Shadow of a Doubt was Hitchcock's own favourite film. It is set in a typical mid-Western American town and Hitchcock filmed the entire film on location, using no sets to achieve authenticity of atmosphere. The crowds, the police, the traffic, the library are all real and Hitchcock wanted to depict the arrival of menace, in the form of Uncle Charlie played superbly by Joseph Cotten - into a simple, friendly, typical mid-Western family.

The pace of the film is languid but, as usual, Hitchcock plays on suspense rather than surprise so that from the outset the audience knows that the charming, seemingly gentle Uncle Charlie is a serial killer on the run.

The film's pace gradually builds up to a gripping climax when Charlie's niece, who adores him, slowly realizes that her favorite Uncle is the fugitive murderer. The beauty of this masterpiece in which all actors give brilliant performances is the sense of menace developing in a normal, friendly, peaceful community.

Hitchcock was criticized by some puritanical critics for suggesting an almost incestual relationship between uncle and niece but Shadow of a Doubt remains an outstanding film for its realism, gripping tension and the outstanding performances of Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright.