Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt Quotes

A young woman discovers her visiting "Uncle Charlie" may not be the man he seems to be.

Uncle Charlie: You think you know something, don't you? You think you're the clever little girl who knows something. There's so much you don't know, so much. What do you know, really? You're just an ordinary little girl, living in an ordinary little town. You wake up every morning of your life and you know perfectly well that there's nothing in the world to trouble you. You go through your ordinary little day, and at night you sleep your untroubled ordinary little sleep, filled with peaceful stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly, inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie. Use your wits. Learn something.
Ann Newton: Honestly, Father, you'd think Mother had never seen a phone. She has no faith in science. She thinks she has to cover the distance by sheer lung power.
Ann Newton: God bless Mama, Papa, Captain Midnight, Veronica Lake, and the President of the United States.
Young Charlie: Go away, I'm warning you. Go away or I'll kill you myself. See... that's the way I feel about you.
Joseph Newton: We're not talking about killing people. Herb's talking about killing me and I'm talking about killing him.
[to the telegraph operator]
Young Charlie: Mrs. Henderson, do you believe in telepathy?
Mrs. Henderson: Well, I ought to. That's my business.
Young Charlie: Oh, not telegraphy. Mental telepathy. Like, well, suppose you have a thought, and suppose the thought's about someone you're in tune with, and then across thousands of miles, that person knows what you're thinking about and answers you, and it's all mental.
Mrs. Henderson: I don't know what you're talking about. I only send telegrams the normal way.
Ann Newton: The ones that say they don't want anything always get more in the end.
Ann Newton: You'd think Mama had never seen a phone. She makes no allowance for science. She thinks she has to cover the distance by sheer lung power.
Uncle Charlie: The cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands, dead, husbands who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. And then they die and leave their money to their wives, their silly wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands, drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all day and all night, smelling of money, proud of their jewelry but of nothing else, horrible, faded, fat, greedy women... Are they human or are they fat, wheezing animals, hmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?
Joseph Newton: Don't put the hat on the bed.
Uncle Charlie: Superstitious, Joe?
Joseph Newton: No, but I don't believe in inviting trouble.
Uncle Charlie: Forty thousand dollars is no joke, not to him, I bet. It's a joke to me. The whole world's a joke to me.
Herbie Hawkins: Well, if I was gonna kill you, I wouldn't do a dumb thing like hitting you on the head. First of all, I don't like the fingerprint angle. Of course, I could always wear gloves. Press your hands against the pipe after you were dead and make you look like a suicide. Except it don't seem hardly likely that you'd beat yourself to death with a club. I'd murder you so it didn't look like murder.
Ann Newton: [Answering the phone] Newton's residence, Ann Newton speaking. Oh, hello, Mrs Henderson, this is Ann. No, Mother isn't here. A telegram? Well...
[looks right, then left]
Ann Newton: I don't see a pencil so I'll have to have her call you back. I'm trying to keep my mind free of things that don't matter because I have so much on my mind. Oh, innumerable things.
Uncle Charlie: How was church, Charlie? Did you count the house? Turn anybody away?
Young Charlie: No. Room enough for everyone.
Uncle Charlie: Well, I'm glad to hear that. The show's been running such a long time, I thought maybe attendance might be falling off.
Emma Newton: Don't whisper. When you whisper, anyone could hear you a block away.
Ann Newton: I wish I'd been born in the South. Southern women have a lot of charm.
Herbie Hawkins: He ran plunk right into the propeller of an airplane.
Joseph Newton: Ooh boy!
Herbie Hawkins: Cut him all to pieces. Had to identify him by his clothes. His shirts were all initialed.
Emma Newton: What does he do? Oh, he's just in business, you know, the way men are.
Jack Graham: It seems to go crazy every now and then, like your Uncle Charlie.
Uncle Charlie: What's the use of looking backward? What's the use of looking ahead? Today's the thing - that's my philosophy. Today.
Ann Newton: Step on a crack, you'll break your mother's back.
Uncle Charlie: I can't face the world in the morning. I must have coffee before I can speak.
Young Charlie: Your picking us as an average family kind of gave me a funny feeling.
Jack Graham: What kind of a funny feeling?
Young Charlie: Oh, I don't know. I guess I don't like to be an average girl in an average family.
Jack Graham: Average families are the best. Look at me. I'm from an average family.
Young Charlie: As average as ours?
Jack Graham: Sure. Besides, I don't think you're average.
Jack Graham: Charlie, think. How much do you know about your uncle?
Young Charlie Newton: Why, he's my mother's brother.
Uncle Charlie: I got in the habit of carrying a lot of cash with me when I was traveling.
Mr. Green: Dangerous habit, Mr. Oakley.
Uncle Charlie: Never lost a penny in my life, Mr. Green. I guess heaven takes care of fools and scoundrels.
[Uncle Charlie visits the bank]
Uncle Charlie: Hello, Joe. Can you stop embezzling a minute and give me your attention?
Joseph Newton: Oh, uh, Charles, we don't joke about such things here.
Uncle Charlie: Aw, what's a little shortage in the books at the end of the month? Any good bank clerk can cover up a little shortage. Isn't that right, Charlie?
Young Charlie: Uncle Charlie, you're awful. Everyone can hear you.
Uncle Charlie: Good thing they can. We all know what banks are. Look all right to an outsider, but no one knows what goes on when the doors are locked. Can't fool me, though.
Mrs. Poetter: There's one good thing in being a widow, isn't there? You don't have to ask your husband for money.
Ann Newton: I never make up anything. I get everything from my books. They're all true.
Young Charlie: He thought the world was a horrible place. He couldn't have been very happy, ever. He didn't trust people. Seemed to hate them. He hated the whole world. You know, he said people like us had no idea what the world was really like.
Young Charlie: We just sort of go along and nothing happens. We're in a terrible rut. It's been on my mind for months. What's gonna be our future?
Joseph Newton: Oh, come now, Charlie. Things aren't as bad as that. The bank gave me a raise last January.
Young Charlie: Money? How can you talk about money when I'm talking about souls? We eat and sleep and that's about all. We don't even have any real conversations. We just talk.
Young Charlie: What time does the library close?
Ann Newton: If you'd read as much as you should, you'd know it closes at nine.
Young Charlie: We're not just an uncle and a niece. It's something else. I know you. I know you don't tell people a lot of things. I don't either. I have a feeling that inside you there's something nobody knows about... something secret and wonderful. I'll find it out.
Young Charlie: Mothers don't lose daughters. Don't you remember? They gain sons.

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