HITCHCOCK'S UNCLE CHARLIE
...these useless women...
“Women
keep busy in towns like this. In the cities it's different. The cities are full
of women, middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands who've spent their lives
making fortunes, working and working. Then they die and leave their money to
their wives.Their silly wives. And what do the wives do,these useless women?
You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands,
drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all
day and all night, smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry but of nothing
else. Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.”-Uncle Charlie
“They're
alive! They're human beings!”-Young Charlie
“Are
they? Are they, Charlie? Are they human or are they fat wheezing animals, hmm?
And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?”-Uncle Charlie
Shadow of a doubt is one of Alfred Hitchcock's under rated movies; of which there are many. In it Joseph Cotten is excellent and delivers one of the great bitter quotes at the family dinner table. Casablanca, Sweet Smell of success, Whose afraid of Virginia Wolfe all capture bitterness and are well know for it but Cotten's Uncle Charlie verbalises the exact nature of bitterness as we find out that he not only thinks these thoughts but acts upon them. A great moment in Hitchcock; every bit as chilling as knives, showers, birds and Barry Foster.
Great film - Hitch often names it as his favourite. Cotten in superb, as he was in so many films - AMBERSONS, THE THIRD MAN etc.
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