I first saw Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful Shadow of a Doubt (1943) on TV as a teenager and later wondered why it was (and is) seldom discussed as one of Hitchcock’s best films. Joseph Cotten is stunning as Charles Oakley, a man who surprises his sister Emma Newton (Patricia Collinge) and her family with a visit. The family, especially young Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright), named after her uncle, are overjoyed at his arrival, but Uncle Charlie is there for one reason only: to hide out from the authorities. Unknown to his family, Uncle Charlie is the notorious Merry Widow killer.
Charlie discovers that she and her uncle have much in common besides a shared name, and while Charlie begins to pick up clues that Uncle Charlie isn’t exactly who he says he is, their relationship never descends into inappropriate (creepy) territory.
I love Shadow of a Doubt and programmed it at one of our first Great Movies library events in 2016. That was about the same time I began an ongoing quest to watch every film noir ever made, which led me to The Steel Trap (1952). Joseph Cotten stars as Jim Osborne, a Los Angeles banker who one day decides to steal money from his own bank’s vault and flee to Brazil, a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S.
Jim’s wife Laurie is played by… Teresa Wright.
I don’t know how audiences would’ve looked on this pairing in 1952, nine years after Shadow of a Doubt, but it was a bit startling for me during that first viewing. Yet rewatching The Steel Vault recently, the casting of Cotten and Wright as husband and wife totally creeped me out.
Maybe producer Bert E. Friedlob thought he’d alleviate any cringeworthy concerns by having Wright dye her hair blonde, but that makes it even worse. It’s like Charlie gets off the train at the end of Shadow of a Doubt, finds Uncle Charlie, discovers that he survived, maybe even suffered amnesia (film noir’s greatest malady, after all), got him some therapy, married him, moved to LA, and then died her hair just in case anyone suspected anything.
Sure, this is ridiculous thinking, and I’m having some fun with it, but seeing Cotten and Wright together onscreen as husband and wife just gives me the willies.
I guess I didn’t pick up on it the first time, but there’s a scene in The Steel Vault in which Jim enters the bedroom and Laurie is in the shower. They’re having a conversation when Laurie turns the water off, puts on only a towel, steps into the bedroom, lies on the bed, and soon embraces Jim. Man, that sent my toes curling.
Now look, I know that Cotten and Wright were both professional actors simply playing roles, shooting a scene. I understand that. But I was practically ready to schedule a therapy session right then and there.
Again, I’m just having some fun here. I revisited The Steel Trap after hearing Foster Hirsch (author of the recent book Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties) on a recent episode of the NitrateVille Radio podcast where Hirsch mentioned the film. Don’t get me wrong, I like the picture, but not as much as Hirsch. The Steel Trap contains plenty of suspense, but (at least for me) too many coincidences and easy escapes from tough situations. But it’s a thriller worth checking out. Your score on the Creep-o-Meter may vary.