Shadow of a Doubt meets The Killers
How Ernest Hemingway helped inspire a Hitchcock masterpiece
When Alfred Hitchcock began brainstorming ideas for his new film, Shadow of a Doubt (1943), he was determined to create a realistic American hometown thats wholesome innocence would be tainted by the arrival of a serial killer. Impressed with the Pulitzer-Prize winning dramatic play Our Town's genuine depiction of small-town life, the director called upon its writer Thornton Wilder. Hitchcock explained the story of the murderous uncle who returns home to hide upon a highly-publiced wave of killing widows across the country. After hearing the details of the “Merry Widow Murderer,” Wilder was immediately reminded of an Ernest Hemingway short story called “The Killers,” in which a man awaits his impending death by two assassins. Wilder incorporated elements of Hemingway's suspenseful tale in the opening scene of Shadow of a Doubt, in what Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan calls “a tacit nod” to the author.
In the Bedroom
The bulk of Hemingway's “The Killers” takes place at Henry's lunchroom where two assassins lie in wait to murder Ole Anderson, an ex-heavyweight prizefighter who frequents the diner for his supper. When Nick Adams, one of the patrons terrorized by the goons, later tries to warn the intended victim of his certain death, Anderson makes it clear he will accept his fate and chooses to lie in bed waiting for his killers. “I'm through with all that running around,” he tells Nick. Whether Anderson commited a crime or angered the wrong people is never known except that he “must have gotten mixed up in something in Chicago,” according to George.
Similarly, Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) seems to have accepted his fate in the opening of Shadow of a Doubt. He lies in bed at a boarding house with the curtains drawn, the money stolen from his victims piled haphazardly on his night stand and spilling onto the floor. A net closes in around him as a coast-to-coast search ensues for the “Merry Widow Murderer.” Like Anderson's landlady who tried to coax him to go out to enjoy the crisp Fall weather, Oakley's landlady does her best to encourage her boarder. She tells him two “friends” came calling for him and would most certainly return. Oakley's world-weariness gives way to his restless spirit and, unlike Anderson, he realizes he's willing to run again. “I may even go out and meet them,” he tells her.
Waiting for the Kill
Hemingway creates mounting tension throughout his story as the two killers wait for Anderson to arrive at the diner. From the outset, time is unreliable, yet crucial. George the waiter tells the wise-cracking duo, Max and Al, that dinner can't be served until six o'clock and points out that the clock on the wall is twenty minutes fast. Several references to the clock increase the suspense as the assassins insist on waiting a couple more minutes at a time for Anderson's arrival, while the door swings open and unwitting patrons move in and out of the would-be killing ground. The fates of George, Nick, and Sam the cook hinge on the whims of mad men. The story shifts to Anderson in his bedroom, quietly waiting to be killed.
Likewise, Hitchcock perpetuates the theme of waiting throughout Shadow of a Doubt beyond the first scene. As Oakley outwardly exudes charm and captivates his innocent family and prospective victims inwardly his nerves are taut strings waiting to snap as two detectives search for him, and his niece begins to discover his secret life. Time is a factor that can't afford to be lost throughout the entire film. Charlie, Oakley's namesake niece, consistently avoids death in the nick of time, while Oakley evades his captors at each turn with just seconds to spare.
By modeling the first scene of Shadow of a Doubt after “The Killers,” Hitchcock and Wilder were able to give the audience a glimpse of the villain in a hopeless state and create an underlying tension that makes him all the more terrifying in moments where his charming mask slips to reveal the killer within.
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