--- title: "Shadow of a Doubt: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt" critics_score: 91 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Shadow of a Doubt (1943): what the critics said Critics' score 91 from 9 reviews: 9 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly positive, with praise centred on Hitchcock’s ability to make ordinary family life threatening. Most critics identify the darkness beneath small-town respectability as the film’s chief strength, while Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright draw repeated praise for making the uncle–niece relationship convincing and unsettling. Suspense grows from the niece’s dawning suspicions, with camera placement, staircases and lighting helping to turn familiar domestic spaces into places of moral unease. The differences are chiefly matters of emphasis rather than verdict, and the spread remains narrow. RogerEbert.com notes plot implausibilities and clichéd supporting characters, but finds that neither prevents the suspense from working. The New Yorker offers a more provocative reading of the town’s decency, suggesting that the killer’s bleak understanding of life carries more force than its neighbours’ virtue; elsewhere, the emphasis falls on lost innocence and menace within the family. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 9 November 2011. The film excels in Hitchcock's distinctive visual style, camera placement, and use of staircases and lighting to build moral tension, along with strong performances by Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. It generates effective suspense around the niece's growing suspicions despite some plot implausibilities and clichéd supporting characters. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-shadow-of-a-doubt-1943) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 21 January 2022. The critic calls it one of Hitchcock’s darkest and most unsettling works and the director’s personal favourite. They single out the performances of Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten for particular praise in this tale of Freudian family tensions and small-town menace. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/shadow-of-a-doubt-1943-review-dark-and-unsettling-this-is-hitchcock-unleashed-0sq2d5txp) ## Empire — Emma Cochrane Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 March 2007. The critic calls it one of Hitchcock’s most satisfying thrillers, thanks to the believable central relationship between niece and uncle. They highlight the theme of evil lurking behind the facade of small-town America. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shadow-doubt-2-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Fernando F. Croce Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 17 February 2006. The critic praises the film as one of Hitchcock's most pitiless visions of evil lurking within normalcy and family life. He singles out the film's exploration of awakening and the repressed darkness beneath idyllic Americana for particular note. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/shadow-of-a-doubt/) ## The AV Club — Gwen Ihnat Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2016. The critic calls the film Hitchcock's own favorite and more terrifying than his flashier works for showing menace within the family. She singles out the theme of evil lurking beneath small-town normalcy, anticipating later films like Blue Velvet. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/hitchcock-s-favorite-of-his-own-movies-anticipated-blue-1798244671) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 22 September 2014. One of Hitchcock's finest 1940s films, with Joseph Cotten as the 'Merry Widow' murderer hiding with his sister's small-town family. It focuses on niece Teresa Wright's dawning realization about her uncle and offers a sharp dissection of middle-American life. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/shadow-of-a-doubt) ## The New Yorker — David Denby Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 December 2005. Hitchcock's own favorite among his films, it is his most intimate and heart-wrenching, with a debonair murderer settling into small-town life and confronting his match in his decent young niece. It perversely suggests the killer's nihilistic clarity has more touch with life than the town's feeble virtue. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/12/masters-choice) ## Den of Geek — David Crow Rating 5/5. 25 June 2013. The critic calls it a disturbing masterpiece and Hitchcock’s favorite film, praising its meditation on the American Dream, nostalgia and the painful price of lost innocence through young Charlie’s discovery of her uncle’s secrets. They single out the chilling close-up of Cotten’s sociopathic rant and the film’s unique small-town Americana setting. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/shadow-of-a-doubt-lookbackreview/) ## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff Rating A-. 31 October 2012. The critic praises the film's inversion of small-town America fantasy, highlighting Joseph Cotten's performance as the charming yet sinister uncle and Hitchcock's skill in creating suspense in an everyday setting. They note its influence on later films like Stoker. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/retrospective-the-films-of-alfred-hitchcock-pt-2-1940-1976-the-hollywood-years-20121031/3/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt.md