SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) ** The writing's just not credible. No one runs around leaving major clues all over the place like that, and stays out of prison long. It really needed someone to step up and save it, but no one does. Alfred Hitchcock keeps things interesting and unique enough for film students, but a seasick effect (on land) may be the most of it. Shadows, transcendent aerial shots, faces of course (who ever shot faces this well? Sergio Leone maybe, Jean-Luc Godard? Of course they all shot faces in very different ways, too), it's not boring stylistically. It just lacks the gravitas of the subject matter, never adds up, never comes together. The actors generally do good jobs, which keeps things from falling off the edge, but there are too many inconsistencies in the script, inexplicable responses, changes that don't seem right.I suppose things must have been different in the olden days, when family and even friendship meant more.but I don't think people were generally dumber, so it still just doesn't wash.
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