I missed several minutes of this film. What was the motive for poisoning her daughter ? Did she also poison and kill her husband ? Why did her brother
in-law not face any charges for putting poison in her cocktail, that she did drink ? I am a really big fan of this type of movie, however this one did not keep my attention. This was definitely no Shadow of Doubt (a great Joseph Cotton film).
I don't understand why "Shadow of a Doubt" is considered so good. Can anyone tell me why? It seems very pedantic and not terribly exciting. Ordinary, actually.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
[deleted]
Spoiler below but I guess some of the mystery is already out of the bag.
Yes, it's pretty clear she killed her husband. I think they exhume the body.
In her dead husband's will, if the two kids died, she copped the estate.
Not sure why Joseph Cotten was off the hook for posioning the stepmother.
This movie was one of the dumbest I've ever seen and I've seen a lot. How did Daryl F Zanuck ever let this one out the door? No autopsy on the girl because the stepmother doesn't want one!!! The detectives must have studied the Joe Friday method of interrogation. What a bunch of stiffs! What did she think was going to happen when the boy didn't come back alive from Europe? I thought she couldn't be the killer, everybody else figured in out in the first ten minutes. Some suspense in the end, and for a few minutes Joseph Cotten looks like he might be the killer.
I don't know how the law works, but would the authorities allow a suspicious stepmother to keep custody of the boy or turn him over to the uncle?
After the hearing, Cam tried to petition the judge for custody but it was the end of the day and the judge was going home. He told Cam to come back the next day, but that was too late, Lynne and Doug were leaving for Europe immediately. Lynne should have left well enough alone, you'd think anyone with enough guts to murder a child would have realized a second death (that of Doug) would raise a lot of suspicion, even if it did happen in Europe.
shareActually, it's not clear she killed her husband. They exhumed the body, but didn't find any evidence of strychnine. My guess is that she didn't kill the husband, but she had a motive after to kill the kids. I could be wrong; it can go either way. But the police never found any evidence that her husband was murdered.
shareAnother thing - why wasn't Cam indicted for attempted murder of his sister-in-law? He seems to have been let off scot-free.
shareSPOILER ALERT!!! Because in reality, all he did was take an "aspirin" from her aspirin bottle and dissolve it in her cocktail. So, if it were poison, she should be the one left explaining what it was doing in there. Also, the detective was a witness to her stating that she was the one who put the pills marked with a "W" in the bottle, thus he is cleared of placing those poison pills in her bottle himself. Just my theory anyways.
shareJust saw this today. As someone posted in a review this happens all the time in real life now and all the questions people are asking about fiction don't get answered in real life either.
Yes it was likely the stepmother poisoned her step-daughter but they had no proof that would convict her. The police even made a case but it was thrown out. Knowing she did it & proving she did it were 2 different things.
Some one asked why didn't the uncle try to get the kids. That was covered in the movie. His brother specifically stated in his will that his wife raise his kids. Unless she was proven to be an unfit mother there was no way the court could take them. The brother-in-law even thought of leaving the country with his nephew illegally.
As for him being charged with attempted murder the sister-in-law said there was nothing but aspirin in the bottle. So if there was poison in it then only she knew about it. He gave her a chance to admit it but she still lied endangering her own life. Just as they needed proof of what she did she would have to prove he intentionally gave her poison. But he was smart enough to bring in the ship's detective to witness was he told her.
What didn't make sense though was the sister-in-law being completely taken in by the brother-law so soon after being accused of murder. It was obvious he was trying to get the nephew away from her and when he showed up on the ship she should have never let her guard down.
´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Jewel-:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*