(1943) ****
This is a transitional film for Hitchcock, apparently—he’d been in the USA for a while, but had continued using lots of British talent. So this is considered his first “American” movie because its stars are all American actors. Joseph Cotton plays the sinister Uncle Charlie, while a young Teresa Wright stars as his namesake niece Charlie. Yeah, the girl’s mother named her daughter after her kid brother Charlie, which is awesome. It also sets up a really cool and obvious doubling thing that Hitchcock is clearly playing with throughout the whole movie.
The plot of this one centers on a quaint little family in a small California town who welcome Uncle Charlie back home for a visit. He’s wealthy, smart, charming…and a fucking nutjob with serious anger issues towards women. Seriously, Cotton’s performance is fantastic as the sociopathic “fun uncle” barely keeping it together as the cops close in on him.
Teresa Wright, the only actor to be nominated for an Oscar for her first 3 roles, is excellent as his initially adoring but perceptive niece. She seems to will him to come home for the visit, and there’s even an unsettling hint of sexual attraction between the two of them.
The best thing about this movie is that Hitchcock convinced Thornton Wilder to write the screenplay (he apparently scoffed at the idea, but then decided to slum it and write a thriller because he wanted cash to leave his mom and sis before heading off to WWII). But getting Wilder was genius, as the town of Santa Rosa itself becomes a key component of the movie. Hitch clearly wanted to juxtapose the smarmy nastiness, even evil, of the traveling newcomer (Uncle Charlie) with the friendly comfort of a typical American small town. No matter where they go in town, the family members are on a first name basis with everyone, and it’s all quaint and nice and good. Then psycho Uncle Charlie shows up and can fly off the handle at any moment during dinner to rant about “fat swine old widows” and ripping the fronts off houses to see the masses of sick folks inside. Amazingly, niece Charlie seems to be the only one who thinks, “That’s some weird shit to be saying over dessert.”
Anyway, this is really good Hitchcock, yet I don’t put it in the same ranks as Vertigo or Rebecca. It’s a great character study and totally worth seeing, but I’m not sure there’s any images or moments that will stick in my mind’s eye the way that often happens with Hitch’s best works.
