She was a widow and her heart was in the grave. In Gone with the Wind, after Scarlett’s first husband has died, she is miserable not because he died, for she never loved him, but because of what she realizes is now required of her: The idea of a merry widow was the exact opposite of what was expected in those days. It was composed in 1905, and it was based on a play first performed in 1861. The music is from The Merry Widow, an operetta about a woman who has inherited a lot of money from her deceased husband. Needless to say, audiences in 1943, watching a movie about a serial killer, would have expected to see someone like Laird Cregar in the role of the killer, not Joseph Cotten.Īs we watch the opening credits, the music we hear is “The Merry Widow Waltz,” played with just a hint of discord, while we see good-looking men dancing with older women. In this movie, Joseph Cotten plays Charles “Charlie” Oakley, a man who murders rich widows.

Perhaps it was in reaction to the simplistic casting of that movie that he decided to make Shadow of a Doubt the next year, in in which appearances, instead of being dependable, turn out to be deceptive.

In 1942, Alfred Hitchcock made the movie Saboteur, in which good people appear to be good, and evil people appear to be evil.

Shadow of doubt 1943 form