Thriller Opening : Shadow Of a Doubt

Today we looked at the opening sequence in the 1943 film, Shadow Of A Doubt. This film is produced by Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense.

Storyline

Charlotte 'Charlie' Newton is bored with her quiet life at home with her parents and her younger sister. She wishes something exciting wold happen and knows exactly what they need: a visit from her sophisticated and much traveled uncle Charlie Oakley, her mother's younger brother. Imagine her delight when, out of the blue, they receive a telegram from uncle Charlie announcing that he is coming to visit them for awhile. Charlie Oakley creates quite a stir and charms the ladies club as well as the bank president where his brother-in-law works. Young Charlie begins to notice some odd behavior on his part, such as cutting out a story in the local paper about a man who marries and then murders rich widows. When two strangers appear asking questions about him, she begins to imagine the worse about her dearly beloved uncle Charlie.

Music

In the opening sequence a piece of music called the Mary widow, composed by Lehar. This music has great significance later in the film as the truth about uncle charlies actions begin to come to light.

Analysing the Opening Sequence

Using mise en scene, a lot can be established from the opening sequence. When looking at the settings and props used, the setting appears to be in a poor district, possibly the slums. We get this impression from the burnt out cars, tramps by the lake, and the children playing on the street in poor clothes. Yet by contrast when we meet Uncle Charlie, there is money scattered on the floor, which indicates this money means nothing to the man. By looking at the hair,make up and costume of the character, it is in vast contrast to the place he is living in. This is because Uncle Charlie is wearing a very expensive suit, with his hair slick back. This doesnt fit in with the setting as Uncle Charlie appears very wealthy, with the money just scattered across the floor, and by him wearing this very expensive suit, it adds to the feeling that he doesnt belong in the city. He appears to belong to a higher social class such as that seen in the opening credits of the film. The colour of the suit also gives us a insight into the personality of this character as it is very dark, which can suggest he has a sinister side to him.
By observing the facial expressions and body language of the character, we first see Uncle Charlie laying on the bed, in his crisp suit with a cigar in his mouth. As the sequence develops he shows hardly any emotion on his face, thus giving the impression he is a heartless man and not much effects him.
The lighting used is low key lighting, creating a contrast between light and dark which can be used to interprit that this character is a dark character as he is constantly covered in darkness with his suit and the very little amount of light on him. This enables us to give Uncle charlie the title of the Antagonist ion this film. In contrast when we first meet charlie she is covered in light, giving us the impression she is a good person, making us believe she can be given the title of the protagonist in this film.
By looking at the posisition of Uncle Charlie and Charlie, when we are first introduced to them, they appear in the same position as each other. This indicates to us that the two have some sort of link, and that their paths are bound to cross. This technique is called mirroring as they appear to be 'cut from the same cloth' yet they are so different personality wise, in the from that one is obviously more evil and sinister than the other.