With the police closing in on him, the Merry Widow Murderer
(Joseph Cotten) travels cross country to his family home in Santa Rosa,
California and the company of his adoring niece (Teresa Wright) who slowly
begins to unravel the unsavory truth about her cagey and mysterious uncle.
Alfred Hitchcock’s self-proclaimed favorite film is an ingeniously crafted,
creatively detailed, and slyly subversive work with Wright assuredly carrying
the film, Cotton making a sinister villain, and Hume Cronyn hysterically funny
in his film debut as the next door neighbor with a predilection for the
macabre.
**** out of ****
