Shadow of a Doubt (1943), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock invades Capra territory! This is my favorite of his 1940s pictures, and I know he was fond of it.
Random notes after a first viewing of the Blu-ray:
The psychic bond between Uncle Charlie and Young Charlie is covertly romantic: in parallel scenes we see them on their beds, both bored and dissatisfied
Bored because he has grown old in his villainy and she is just entering into her adult powers and the world is too small for her.
More romance: he gives her a ring and sleeps in her bed. All the other girls think he is a mysterious older boyfriend.
The Merry Widow murders: Uncle Charlie isn't in it for the money. He's on a mission. When were hear that he "changed" after a childhood injury, does that make us more sympathetic?
When the uncle and niece become adversaries, we know what he can do, but she is formidable as well. Teresa Wright has excellent physical presence, communicating so much with posture and the way she holds her shoulders and stomps down the street when on a mission.
It's a striking image: he watches her watching him. That little slip of a girl as his nemesis.
Henry Travers and superbly nerdy Hume Cronyn provide light comic ghoulishness: meek and mild characters fascinated with mystery stories and perfect murder methods.
The quick romance with the police detective is a unfortunate subplot. The character and actor are too bland compared to Uncle Charlie.
Irony: the man on a psycho-mission to rid the world of useless society women will be lauded as a community benefactor. True, he darkened a few lives but brightened many others. By strict utilitarian calculation, is that a net plus?
The merry widows are like moths to the flame. Note the woman in the last scenes who thinks she is running off to San Francisco with Uncle Charlie. He didn't even ask her.
In the Truffaut interviews, Hitchcock says that in America, unlike in Britain, many writers and actors didn't want to work with him because they looked down on his genre. He admired Thornton Wilder and was happy to have him writing this picture.
Dimitri Tiomkin score.
Available on Blu-ray. Contrast and black levels are good, detail fair.