Shadow of a Doubt
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50 free Shadow of a Doubt trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Alfred Hitchcock made bigger and flashier thrillers, but few that get under the skin like this one. A bored teenager wishes for something to shake up her quiet family, and her charming uncle arrives from the east to stay. Then the doubts begin. This quiz walks through the whole film: what young Charlie notices and when, the gifts and slips that give her uncle away, the neighbours and detectives circling the Newton home, and how it all ends. It also covers the people who made it, from the cast and the writers to the composer, along with the real case behind the plot, the wartime shoot and the remakes. Questions run from first-watch basics to details only repeat viewers catch, so the quiz suits film-club nights, Hitchcock fans and anyone who has just seen the film.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Shadow of a Doubt held which special place among Alfred Hitchcock's own films, by his repeated account?
His personal favourite
It was his personal favourite, a verdict Hitchcock gave television interviewers in 1969 and 1972. His daughter Pat said the same.
Q 02In Shadow of a Doubt, which quiet California town is home to young Charlie and the Newton family?
Santa Rosa
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.
Q 03In Shadow of a Doubt, which tune gets stuck in young Charlie's head after her uncle arrives?
The Merry Widow Waltz
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.
Q 04Which Citizen Kane actor plays the charming but murderous Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt?
Joseph Cotten
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.
Q 05In Shadow of a Doubt, what lavish gift does Uncle Charlie give his niece soon after arriving?
An emerald ring
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.
Q 06In Shadow of a Doubt, how does Uncle Charlie die while trying to murder young Charlie?
Hit by an oncoming train
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.
Q 07Which Pulitzer-winning playwright did Hitchcock hire to script Shadow of a Doubt's small-town world?
Thornton Wilder
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.
Q 08Henry Travers, the father in Shadow of a Doubt, later played which It's a Wonderful Life character?
Clarence Odbody
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.
Q 09Emma Newton in Shadow of a Doubt was named after which relative of Hitchcock's, who died during filming?
His mother
His mother, Emma Hitchcock, died in England while the film was in production. He was thousands of miles away, shooting in California.
Q 10In Shadow of a Doubt, what do two undercover detectives pose as to get inside the Newton home?
Survey takers
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.
Q 11Which Mrs. Miniver Oscar winner plays young Charlie, the suspicious niece, in Shadow of a Doubt?
Teresa Wright
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.
Q 12In Shadow of a Doubt, where does young Charlie race at night to read the newspaper story her uncle hid?
The public library
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.
Q 13In Shadow of a Doubt, what job does young Charlie's mild-mannered father, Joseph Newton, hold in town?
Bank clerk
Q 21Which actor made his Hollywood film debut in Shadow of a Doubt as the Newtons' bookish next-door neighbour?
Hume Cronyn
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.
Q 22Which future Days of Our Lives patriarch plays detective Jack Graham in Shadow of a Doubt?
Macdonald Carey
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.
Q 23In Shadow of a Doubt, what does Uncle Charlie sabotage for his first attempt on young Charlie's life?
The back stairs
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.
Q 14In Shadow of a Doubt, what grim pastime does Joseph Newton share with his next-door neighbour?
Plotting perfect murders
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.
Q 15In Shadow of a Doubt, what does young Charlie vow to do if her uncle settles in town?
Kill him herself
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.
Q 16At the end of Shadow of a Doubt, what do young Charlie and Jack Graham decide about her uncle's crimes?
Keep them secret
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.
Q 17What card game is Alfred Hitchcock playing during his brief cameo appearance in Shadow of a Doubt?
Bridge
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.
Q 18Which Shadow of a Doubt screenwriter was also Alfred Hitchcock's wife and closest collaborator?
Alma Reville
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.
Q 19In 1991, Shadow of a Doubt joined which roster of culturally significant American films?
National Film Registry
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.
Q 20Which High Noon composer scored Shadow of a Doubt, his first of four films for Alfred Hitchcock?
Dimitri Tiomkin
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.
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.
Q 24In Shadow of a Doubt, who raises the alarm when young Charlie is trapped in the fume-filled garage?
Herbie Hawkins
Herbie Hawkins, the Newtons' awkward neighbour, hears her struggling and runs for help. Uncle Charlie then makes a show of rescuing her himself.
Q 25In Shadow of a Doubt, what does young Charlie credit when her uncle wires just as she plans to?
Mental telepathy
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.
Q 26In Shadow of a Doubt, what do the undercover detectives go to great lengths to get from Uncle Charlie?
His photograph
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.
Q 27In Shadow of a Doubt, what is Uncle Charlie's real surname, hidden behind aliases like Spencer and Otis?
Oakley
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.
Q 28In Shadow of a Doubt, what is the full first name of the niece everyone calls young Charlie?
Charlotte
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.
Q 29Shadow of a Doubt earned its only Academy Award nomination in which category, for Gordon McDonell?
Best Story
Best Story was its lone nod, and it lost to William Saroyan for The Human Comedy. Neither Hitchcock nor his two stars were nominated.
Q 30Which studio released Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock's second picture there after Saboteur?
Universal
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.