Hitchcock Double Bill: Shadow of a Doubt (1942) / The Birds (1963)

Two films linked by small town Americana, and Jessica Tandy.

Shadow of a Doubt started with a short treatment by Charles McDonell about a man who goes to visit his family, seemingly respectable and successful, but his niece begins to suspect he is a serial killer. Hitch engaged the respected novel and playwright Thornton Wilder (his 1940 Our Town has been an early success for William Holden) to develop the screenplay, which was then rewritten by Sally Benson (and Mr & Mrs Hitchcock) to give it more humour.

The small town location is Santa Rosa, California

The visiting Uncle Charlie is Joseph Cotten and his niece is the fabulous Teresa Wright, who had caught Sam Goldwyn's attention in theatre. Henry Travers is the father, Patricia Collinge is reunited with Wright from The Little Foxes, and the younger sister is Edna May Wonacott, who had never acted before, and is the smart bookish one of the family. Hitch also worked for the first time with Hume Cronyn as the neighbour; Cronyn was marred to stage actress Jessica Tandy.

A stand-out shot is Wright descending the stairs and the camera rushing in to a big close up of an emerald ring which links Charlie to the murders. Joseph Valentine is on camera, the score is by Dmitri Tiomkin.

It's full of delicious humour and tension and Hitchcock touches, like the black smoke of a train creating a foreboding atmosphere:

These two shots reflect that Cotten and Wright are often shot like mirrors of each other. These are in fact from two different scenes.

Uncle Charlie is suspicious of visiting journalists...

...Charlie knows her uncle is the killer.

Whilst filming there, Hitch was invited by locals to visit Bodega Bay, half an hour away, a location which struck him as a good one, which he used 21 years later for The Birds. It was originally a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, written by Evan Hunter but then rewritten by Hitch himself. It begins a bit like a rom com with supposedly spoiled rich girl Tippi Hedren trying to impress solicitor Rod Taylor by visiting his home town. There's indeed quite a lot of character development, involving the couple and - this is where Jessica Tandy comes back in - Rod's mother, who's scary, but it does all play off by the end.

Tippi's look was molded entirely by Hitch, as was her performance. There's not the slightest hint of any impropriety between them from McGilligan's intensively researched book and she was, of course, then in his next film Marnie. And she makes a creditable appearance.

I've mentioned before the ten minute diner scene. It's like a little play within the film, as almost all the people in it we haven't met before. It's also beautifully staged and blocked and is worthy of study on its own. The ornithologist is veteran stage and screen actress Ethel Griffies (debut on London stage in 1899 aged 21!)

The birds attacks are really quite well done, and increase in intensity with the final one on Hedren a quite terrifying scene, brilliantly edited from a week's worth of filming. (George Tomasini is the editor.)

And Hitch got his wish to make a film without music, which makes the ending all that more effective.