Shadow of A Doubt - Background

Background

Shadow of a Doubt was both filmed and set in Santa Rosa, California, which was portrayed as a paragon of a supposedly peaceful, small, pre-War American city. Since Thornton Wilder wrote the original script, the story is set in a small American town, a popular setting of Wilder, but with an added Hitchcock touch to it. In Patrick McGilligan's biography of Hitchcock he said the film was perhaps the most American film that Hitchcock had made up to that time.

The opening scenes take place in the Central Ward of Newark, New Jersey. The city skyline and landmarks such as the Pulaski Skyway are featured in the opening shot.

The Newton family home is located at 904 McDonald Avenue in Santa Rosa, California. McDonald Avenue is named for the McDonald Mansion, built by Mark L. McDonald in 1879, and situated on several acres on the street. The McDonald Mansion was later used by Walt Disney for the movie Pollyanna. The stone railway station in the film was built in 1904 for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and is one of the few commercial buildings in central Santa Rosa to survive the earthquake of April 18, 1906. The station is currently a visitor center. Some of the buildings in the center of Santa Rosa that are seen in the film were damaged or destroyed by earthquakes in 1969; much of the area was cleared of debris and largely rebuilt. The library was a Carnegie Library which was demolished in the mid-1960s due to seismic concerns.

The film was scored by Dimitri Tiomkin, his first collaboration with Hitchcock (the others being Strangers on a Train, I Confess and Dial M for Murder). In his score Tiomkin quotes the famous Merry Widow Waltz of Franz Lehár, often in somewhat distorted forms, as a leitmotif for Uncle Charlie and his serial murders. During the opening credits the waltz theme is heard along with a prolonged shot of couples dancing.