Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide: Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Part 2

by Brent Reid
Brent Reid
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Soundtrack and remakes

  • Intact: first Hitchcock not to suffer any censor or distributor cuts
  • Tiomkin score makes ironic use of then popular Merry Widow Waltz
  • Story spawned many radio adaptations and screen quasi-remakes

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

Shadow of a Doubt: Writing on a Classic | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Soundtrack and remakes

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) US one sheet poster

US one sheet poster, copied for the Australian daybill; lobby cards: title, set, signed

Contents

Soundtrack

This was the first of four scores composed by Dimitri Tiomkin for the Master, followed by Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, I Confess and Dial M for Murder. So far, the two-minute title theme is the only part of the score to see official release via three licensed Hitch compilations and a couple of bootleg CDs from the UK (Enlightenment Records) and Spain (Soundtrack Factory).

There’s an exhaustive analysis of Tiomkin’s score in Hitchcock’s Ear: Music and the Director’s Art (2012) by David Schroeder, and a spin-off is detailed in Richard Ness’s well-researched essay Sing Along with Hitch: Musically Marketing the Master of Suspense in The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media (2020) edited by Paul N. Reinsch and Laurel Westrup:

“The title of Shadow of a Doubt provided the basis for a song tie-in not derived from Dimitri Tiomkin’s score, but with music by Harry Miller and lyrics by Bob Reed. The song actually is heard briefly in the film, though only in an instrumental arrangement in the light swing band style popular in wartime America, as source music in the Till Two bar where the murderous Uncle Charlie’s namesake niece reveals that she knows the truth about him.

It is understandable that a vocal version of the song was not included in the production given that the lyrics (“Beyond a shadow of a doubt my heart no longer is my own / You know it’s yours and yours alone”) seem contrary to the darker tones of the film. Although sheet music containing the lyrics was published by MPI (Music Products, Inc.), no vocal recordings of it appear to have been made and the film probably did more to boost sales of Franz Lehar’s “Merry Widow Waltz,” which Tiomkin associates throughout the score with Uncle Charlie’s mania.”

There are also extensive analyses of the film’s use and subversion of the “Merry Widow Waltz”, an otherwise lighthearted, frothy number, to be found in:

The Merry Widow (1934)

Trailer | opening, clip, more

“One of the greatest screen musicals of all time. An intoxicating mixture of music and romance.” – Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical (1981/1991)

Jeanette MacDonald is Sonia, a bubbly widow who owns 52% of every cow and cowtown in the tiny European country of Marshovia. When she relocates to glittery Paris, suave ladies’ man Captain Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) sets out in hot pursuit. His mission: avert his homeland’s financial ruin by bringing Sonia back on the wings of love. But hang on tight, Danilo. Love always flies a delirious course when legendary director Ernst Lubitsch, known for sophisticated wit and a style affectionately dubbed as “the Lubitsch touch,” is at the helm.

A frothy, high-spirited gem based on Franz Lehar’s operetta, The Merry Widow set the standard for musicals to come. And it confirmed what MGM’s top brass already knew: Jeanette MacDonald was a major star. So enjoy the rapturous music, the sparkling dialogue and the swirling “Merry Widow Waltz.” You’ll have to look far and wide for a better comic operetta than this. – MGM/UA VHS (1989) and LD (1993), Warner DVD

The Merry Widow or Die lustige Witwe, from whence the eponymous waltz originates, is a 1905 German operetta by Franz Lehár based on L’attaché d’ambassade (The Embassy Attaché), an 1861 comedic play by Henri Meilhac. There have been dozens of screen adaptations but perhaps the best known is the 1934 multiple-language version, shot separately in English and French (La Veuve joyeuse) with most of the same cast and crew. They would also have been the most familiar to Shadow of a Doubt’s original audiences but unfortunately only the English MLV is currently available.

These are the only legit releases; there are also poor boots from the likes of Brazil (Classicline/reissue, flashmovies/alt), China (Bo Ying), Italy (DNA) and Korea (Janus Film).

Walk Softly, Stranger (1950)

Walk Softly, Stranger (1950) US insert poster

US insert poster, one sheet; banner

A stranger with a mysterious past arrives in a small, quiet Ohio town and forever changes the lives he touches. Joseph Cotten stars as Chris Hale, the enigmatic drifter who comes to the town to assume an ordinary life: he takes a room at a boarding house and finds a job at the local shoe factory. Hale also takes a liking to his boss’s daughter, Elaine (Alida Valli), who is permanently confined to a wheelchair due to a skiing accident. Elaine is deeply embittered by her disability, but she feels a strange attraction for Hale, though she knows nothing of his past. It is only when some other strangers arrive in town searching for Hale that the truth is learned about his identity. Will Elaine’s love for him be strong enough to withstand this startling revelation? – US VHS and DVD-R

Although far from a remake, this has too many similarities and connections to Shadow of a Doubt for it to pass unmentioned. Under the original title of Weep No More, it was announced in the trade press as a Cary Grant vehicle with Hitch set to direct. In the event, it was shot by Robert Stevenson with Cotten and Valli, recent star of The Paradine Case. However, RKO’s new owner Howard Hughes disliked the film and put it on ice, only to release it two years later to capitalise on the leads’ recent success in The Thin Man. Cotten plays the charming bad boy with a shady past who brings terror to a sleepy town – sound familiar? – but despite a deliberately paced but unpredictable and bumpy journey, this nifty little film noir is let down a little by its incongruous, if bittersweet, happy ending.

Walk Softly, Stranger – Susan Doll

TCM, trailer, opening

On the radio

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) US window card

US window card (used); pressbook (alt)

Despite the decade following the film’s release seeing numerous US radio adaptations, four of which feature its leads, there doesn’t appear to have been anything since and nothing at at all from the UK.

  • Screen Guild Theater, May 24, 1943 (30min) – Joseph Cotten and Deanna Durbin
  • Philip Morris Playhouse, November 12, 1943 (30min) – Orson Welles; lost?
  • Lux Radio Theatre, January 3, 1944 (57min) – William Powell and Teresa Wright, host: Cecil B. DeMille
  • Theater of Romance, April 30, 1946 (30min) – Brian Donlevy; lost?

Good Evening: AH on Radio – Charles Huck and Martin Grams, Jr.

Step Down to Terror (1958)

US one sheet poster; insert and lobby cards (title)

The first screen remake was via an eponymous, 50-minute episode of Lux Video Theatre in 1955; current whereabouts unknown. But we do have the next theatrical outing, Step Down to Terror, for comparison. With its compact 76-minute running time, this efficient B-movie take on the story gets the job done very nicely without ever seriously challenging the original. It’s helmed by Harry Keller, who oversaw a slew of westerns but is perhaps best known for tackling belated additional scenes and reshoots on Orson Welles’ troubled production Touch of Evil (1958). A direct Hitch connection comes in the shape of third-billed Rod “The Time Machine” Taylor, later star of The Birds.

There’s only been one legit release to date, although it is of very good quality and includes an audio commentary and the trailer. However, it’s region A-locked so you’ll need a multi-region set-up if you’re outside of the Americas or Southeast Asia.

Shadow of a Doubt (1991)

This TV movie is actually a surprisingly decent stab at the material and, in a strange coincidence, like Step Down to Terror has another future star of The Birds gracing its cast: Tippi Hedren. No official releases anywhere as yet but there’s a passable off-air-VHS rip on YouTube for the curious. Note there are many other completely unrelated screen works titled both “Shadow of Doubt” and “Shadow of a Doubt“, often leading to confusion – or doubt, if you prefer.

By the way, for another riff on the basic premise of a newly arrived cuckoo in the nest who also happens to be a serial killer, do check out The Stepfather (1987), a cult favourite that pays a few knowing nods to the Master’s original. But this time, it’s all-out Hitchcock-meets-slasher, the genre he helped create, and it’s so far spawned two sequels, Stepfather II (1989), the TV movie Stepfather III (1992) and an eponymous remake (2009) of the first in the series.

Stoker (2013)

Stoker (2013, dir. Park Chan-wook) teaser poster

1,000 ltd ed teaser poster by John Keaveney and Fay Dalton (textless; alt, more); Urukki Saki

“Eerie and chilling” – New York Post / “A masterpiece” – HeyUGuys / “Ravishing” – Glamour
Academy Award* winner Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode star in this “bizarrely perverse, beautifully rendered mystery” (Los Angeles Times) by critically acclaimed filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). Following the death of her father, India Stoker meets her charismatic uncle, whom she never knew existed. When he moves in to comfort India and her mother, the two find that the newest member of their family might actually be their worst nightmare.
*Actress, The Hours (2002) – North American and UK discs

Many other works are heavily influenced by Shadow but perhaps the other most significant take on the material – from the title of the original novel’s author onwards – is renowned Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English-language début. It stars Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman in overtly analogue roles to Hitch’s original. Shadow’s long, em, shadow was explicitly acknowledged but nonetheless. this cracking little chiller is a beast all of its own twisted making. See it! All discs were released in 2013 except where noted and have the same copious extras, although those from North America only have one trailer and three TV spots, whereas everywhere else has five and eight respectively. However, they’re all online anyway.

Trailers and clips: US | UK

Shadow of a Doubt: Writing on a Classic | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Soundtrack and remakes

This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

I started Brenton Film because I love film – quelle surprise! The silent era, 1930s and 1940s especially get my literary juices flowing, so you'll see a lot about those. For more, see the About page and read this before emailing.

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