Shadow of a
Doubt
Which is the
best way to commit a murder? The father in this idiosyncratic family and his
buddy like to kick around some possibilities, including poisonous mushrooms,
drowning while in a bath or, their suggested best, a blow to the head with a
blunt instrument. However, that’s just in a hypothetical sense, and harmless
enough, but events conspire to bring the spectre of actual murder, and of a
sinister internecine variety, to visit their peaceful town.
The pair of
would-be assassins spare little of their discussions
for what is traditionally supposed the precursor of any crime, namely motive. However,
what prefigures motive is an ethos that sustains the seed of an urge to kill.
We are led to believe that the real assassin here acquired a type of nihilistic
ethos following a tragic event in his childhood. This ethos is summed up in his
de facto statement of belief, “If you rip the fronts off houses, you find
swine. The world is hell. What does it matter what happens in it?”. This avowal is entirely consistent with his behaviour,
which is characterised by an evident intelligence that is employed to
manipulate and deceive without hesitation or reservation. Such characters are
not unusual in fiction, but what distinguishes this story from many similar others
is that we witness in the final act a dismantling of what we were initially led
to believe might be the singular grounding link of humanism remaining for the
nihilist, the love and respect of a favourite niece.
That’s broadly the picture, but the narrative itself is
played out with an attention to detail that calls for a concerted effort to
follow it. Some key moments in this regard include the significance of engraved
initials on a ring, which we are asked to link to individuals named in a
newspaper article. A more obscure detail involves a hummed tune that, while it
is never completely explained, is, as becomes clear when all is said and done,
a neat indicator of a sea change in attitude that one character experiences. This
feature of the screenplay is commendable, and if you miss a detail, as is quite
possible, that’s just a welcome excuse to watch the movie again. Less
commendable aspects are few, but include the shoehorning of a whirlwind romance
subplot into the mix. Something else that doesn’t completely hang together is
the nihilist’s uncharacteristic mishandling of evolving events,
and the issue of his photograph being used to identify him by the police plain
doesn’t make sense. Creating a faultless script might be tenuously compared
with the committing of a perfect murder and, in that vein, the strength here lies more in the
character of a murderer than in the nuts and bolts of the act itself.