Shadow of a Doubt is the ultimate “refrigerator movie”*, with a story so implausible that it only holds together because of the director’s remarkable ability at composition and the top-notch work of actors Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 13, 2024

“Shadow of a Doubt” is an exceptional thriller built upon a very good story, some pitch-perfect performances, and slick direction.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Hitchcock loved eroding moral bedrocks, most gaudily in the form of desecrating national monuments and more stealthily in the form of ineffectual cops, bumbling clergy, and psycho mothers.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 10, 2022

Shadow of a Doubt refines the director's most persistent theme down to its essential components: The prevailing notion that something dark lurks underneath the surface of things exists in nearly each Hitchcock film.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 23, 2022

It's Hitchcock unleashed...

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 21, 2022

An Alfred Hitchcock picture is something of an event. This one, which runs for an hour and 45 minutes, is an ingenious and unorthodox thriller which is continuously entertaining.

| May 26, 2021

For a story helmed by Hitchcock, one would expect the twists to be less straightforward.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 14, 2020

There's something rotten in small-town, U.S.A., and Hitchcock chose Santa Rosa, California-one of the most picturesque cities in the nation-to set his tale of a modern-day wolf in sheep's clothing.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 29, 2020

Still reeling after having seen this film, I do not want to spoil a moment of it for anyone else. I can only tell you that it is a brilliant Alfred Hitchcock melodrama, set mainly in a leafy sunny American town -- and leave the story at that.

| Apr 10, 2020

To save studio materials, the film has been largely made in an actual Californian town and the gain is remarkable.

| Apr 10, 2020

As we say. it is a curtailed Hitchcock, but still recognizably the one who tops the lot in artful melodrama.

| Apr 10, 2020

A series of tense dramatic scenes superbly acted by Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright.

| Apr 10, 2020

Master of the suspense drama that he is, Hitchcock keeps his climax for the very end. When it comes it is terrific. The final curtain Is a glorious piece of cynicism.

| Apr 10, 2020

The movie may lack the show-off set pieces that Hitchcock turned into his trademark, yet its tension never falters.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 10, 2020

This is certainly one of Hitchcock's most satisfying thrillers, mostly thanks to Wright and Cotten's believable relationship.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2020

Shadow of a Doubt may or may not be Hitchcock's greatest film, but it's his most intimate and heart-wrenching.

| Apr 10, 2020

Eerie, disturbing thriller, with much to say about gender, feminism, the benefits of government and "Love Thy Neighbor".

| Sep 13, 2017

Derives its power from its stark simplicity.

| Original Score: A+ | Jul 14, 2015

This thriller's horrible fascination lies in watching the strong-willed young lady's admiration of, fondness for, and idealization of a supposed gentleman clot and curdle. The plot's marred only by a slightly rushed and convenient ending.

| May 25, 2015

If the motives of filmmakers are revealed in the frames of their more obscure pictures, then 'Shadow of a Doubt' is a resounding testament to the power of Alfred Hitchcock's vast creative engine.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 24, 2015