The famous “faded, fat, greedy women” monologue that Cotten icily delivers at dinner one night - finishing with a gaze straight into the camera that’s both knowing and vaguely reptilian - is still deeply chilling all these years later, and has informed countless similar fourth-wall-busting scenes in the seven decades since it first stunned moviegoers in 1943. In the film - reportedly Hitchcock’s personal favorite of all his own movies - Charlie is a smooth, charming serial killer, “The Merry Widow Murderer,” whose adoring niece, Charlotte (Teresa Wright), gradually comes to realize that her namesake is a sociopath. But of all the roles he played, Cotten’s Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt remains his most enduring. Saunders tells Young Charlie they saved the photographic film and her uncle can be identified back East if its him theyre after. Most actors would be thrilled to have appeared in any one of the classic films on Joseph Cotten’s resume: Citizen Kane, Gaslight-Carol Reed’s perfect high-brow noir- The Third Man and more.

If you asked Alfred Hitchcock what his own favorite film he made was, he wouldn’t have said Psycho or Vertigo or other critically acclaimed pieces that end.

Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten and Macdonald Carey Get This Movie I watched 'Shadow of a Doubt' (1943) Every day in October for 30 days, Im watching a different scary movie, this year exploring the theme of horror stories set in small towns.

Shadow of a doubt movie photos