F_R,
Actually, It comes as no coincidence to me that you like "Shadow of a doubt". Here's an excerpt from Hitchcock/Truffaut conversation:
F.T: I take it that of all the pictures you've made, Shadow of a doubt is the one you prefer. And yet it gives a rather distorted idea of the Hitchcock touch. I feel that the film which provides the most accurate image of the ensemble of your work, as well as of your style, is Notorious.
A.H: I wouldn't say that Shadow of a Doubt is my favorite picture; if I've given that impression, it's probably because I feel that here is something that our friends, the plausibles and logicians, cannot complain about.
F.T: What about the psychologists?
A.H: That's right, the psychologists as well! In a sense, it reveals a weakness. On the one hand I claim to dismiss the plausible and so the other I'm worried about them. After all, I'm only human! But that impression is due to my very pleasant memories of working on it with Thornton Wilder. In England, I'd always had the collaboration of top stars and the finest writers, but in America things were quite different. I was turned down by many stars and by many writers who looked down their noses at the genre I work in. That's why it was so gratifying for me to find out that one of America's most eminent playwrights was willing to work with me and indeed, that he took the whole thing quite seriously.
F.T: Did you select Thornton Wilder or did someone suggest him to you?
A.H: I wanted him. Let's go back a little into the history of the picture. A woman called Margaret MacDonell, who was head of Selznick's story department, had a husband who was a novelist. One day she told me her husband had an idea for a story but he hadn't written it down yet. So we went to lunch at the brown derby and they told me the story, which we elaborated together as we were eating. Then I told him to go home and type it up.
In this way we got the skeleton of the story into a nine-page draft that was sent to Thornton Wilder. He came right here, to this studio we are now in, to work on it. WE worked together in the morning and he would work on his own in the afternoon, writing by hand in a school note-book. He never worked consecutively, but jumped about from one scene to another according to his fancy. I might add that the reason I wanted Wilder is that he had written a wonderful play called Our Town.
F.T: I saw Sam Wood's screen version of that play.
A.H: When the script was finished, Wilder enlisted in the Psychological Warfare Department of the U.S Army. But I felt there was still something lacking in our screenplay, and I wanted someone who could inject some comedy highlights that would counterpoint the drama. Thornton Wilder had recommended an M-G-M writer, Robert Audrey, but he struck as more inclined towards serious drama, so Sally Benson was brought in. *
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*- The story of Shadow of a doubt centers on Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten), opening with his arrival in Santa Rosa for a visit with his family. The real purpose of his visit is to elude two investigators who are on his trail. The family, a doting older sister, her husband, and a young, adoring niece (Teresa Wright) who has been named after her uncle, welcomes him with open arms. BNut gradually the girl begins to suspect taht her beloved uncle may be the mystery man wanted by the police for the killing of several widows.
Her suspicions are shared by a young detective (MacDonald Carey *k-g note: Hitchcock felt it was a case of miscasting. Truffaut brings up the "weak detectives" in his career and cites that the one in Shadow.. is again incompetent it terms of stature when put against Uncle Charlie. Hitchcock reveals that the real problem were to attract important actors to roles that were considered weak at the time.*) who enters the household by pretending to be a fact finder for a national poll. Meanwhile in the East, another suspect is accidentally killed just as at he police are about to arrest him, and the inquiry is officially closed.
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Before the writing, Wilder and I went to the great pains to be realistic about the town, the people and the decor. We chose a town and we went there to search for the right house. WE found one, but Wilder felt that it was too big for a bank clerk. Upon investigation, it turned out that the man who lived there was in the same financial bracket as our character, so Wilder agreed to use it. But when we came back, two weeks prior to the shooting, the owner was so pleased that his house was going to be in a picture that he had had it completely repainted. So we had to go in and get his permission to paint it dirty again. And when we were through, naturally, we had it done all over again with birght, new colors.
F.T: The acknowledgment to Thornton Wilder in the main credits of Shadow of a Doubt is rather unusual.
A.H: It was an emotional gesture. I was touched by his qualities.
F.T: In that case, why didn't you work with him on other screenplays?
A.H: Because he was off to war and I didn't see him for several years after that.
F.T: I was wondering where you got the idea of illustrating the tune of "The Merry Widow" with dancing couples. It's an image that appearers several times (*K-g note: Intolerable after a point, if I may add!*)
A.H: I even used it as a background for the credits.
F.T: Was it a stock shot?
A.H: No, I made it up especially for the picture. I can't remember now whether Uncle Charlie is the one who first had the idea of whistling a few bars of "The Merry Widow" or whether it was the girl.
F.T: At first you showed the dancing couples and the air is played by an orchestra. Then the mother hums the opening bars and everyone at the table is trying to remember the title of the song. Joseph Cotten, who's a little disturbed, says that it's the "Blue Danube," and his niece then says, "That's right...Oh no, it's The Merry.." Whereupon Cotten spills his glass to create a diversion.
A.H: Yes, because it's too close to the truth. It's also another indication of the telepathy between Uncle Charlie and his niece.
F.T: Psycho is the only other picture in which your central figure is a villain; the character in Shadow of a doubt even has the public's sympathy, probably because you never actually show him in the act of killing the widows.
A.H: That may be one reason, but aside from that, he's a killer with an idea; he's one of those murderers who feel that they have a mission to destroy. It's quite possible that those widows deserved what they got, but it certainly wasn't his job to do it. There's a moral judgment in this film. He's destroyed at the end, isn't he? The niece accidentally kills her uncle. What it boils down to is that villains are not all black and heroes are not all white; there are grays everywhere. Uncle Charlie loved his niece, but not as much as she loved him. And yet she has to destroy him. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde. "You destroy the thing you love".
F.t: I'm puzzled by one detail of the picture. In the first scene at the station, when the train carrying Charlie is coming in, there's a heavy cloud of black smoke coming out of the engine's smokestack and as the train comes close, it darkens the whole station. I have the feeling that this was done deliberately because when the train is leaving the station, at end of the film, there's simply a small puff of light smoke.
A.H: That's right, I asked for lots of black smoke for the first scene. It's one of those ideas for which you go to a lot of trouble, although it's seldom noticed. But here, we were lucky, the position of the sun created a beautiful shadow over the whole station.
F.T: The black smoke implies that the devil has arrived
A.H: There's a similar detail in "The birds" when Jessica Tandy, in a state of shock after having discovered the farmer's body, takes off in her car. To sustain that emotion, I had them put smoke in the truck's exhaust and we also made the road dusty. It also served to establish a contrast with the peaceful mood of her arrival at the farm. For that scene we had the road slightly dampened and there was no smoke coming out of the truck.
F.T: With the exception of the detective, the casting is excellent, and I imagine you were pleased with the performances.Wright's portrait of a young American girl was outstanding, she had a lovely face, nice shape and her way of walking was particularly graceful
A.H: She(Wright) was under contract to Goldwyn and we got her on loan. All the irony of the situation stemmed from her deep love for her uncle!
F.T: In the final scene the girl and her detective sweetheart are standing in front of the church. From the background we hear the minister's tribute to Uncle Charlie, describing him as an exceptional person. Meanwhile, the girl and the detective are planning their future together and she makes a rather ambiguous comment, something to the effect that they are the only ones to know the truth.
A.H: I don't remember in verbatim. But the suggestion was that girl would be in love with her Uncle for the rest of her life.