Plot
A teenager living in the idyllic town of Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Teresa Wright), complains that nothing seems to be happening in her life. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten), her mother's younger brother, is arriving for a visit.
Two men show up pretending to be working on a national survey of the average American family. One of them speaks to Charlie privately, identifying himself as Detective Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey). He explains that her uncle is one of two men suspected of being a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer" who seduces, steals from, and murders wealthy widows.
At first, young Charlie refuses to even consider that her uncle could be a murderer, but she notices him acting strangely on several occasions. She confirms her suspicions when she sees that the initials engraved inside the emerald ring Uncle Charlie gave her match those of one of the recent victims. Her suspicions grow during a family dinner in which Uncle Charlie reveals his hatred of rich widows, comparing them to fat animals deserving to be slaughtered.
One night, Uncle Charlie confronts his niece, admitting that he is the man the police are after. He begs her for help; she reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon, to avoid a horrible scandal in the town that would destroy her family, especially her mother, who idolizes her younger brother. News breaks that the other suspect was killed fleeing from the police in Portland, Maine, and is assumed to have been the murderer. Detective Graham leaves after telling young Charlie that he loves her and would like to marry her someday.
Uncle Charlie is delighted he is off the hook, until he remembers that young Charlie knows all his secrets. Soon, the young woman has a couple of near-fatal "accidents"—falling down some steep stairs, and being trapped in a closed garage with a car spewing exhaust fumes.
Under pressure from his niece, Uncle Charlie announces he is leaving by train for San Francisco, accompanied by a rich local widow. He contrives for young Charlie to stay on board the departing train, planning to kill her by pushing her out once the train gets up to speed. Instead, in the ensuing struggle between them, he is pushed into the path of an oncoming train. At his funeral Uncle Charlie is highly honored by the townspeople of Santa Rosa, who know nothing of his crimes. Jack returns to comfort Charlie, and she tells him she had withheld from him information about her uncle which would have confirmed him as the murderer. Jack and young Charlie resolve to keep Uncle Charlie's crimes secret.
Read more about this topic: Shadow Of A Doubt
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
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“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
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