In Shadow of Doubt,
I started to see Uncle Charlie’s darker side when he spoke about women, specifically
in Part 7/11 starting at 4:00. Uncle Charlie’s sister idolizes him and she
previously asked him to speak at one of her women club meetings. She mentions
that many of the women are busy trying to manage their duties of a home and
family while being involved in a club. Uncle Charlie starts to speak about the
difference between women in the city and women of the town. He seems to go on a
rant and it almost seems like he is talking to himself by the way Hitchcock
zoomed in from one side of Uncle Charlie’s face-like a silhouette, at a
position that could not be a point of view from any of the characters. The
camera starts from a close up of his upper chest and up and it slowly zooms and
into an extreme close up of his face. This particular shot with only half of
Uncle Charlie’s face showing symbolized the “unknown/darker side” of Uncle
Charlie that his family is unaware about. He starts to speak about widows and
it gives a clue of how he justifies killing a widow. He calls widows “useless
and silly” who just spend their deceased husband’s hard earned money on useless
things like jewelry and hotels. When young Charlie interrupts and states that
widows are “alive and are human beings,” Uncle Charlie slowly moves and stares
into the camera to answer her. The way he coldly responded and he panned his
head towards the camera gave me chills. He was starring directly into the
camera in an extreme close up which made me feel like he was looking at me and
stating with his eyes, “You are next.” The lighting in the scene was placed on
his left side-away from the camera. This made the character of Uncle Charlie
much darker because the shadow of his face was cast on the side that the
audience could see. By interchanging the scene with an extreme close up of
Uncle Charlie and a close up of young Charlie, Hitchcock emphasized how the two
characters were having a private conversation in a table full of people by only
showing young Charlie’s reaction to what her uncle was saying.
Another scene that stayed
with me was at part 8 at 9:41 to part 9 0:17. Mr. Newton and his friend were
discussing how the widow murderer was killed trying to escape the police. The
music in the scene starts very slowly and then gets louder until it suddenly stops
at 9:53. It gives an emphasis to the scene because Uncle Charlie and young
Charlie just realized that he is going to get away with murdering widows
because the other accused man died before it was proven that he wasn’t the
killer. Uncle Charlie seemed very pleased and stated he was going to eat well
that night. The camera shots Uncle Charlie in a low angle frame as he is making
his way up the stairs which made him seem like he was above the law and that no
one would be able to catch him. His strides get slower when he realizes someone
is watching him. The camera angle could be seen in the point of view of young
Charlie. It made a statement that although the police was done looking for the
murderer, she wasn’t going to give up in exposing her uncle and show everyone
he really is. The music stops when Uncle Charlie stops-there is silence when he
turns around and the frame is now a point of view from Uncle Charlie looking at
young Charlie out in the porch looking in. The lack of music makes the tension
between the characters even more suspenseful by focusing on the character’s
facial and body expressions. These scene also made the symbolism of a fight of
good and evil that would happen very soon by having Uncle Charlie filmed from
the front door looking in to the home which made him seem much darker compared
to young Charlie being filmed from inside the house looking out into the porch
with her light costume and the excessive amount of light that was shining on
her.
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