screenwriter was also Alfred Hitchcock's wife and closest collaborator?

Alma Reville started out as a film editor and first worked with Hitchcock on a 1923 silent picture, three years before they married. She shares the script credit with two other writers.

In 1991, Shadow of a Doubt joined which roster of culturally significant American films?

The National Film Registry was making only its third annual round of picks, having named its first films in 1989. A film becomes eligible ten years after its release.

Which High Noon composer scored Shadow of a Doubt, his first of four films for Alfred Hitchcock?

Dimitri Tiomkin returned for three more Hitchcock thrillers, the last of them Dial M for Murder. His four Oscars all came later, for other directors.

Which actor made his Hollywood film debut in Shadow of a Doubt as the Newtons' bookish next-door neighbour?

Hume Cronyn stayed in Hitchcock's circle, acting in Lifeboat a year later and then helping to write Rope. His wife was the actress Jessica Tandy.

Which future Days of Our Lives patriarch plays detective Jack Graham in Shadow of a Doubt?

Macdonald Carey was borrowed to play the romantic lead, and the part gave his career a lift. He then played Dr. Tom Horton on the soap from its first episode in 1965 until his death in 1994.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what does Uncle Charlie sabotage for his first attempt on young Charlie's life?

The back stairs give way under her, and she later finds that a step was tampered with on purpose. His second try uses a running car in a shut garage.

In Shadow of a Doubt, who raises the alarm when young Charlie is trapped in the fume-filled garage?

Herbie Hawkins, the Newtons' awkward neighbour, hears her struggling and runs for help. Uncle Charlie then makes a show of rescuing her himself.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what does young Charlie credit when her uncle wires just as she plans to?

Mental telepathy is her explanation, and she has to correct a telegraph operator who hears it as telegraphy. The film mirrors niece and uncle from the start, introducing each lying fully dressed on a bed.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what do the undercover detectives go to great lengths to get from Uncle Charlie?

His photograph is the prize, because a witness back east can identify the killer from it. Uncle Charlie insists he has never had his picture taken.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what is Uncle Charlie's real surname, hidden behind aliases like Spencer and Otis?

Oakley is his real name, but his city landlady knows him as Mr. Spencer and he travels west as Mr. Otis. The false names keep the police a step behind.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what is the full first name of the niece everyone calls young Charlie?

Charlotte Newton is her uncle's namesake, which is why the two share a nickname. To Emma Newton, he is still the spoiled baby of the family.

Shadow of a Doubt earned its only Academy Award nomination in which category, for Gordon McDonell?

Best Story was its lone nod, and it lost to William Saroyan for The Human Comedy. Neither Hitchcock nor his two stars were nominated.

Which studio released Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock's second picture there after Saboteur?

Universal made just two Hitchcock films in the 1940s, yet a later share swap with its parent company made him a major stockholder and, in theory, his own boss there.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what kills the second murder suspect as police close in on him in Maine?

An airplane propeller cuts him down at an airport in Portland, and the case is declared closed. The news clears Uncle Charlie in every mind but his niece's.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what does Uncle Charlie pretend to build so he can tear up the newspaper?

A paper house is his excuse, offered to little Ann, who is not impressed by the trick. The pages he rips out carry a report on the hunt for a killer.

In Shadow of a Doubt, which boyhood accident does Emma Newton say fractured Uncle Charlie's skull?

A bicycle crash did it: he rode his new Christmas present onto an icy road and skidded into a streetcar. Emma remembers a quiet, bookish boy who took to mischief afterwards.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what does Uncle Charlie compare the world to during his bitter speech in a bar?

A pigsty is his image for the world, thrown at his niece across a booth in a seedy cocktail lounge. He tells her that ordinary houses hide something far uglier behind their fronts.

In Shadow of a Doubt, which city does Uncle Charlie suddenly announce he is leaving town for?

San Francisco becomes his destination the moment he sees his niece wearing the incriminating gift he had taken back. A wealthy woman from town is booked on the same journey.

How did Alfred Hitchcock find Edna May Wonacott, the local girl who plays Ann Newton in Shadow of a Doubt?

Waiting for a bus was all it took: she had never acted, and was coached between takes by Hitchcock's daughter. He predicted stardom, but she made only a few bit appearances afterwards.

The stone railway station seen in Shadow of a Doubt had famously survived which disaster decades earlier?

An earthquake wrecked the town centre in 1906, and the two-year-old depot was among the few commercial buildings left standing. It had been built for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.

Which 1942 Gary Cooper baseball drama earned Shadow of a Doubt's leading lady an Oscar nomination?

The Pride of the Yankees cast her as Lou Gehrig's wife, and the part turned her into a devoted Yankees fan. She won an Oscar that same night for a different film.

Which 2013 thriller, written by Wentworth Miller, borrows its Uncle Charlie from Shadow of a Doubt?

Stoker was director Park Chan-wook's first English-language film, and its writer called the Hitchcock classic his jumping-off point. Matthew Goode plays the unsettling uncle.

In Shadow of a Doubt, which classic novel is bookworm Ann Newton reading as she answers the telephone?

Ivanhoe has her so absorbed that she will not hunt for a pencil to take down a telegram message. She later boasts that she reads two books a week.

Which New Jersey city's skyline, with the Pulaski Skyway, fills the gritty opening shot of Shadow of a Doubt?

Newark stood in for the big-city world Uncle Charlie flees, with scenes shot in its Ironbound district. He gives two detectives the slip there before heading west.

Which Shadow of a Doubt actress, cast as Emma Newton, also wrote the love scene for young Charlie and her detective?

Patricia Collinge wrote the garage scene between the niece and her detective suitor, and her version is the one in the film. She later worked on drafts of the script for his Lifeboat.

Which television star played Uncle Charlie in the 1991 TV-movie remake of Shadow of a Doubt?

Mark Harmon took the part in a remake that kept the original title. He had form with charming killers, having played Ted Bundy in a TV film five years earlier.

Which Thin Man star did Hitchcock first want as Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt, before MGM refused?

William Powell did get to play the killer a year later, opposite the film's original leading lady in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast. His studio would not lend him for the picture itself.

Shadow of a Doubt's Uncle Charlie actor rejoined Hitchcock for which Ingrid Bergman drama set in Australia?

Under Capricorn cast him as a landowner with a shady past, but it disappointed at the box office. He also turned up in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

On Shadow of a Doubt, a wartime War Production Board rule capped which cost at $5,000?

Set construction was capped by the War Production Board, so Hitchcock filmed in a real town and its real buildings. Night scenes were finished only hours before a coastal dim-out order began.

Which 1958 thriller, also known as The Silent Stranger, was the first remake of Shadow of a Doubt?

Step Down to Terror made the killer a son returning to his hometown, and swapped the suspicious niece for a sister-in-law. Rod Taylor co-starred.

Shadow of a Doubt began in the story department of which producer, who brought Hitchcock to Hollywood?

David Selznick's story chief, Margaret McDonell, told Hitchcock about an idea her husband Gordon had for a novel. It went on to earn Gordon an Oscar nomination.

Shadow of a Doubt co-writer Sally Benson's New Yorker family stories became which popular MGM musical?

Meet Me in St. Louis began as short vignettes about a household at 5135 Kensington, printed in the magazine in 1941 and 1942. Her Junior Miss tales had already become a Broadway hit.

In Shadow of a Doubt, what gift from Uncle Charlie is the first of its kind Joseph Newton has owned?

A wristwatch is his present, and he frets that his workmates will think him quite a sport. Young Roger gets a toy pistol with a holster.