Shadow of a Doubt / 1792 High Rye Bourbon

0:00 In 1943, director Alfred Hitchcock and star Teresa Wright gave the world a soapy thriller that pushed both the boundaries of camera work as well as that of plot believability. In 2023, we struck out on wheat, we struck out on rye, and so now we're trying even more rye. Double it. More, more rye. The film is shadow of a doubt. The whiskey is 1792 High Rye and we'll review them both. This is the Film and Whiskey podcast.

0:50 Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Buck. I'm Brad G. And this week, we're looking at 1943's Shadow of a Doubt. This is the midway point of our five film Hitchcock retrospective. Brad, how are you feeling about it so far? Pretty good. I I think that it's a weird place to be where Hitchcock is probably considered a top three, top five director of all time. Yeah, I mean, depending on who's making the list, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But in general, I'd say a solid 8090% of People Who Matter in the World of Cinema review would probably put him in a top five. Oh, sure, sure, right.

1:38 Mount. Mount Rushmore, at least. Oh yeah, he's like fifth one on Mount Rushmore. Yeah, famously. Five faces containing Mount Rushmore. Well, no, they actually just, like, carved him hanging on to the nose like Cary Grant. So here's here's the weird place I am. I've been like, fine with these movies. Yeah, like, I didn't. I didn't care. For Notorious. It was OK. I thought that rope was really well done but didn't wasn't like crazy compelling. And I I mean, you know, this is 3 out of five. I liked this movie, Bob. I liked it too. Now, like if I'd go like overboard for it, but I I liked it.

2:21 I am much higher on Rope than you are, but even I will acknowledge that like we are, we're into his second tier of films now. And I think I said that in the first week that there's only a few directors that you know when you get into their 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th best film. They're all still in the IMDb top 250, right? It's like him, Spielberg, Scorsese, you know, it's IMDb, so probably Chris Nolan, you know, but like, But I guess what I'm saying is I'm not surprised to see that like a lot of these movies are at like an 8.1 or an 8 point O on IMDb because it's like everyone agrees that this is like an 8. But I don't know many people that are arguing that some of these movies are any higher than an 8.

3:02 And so like that's, you know, folks, we've set the stage for today. Because we're talking about Shadow of a Doubt, a movie that is really well regarded by critics. I think you, you know, for for some of the reasons you mentioned, Brad, the camera work is extraordinary. It's Hitchcock first starting to dive into, you know, the the seedy underbelly of the American idyllic community in a way that he would go on to do for years and years afterwards. But also, like, I'm not going to put this movie above Vertigo anytime soon, right? Yeah. And. And that's and that's kind of where I'm at. I have liked these movies. They're all really solid.

3:42 But part of me feels like the, I don't know, an impetus to rank them higher than they really are. And I I I feel like I'm trying to stick to my guns, say, hey, these are good. They're not great. They're they're good solid films. And I I think the thing that sticks out to me is that you can tell I I mean this kind of feels like a close Encounters of the Third Kind for me, where like you can tell that if close Encounters of the Third Kind was made by even like AB Tier director, like a solid good director, nobody crazy, it would be a way worse movie, you know what I mean? And I I feel that way about these.

4:24 I think any of these three films made by any sort of a lesser director would would be like a 5.9 to 6.3 on IMDb and nobody would ever talk about them. Yeah, totally agree, man. And I think that's what Hitchcock brings to the table, where even when you're watching his eighth best movie, it's still better than most people's best movie. And I think that's kind of what we have here today. So let's dive into talking about Shadow of a Doubt a little bit. This is a movie that is set in the middle of, well, I don't know if it's set then, but it's made in the middle of World War 2, where, you know, right before, well, I was gonna say right before D-Day, but not really made in the middle of World War 2. And kind of pushing back a little bit on the image of, like America as this beautiful, idyllic place. And yet at the same time, it also seems like one of Hitchcock's least cynical movies. You know, I was reading a lot about the production of this movie.

5:20 Hitchcock's mom had passed away right before he started making this. And if you go back and listen to our notorious episode, we've talked about mother figures in Hitchcock movies and a lot of people have totally don't matter at all, you know, not not a big influence. Well, I was going to say a lot of people have pointed out that this is probably the most sympathetic and kind of nostalgic mother figure in any of his movies that, you know, Teresa Wright's mom. And so this was a really personal movie for Hitchcock to make. Even if on its face, it's just kind of like your standard thriller of guy brings Chaos into an orderly situation, Yeah, I think that this is a really fascinating film, mostly just for the fact that the title of the movie is Shadow of a Doubt.

6:08 And yet, as a viewer, I I don't know what viewers were like in 1943. I very well could have thought that maybe Joseph Cotton really was just a kind hearted little brother. But from the very start, Bob, you know that he's bad news. Oh, I mean like, like I have never, like never more quickly been like, yeah, that guy did it. Whatever they're using him of, he did it from the opening shot of the listen this movie opens. In a boarding house where this man is laying on the bed surrounded by strewn about $100 bills, cash, You know, like he did it. Whatever he's accused of, he did it. Yep.

6:48 Yep, 100%. And I think that's one of the struggles I had with this film, is that, like, I'm all about technique and camera movements and lighting and and how you use sound and there and sound and and the music and the design. All those things are great for a film. But at the end of the day, the plot has to be somewhat believable. And this, this movie, the suspenseful part of it was whether or not I was ever going to believe anything that was happening on screen. Spoiler alert, I didn't. All right.

7:29 Well, on that note, I think it's a perfect place for us to transition to our first segment of the day, which we call Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and hear your take with this little segment that we call. Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen, often for the first time. Bob, why do you explain? Brad explains like shouldn't it be a Brad explain section? Where I where Brad explains, Brad explains. That's true. I mean, you could start explaining your own mansplaining to us. Whoa, whoa, whoa. We never said mansplaining.

8:10 You, Bob, you are a man and you explain. And I might explain, but I am not a mansplainer, Sir. My favorite thing when you do, Brad explains. I think I've told you this before, is that you always start, Brad explains by saying the name of the movie. And then is a film. As if, like that wasn't a given Shadow of a Doubt is a film about, but like, oh thank God you weren't reviewing the stage play. I think Lord of the Rings is a book that's really freaking long. I'm in your head now. I can tell as soon as you start doing it today, you're going to be like, I can't say that this is a film. I can't do it. I think it's AI think it's a leftover from the meme of like West Side Story is undoubtedly a movie full of characters and story.

9:01 All right. Well, on that note, let me finish what I was saying. You've often seen the movie for the first time. This is your first time seeing this movie, right? Yes, I did. I did not have a surprise. Oh, I've seen this before. Moment like last week. You know what? One of the podcast that my wife listens to. At the end of every episode they Fact Check themselves. And I've started thinking we should probably start doing that, at least for the prior, the prior week of our podcast. But I'm two weeks late on this. I went back and listened to the Notorious episode the other day. And now you weren't trying to state a fact, but you were just kind of ballparking it. We were talking about how Hitchcock was like in the middle of his career when he made Notorious.

9:44 And you said, like, you know, Bob, you had told me that this was like his 12th, 15th movie. I went back and counted up how many movies he had made before Notorious 37. Yeah, it was. It was like 36 movies. Oh my gosh. Dude, so we were off by a little bit there. Just just a tiny bit. Just get the intern on it, man. We really do. We need the film and whiskey intern. Yeah, we're taking Applications F&W podcast@gmail.com. One of the things that you can do as intern is count down the clock as Brad gets into. Brad explains. I have set up 60 seconds here and you get to spoil this entire movie. So folks, if you have not seen Shadow of a Doubt and you'd like to watch it before we jump in, this is the time to hit pause. Join us after you've watched the movie. Because Brad, we didn't spoil it already by. By saying the guy did it repeatedly. All right, dude, 60 seconds on the clock and go. Shadow of a Doubt is a film about. Nailed it.

10:47 Shadow of a film is a shadow of a. Film. I love it. Shadow of a Doubt is a film about a young woman played by Teresa Wright, who is utterly bored with her life and dissatisfied with the way her family lives. She wishes and thinks about writing to her uncle, her favorite uncle Charlie, who she's named after, to come and visit them. Sure enough, he has telegrammed them already before she even knew it, letting her know that he is on his way. And by the way, he's a murderer. He killed a bunch of widows that he thinks are fat and sloppy pigs. So yeah, he comes.

11:28 Teresa Wright finds him out. The dad is an amateur sleuth with his buddy who shows up unannounced. The end? Yeah. Oh, fun fact. Teresa Wright murders her uncle. She sure does. She becomes what she swore she could never be. Oh, twist. That's the real twist. There it is, man. The murderer she never knew was inside of her. All right. Must be genetic. So Shadow of a Doubt is an interesting movie to talk about, Brad. And I think you know from my point of view, I if I could use one word to sum up this whole movie, it's like almost almost is the word that works best for this movie. It almost pulls off everything it's trying to do. It has this, this theme that it's trying to say about like repressing our own nature and are we destined to do these things?

12:20 The the link between these people in this family is this kind of a thing genetic? Is this evil lurking within all of us just beneath the surface of propriety. And I think that it kind of teases some really big ideas and some really interesting paths that it could have gone down and it never quite goes down any of them. And so it's an interesting movie because it it's like a stepping stone movie for Hitchcock. You can see where he ends up going and doing way better. And in this movie, it's just almost there, you know, It's 100% fully there for me in this film, and I'm here for it. What's that The dad and his friend talking about how we're not talking about murder, We're talking about how we would murder each other.

13:08 That's one of the best lines in the whole movie. I could watch hours of Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life and what's his name? Hume. Human. Hume. Cronin. Yeah, yeah, just going on and on and on about how they would murder each other. That absolutely made my day. They are the Comic Relief of this movie and I think that if this movie does anything really well, it is to show. How this kind of quaint, small town life can both be upended by the presence of this murderer and also kind of reflect that murderer at the same time. You know, the dad is talking about murder the entire movie, and because he seems innocuous enough, they kind of brush that aside. But then the guy who is, you know, suave and sophisticated is actually murdering people.

13:58 It's a really interesting dynamic and I think they do a really good job at kind of, you know, showing. What the quaint American household looks like. If you read the credits of this movie, it says that the playwright Thornton Wilder helped in some ways with the development of the movie, which I thought was really interesting. You know if you ever read the play Our Town when you were like in high school, Brad, we had to read it one year It there's a lot of parallels here. And he's he was kind of known as the chronicler of this kind of Americana. And I think that, you know, for being a a British person who had lived in America only for a few years at this point, Hitchcock does a really good job at capturing that. Yeah. And a large part of that comes from the fact that Hitchcock lived in Is it Santa Rosa or Santa Clara?

14:45 No, I don't know. One of them. Santa something. I didn't look up his address before we started, unfortunately. Well, he lived in the town that is, you know, mentioned and the not mentioned in the town that Teresa Wright and her family live in. He lived there and you know, his mother had gotten extremely ill back in London, but it was during, you know, the air raids over London during World War 2. So he wasn't able to go back and visit and he talked about how the warmness and the kindness of this small Californian town always really, you know, stuck with him and was meaningful to him. And so I I think that this film you said earlier that it's his one of his more sincere films compared to some of the cynical looks of other ones.

15:36 I think that stands out in his filmography because like the the Santa, I'm going to say Santa Rosa, the Santa Rosa that he presents here is just so charming and nice. And they're just like, yeah, here's this random big city guy coming in from the East Coast and we're going to we, we like him so much, never having met him, that we're going to give him the reins to like give a whole lecture at our Country Club. Like like they're just so kind and welcoming and they're not punished for believing in the bad guy. And I think that that is the least cynical take that Hitchcock could ever take in a movie. And yet at the same time, though, because he has such cynical takes throughout his career. I kept wondering, like, are you trying to portray these people in a really sincere way or is this like your most cynical joke ever?

16:34 Do you know what I mean? Like I couldn't tell if it was so over the top sincere that it was like tipping back into cynicism again And and I keep thinking of this movie from almost a decade later called Night of the Hunter. Really great movie and it's it's kind of similar. It's about a serial killer who weds these kids. Mom. And you know, they they figure out that he is a murderer and then he ends up chasing them like cross country. It's like a it's a crazy movie. It's really, really good. But the way that the director Charles Laughton shot that movie is almost like it leans even more into like the surreal. It's it's so Americana that it looks almost dreamlike. It doesn't look like a real place. And I feel like this movie kind of tears on the edge of that. It can't tell if it wants to be.

17:23 You know Boone City from best years of our lives and be like a really close to reality representation of America. Or if it's more like Bedford Falls and It's A Wonderful Life and it's let you know. It's it's what we remember America being, even if it's not what it really is. Yeah, it's hard because all of the characters in this movie are so over the top and like so ridiculous in their portrayal that it's hard for me to tell if he is being sincere or insincere in their portrayal. If it's a Bedford Falls or a Boon City or I I really don't know. I think that this is a movie, that it probably tells you a lot about yourself when you watch it, cause for me, I tried to watch it and just be like, this is all ridiculous.

18:12 I'm just going to believe in the world that we're in and have a good time with it, even if it feels very unlausible. The the amount of hoops that they have to jump through to believe that like these detectives, you know, federal agents are like following a guy that they don't have a picture of. They have no idea what he looks like. And yet we're just, we just showed up at this house and we think that we're just going to take pictures of your house and you're going to believe us. And it it's pretty ridiculous, man. Yeah. So to give a little bit more back story on what actually happens in the movie. So Joseph Cotton escapes from these two policemen who were chasing him at the beginning of the movie.

18:55 So you know that he's wanted for something and probably guilty of it. He arrives in this idyllic town and just shacks up with his sister's family and very, like, openly just tells everyone like, I'm never leaving, I'm staying here forever in a very pompous way. But yeah, about midway through the movie, these two detectives show up. And they, they explained to Teresa Wright what they're doing there and that they suspect her uncle of being a serial killer. And it's interesting because to your point, Brad, like they don't have a picture of him. They don't have any hard evidence linking him to it. And I, to be frank, I don't even remember exactly how they explained that they tracked him there or like, what their suspicion is like if they don't know what he looks like or what he's been doing. I don't even know how he came up on their radar. Did you pick up on that at all?

19:47 No, not at all. There is no evidence linking the man living in the what's her name, the Newtons in the Newton household, to the the serial killer. Completely on the opposite side of the country. You know what though? It's that old fashioned detective thing where it's just a hunch. I got a good hunch on this one. I got a good hunch on this one. See. Oh man. Yeah, so OK, let's talk performances a little bit, because we've already pointed out the implausibility of some of this plot. The two main characters here are Joseph Cotton as serial killer and Teresa Wright as innocent girl. And they they never actually prove that he's a serial killer. All right, that's all I'm saying. They.

20:34 They don't prove it, but he straight up confesses it like, OK, he's under dress, Bob. It's not legally binding. Why don't we start with Teresa writes? Because we've already talked about her recently with the Best Years of Our lives. And at that time, I said I like Teresa Wright a lot. But she seemed to get pigeonholed playing like a 15 year old, even when she was almost 30. And that's kind of what she's doing here. I don't know if they even say what her actual age is in this movie, but as I was reading the synopsis of this film, it specifically called her a teenager. So I think she's like 2324 at the time this movie gets made, so she's playing slightly younger than what she really is. It just gets to a point where it's it's hard to buy for me because she doesn't look like a teenager. She has a very youthful face, but it's very obvious that she's like a woman.

21:26 She is a grown woman playing a little girl in both of these movies that well, I took it as she was a little bit older. I was thinking she was portraying like a 19 to 21 year old because when they're in the the bar and her school friend comes up and says, oh, we were in school together a few years back and now I've got this job as a waitress and I, you know, can't hold a job and and it seemed like, yeah, like we graduated a few years ago and this girl. Hold a view to assume that that girl graduated. That that's true, man. I'm pretty sure she was 15. She just, you know, she had to go to work.

22:06 Her plot line. Yeah, man, her plot line felt a lot like the mother who has cancer in the room. Like, she just comes on screen and is like, I can't hold down a job and I'm being used and my life is terrible. And Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton are like. Oh wow, cool. Please go away. Anyways, back to our story about murder. We're trying to confront each other here. So I I think the tree I, in my mind, in my world that I've created about Shadow of a Doubt, I think she's like 2021 years old, OK? Fair. Here's the thing. I love me some Teresa Wright. I think she's incredible. I think Joseph Cotton's incredible in this, our second Joseph Cotton movie.

22:51 Is that correct? After Citizen Kane, yeah, Jedediah, which is an incredible name. We need to bring the name Jedediah back. Jed, we need some Jed's. We do. So Joseph Cotton, Look. Well, you know you're right. Let's not get off Teresa Wright yet. Go ahead and finish your thought on how beautiful and wonderful she is. Oh, she's incredible. I I think I'm in like movie star love with Teresa Wright. Here's the thing. This is, as I said, the more sincere of a Hitchcockian film. However, what's up with with Charlie and Charlie trying to get it on the entire movie? Yeah, there's some weird incest stuff going on in this movie. Super duper weird vibes going on.

23:33 I mean between the two every. And you know, like it is. It's one thing for a young girl to have a crush on somebody, right? Like, if she was 12, this would make more sense where she, like, has a crush on her uncle and you know that that's not going anywhere and that she's not thinking it through because she's 12. This is a full grown woman and she's like telling her uncle we're not like regular uncles and and niece and it's like, wait a minute, I'm sorry, what what's going on? What kind of uncle and niece are you then? Also, I'm not saying I wouldn't watch that movie, I'm just saying I'm surprised to see it here. I don't know if that would have gotten by the censors, probably not 43, but if I'm being honest, I don't know how this got by the censors. It is super awkward like the the writers of the writers of Leviticus.

24:27 I do not think would have been comfortable with this. They would have been stoned in the street, man. They would have, man. Oh, that's funny. All right. So I don't really know what else to say about Teresa Wright at this point. She's good in this movie. I don't know that I would say she's better than she was in in best years of our lives. I really preferred her character there. She also had a lot more to work with dramatically there, whereas this one, she's just kind of. A young, innocent girl who is terrified for part of the movie. And she's good. But, you know, there's just not as much to do. I'll disagree with you a little bit there. I think she's the best performance in this movie. Like, I think Joseph Cotton is great. I think that Teresa Wright has enough moments of like vacillating between, like, love for her family and love for her uncle, which gets weird. But the the descent into terror, I think is really well done and I think she just plays afraid really, really well. And so I think, I think for me, I really like Teresa in this. On the other hand, you have Joseph Cotton, who like we said, is our second Joseph Cotton movie. We have not gotten around to watching the movie The Third Man, which is widely considered one of the, I don't know, 2025 best movies ever made.

25:44 We will get to that movie at some point. But that is the other film that Joseph Cotton is really remembered for. And Brad, I sent you a quote earlier that I found from Joseph Cotton where he talked about how you know, Orson Welles said his favorite movie of his is Citizen Kane. Hitchcock said his favorite is Shadow of a Doubt and Oliver and Oliver Reed and Carol Reed said The Third Man. And I'm in all three. And I'm like, what a badass, you know, right? No, I think he's just going to mention I I was in all three. I think he's really good here, man. And if the script doesn't do him any favors in terms of the subtlety department, that's not really his fault. He's really good at being menacing and charming in equal measure. And you really do get the sense that Teresa Wright is trapped in this House and in this situation with the guy. And I think he does a great job of leveraging that sort of power dis imbalance.

26:39 I wish that that had gone on longer. Like like I I think this movie is perfectly timed hour and 45 minutes that like it's a good length of film. But I wish a little more of the runtime had been devoted to the kind of the cat and mouse game between Charlie and Charlie that like there was just something about that portion of the film that I was fully engaged in. And I think it's it's partially because kind of the sappiness falls away and it's just a thriller between 2:00, you know your protagonist and antagonist. And I I really enjoyed that part of the film a lot. I did too. And it really seems to get there towards the end of the movie, like the last 25 minutes.

27:19 They're trying to outsmart each other and kind of devise ways for the other person to either get killed or to get caught trying to kill her. And so she's putting herself in harm's way. She's trying to trick him. He's trying to catch her. Brad, this isn't the my second time seeing this movie. And I remembered the scene with the broken step outside the house, and for some reason in my mind I remember that coming back again. Like she tricked him into running down that step. It never comes back again. And I think like that's that's why I keep going to the almost thing. There's some really clever setups for like a Chekhov's gun situation for something to come back around and pay off at the end and. You know, the way this movie ends isn't anti climactic, but it's also like, oh OK, we're just going to like have him fall off a train.

28:10 Like I thought that was going to be a little bit more clever than that. And I think that's that's part of what is ultimately unsatisfying about this movie. Teresa Wright should have like grabbed his wrist and gripped so hard that he, like, loses his grip and then she reaches up and strangles him. That, like that would have been the best way to end the film in, in my humble opinion. To to truly become the killer inside. Yeah, the the ending felt a little anti climactic and but it fit the rest of the film like as unbelievable as so many of the plot elements of this movie were, the fact that she just is able to you know kind of reverse the the grip that he has on her and casually push him out. It's like yeah, sure, why not Sure you you do you Hitchcock. I'm just here for the ride.

29:07 All right, man, I think this is a good place to hit pause. We're both just here for the ride today, and we're going to see where this ride takes us as we revisit 1792. What do you say? Do I have to? I've not been enjoying 1792 so far. And The thing is, I feel bad because they're not even like bad whiskeys, but I feel like we've been on a run of like 35 and up for a while now, so to to hit a few in a row that aren't that feels strange, Bob all. Right. Well, let's get to it, Brad. All right. Today we are trying 1792 High Rye. This is a special release from 1792 and it's interesting because they market the regular 1792 as a high rye bourbon.

29:54 So this this, this should have been called Higher Rye. I think Highest Rye their third release. Oh man. Yeah. So once again, this is a cannabis infused rye, highest rye. Once again, this is a this is an undisclosed mash bill, so we have no idea exactly how much rye is in it. But you know, trust us bro. It's high rye. So much rye. It's once again coming in at 94.3 proof. At one time this did carry an 8 year age statement. It is currently not an 8 year age stated whiskey. So we don't know exactly what the ages are in this blend.

30:34 I think Brad, if there's one frustrating thing about this, it's that I don't have any info to go on here. And you know, typically we don't care, like as long as the whiskey's good, like whatever. But it's nice to be able to at least tell people. What the percentages are when you're going to call it high rye, Yeah, I was going to say I like, I have some friends who are like super deep into the whiskey world and they want to know all that information about everything they drink. I like, that's great for them. I I'm, I'm glad for them. I enjoy that because I'm on a podcast where we're trying to inform people and I think that's why we want to know the information. But overall, like, you know, experiencing things blind is is sometimes a lot more fun. And so I I think it's OK with me personally when there's not a ton of information out there.

31:23 It makes it more fun to kind of guess and think about it when I drink it. But as a consumer who is trying to inform the public, give us more information. I'm really excited to dive back into the wry side of things after last week's Sweet Wheat. You know, Brad, I was thinking we, we actually have had at least one 1792 product on the show before this run. Way back in, like season one or two. We had a flight of whiskey sent to us by Bourbon charity and it was a flight of all bottled and bond stuff. And the one that you and I liked the best was 1792 Bottled and Bond. And we got notes of banana on that thing. Like I want to recapture the magic of what we had way back then. And if anything's going to do it, I guess it's going back to the original mash bill or some variation on it. So let's dive into higher rye version. Let's dive into higher rye and tell me what you're picking up on the nose, Brad.

32:20 Last week we talked about this. I got a little bit of acetone last week that just lingered. It's still here a tiny bit this week, but it's oh, it's overpowered nicely. Buy some cinnamon, and then all I could think of as I knows this was like the sour caramel apple pops that we had as a kid. You know what I'm talking about? Like it's it's caramel Y, but it's it's not caramel. And it's. Also Apple pop it is. Caramel Apple pop Yeah, no, I like that. I I actually I do get a little bit of like. Holes on this This smells like a bourbon. I would say that the last two weeks they haven't really smelled in like in the classic bourbon realm. This is definitely a more classical bourbon nose. One thing I will say is that I don't, I wouldn't necessarily say that the ethanol is really strong on this one, but the nose reminds me of some, you know, some random bourbon that I've had recently that is like a barrel proof bourbon. Like it smells barrel proof and I don't know how else to explain it.

33:24 It's not as if the ethanol is like singing my nostrils here, but I'm surprised to see that it's only, what, 93 proof again? Yeah, it definitely has a little kick to it. There's a lot going on I like. This a lot. I'm going to give it a 7 1/2 on the nose. Yeah, I'm just below you. I'm at a 7 out of 10 on the nose. As I got into the actual pallet here, I I felt like I ran into some similar issues from the last few weeks. You know, I get some rye spice here. It it definitely for, you know, for what we said at the start, it's definitely a higher rye content. There's vanilla. The the caramel kind of disappears for me and it turns into just kind of like a sour apple peel, which isn't too bad, but the flavor just kind of doesn't pack the punch I'm hoping for. I'm at a six out of 10 on the on the pallet. This one is really.

34:18 Interesting, because there's a lot of sweetness underlying the really charry, toasty oak notes, but the sweetness is kind of like simple syrup, like it's just sugar and water. I don't get a ton of complexity or like honey or anything like that. And then again, last week I think I got a lot of leather on it. I think this week it's not quite so much leather. There's some tobacco, but it's just heavily toasted oak. You know, we we've talked a lot about the difference between char and toasted oak, and I think with toasted oak it's a little bit more, I don't know, bitter sour than you get with like a really heavy char and I I'm getting that here. The oak really overtakes things for me, coupled with a pretty, I don't know if if the words bland, the sweetness makes sense, but that's kind of what I'm going with here.

35:03 I'm just going to give this a 6 1/2 on the palate. Yeah. No, no joke. On the finish, I wrote the words generically sweet. Like the finish is kind of thin. It's a little bit short. It's generically sweet. I I didn't get a lot of the spiciness that often comes on a higher rye finish. It's not bad. There's just once again not enough character here for me to really be wowed. I I was at a 5 1/2 on the finish. I mean, I'm going to beat A6. And a half. Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. There's nothing to write home about either. I will say this, and it's going to sound way more harsh than I mean it. But like when I try to get people into whiskey and they tell me about the things in whiskey they don't like, like some of the flavors they don't like, or how harsh it can be or whatever.

35:53 I actually think this is what they're describing. Do you do? You know what I mean? And that's not to say, well listen, very harsh sounding it is. It does not very harsh. But like. I don't think this is a flawed whiskey. I don't think this is. There's like something wrong with the distillate here. I also think that, like if you were to put this in front of someone as their very first whiskey, it's challenging to get through like it. It really is. You have to be willing to, you know, Brad, we've tried like 506 hundred whiskeys on this show now, and even now this is not my preferred flavor Wheelhouse or bourbon. There's too much toasted oak, there's too much tobacco. It's really like it's a it's a more bitter tasting bourbon.

36:35 And I think that that's kind of like, I guess what I'm trying to say is this is the opposite of a gateway into whiskey. I think for most people it's still not bad, but if you're not a fan of bourbon, I don't know that this would even appeal to you. Yeah. And and so, you know, we'll just kind of Sprint through balance. I gave a six out of 10. Where are you at, Bob? I'll do 6 1/2 again. Yeah, value is the hard part. So like I saw that in the state of Ohio this is $40.00. But it's not really sold in the state of Ohio anymore. And I don't know is it still a special release, Bob like it is a special release. It's only.

37:16 Released once a year in limited quantities. And you know, we we always pull some of our stats from the website Breaking Bourbon. We've given them a lot of publicity here because they do great work, but even on their website they said hey. You know, if there is a silver lining to this whiskey, it's that it's a special release bourbon that is priced significantly lower than special releases from other companies. And I do think we have to give them a little bit of credit there, like 36 dollars MSRP. You know, you're probably getting this for like 50 bucks if you find it anywhere. I I don't think that's a bad price for a special release. I don't like this whiskey, Brad, and I know that that's how you kind of evaluate value.

37:57 But if I'm just looking at it strictly from a market perspective, I don't think it's a bad value. I'll give it once again a six and a half. Yeah, I I think. For a limited edition 36 dollars, I'll give it a 5 1/2 out of 10 like I think that's a decent value. It's not great, mostly because the the juice just isn't the best. All right, Brad. So that's bringing me. To a 33.5 out of 50, what are you coming to? Right, Right. Kind of dead on 30 out of 50. All right. That's the same as you were. Last week with the Sweet Wheat. So you know, I hate to make you pick between two things you really don't care for.

38:38 But which of the two did you prefer? I think the sweet wheat Me too. Yeah, I think it just had a little. A little. It represented A weeded bourbon much better than this represents a high rye bourbon. Yeah, I was really looking forward. To this one man, because I thought the nose had so much promise compared to the last two, I I totally agree. But it's definitely our lowest. Rated one at a 31.75 out of 50 or a 63 1/2 out of 100. I'm not going to recommend this trying or buying. I just don't mean I don't think it's really up to snuff, Man. No, I'm. I'm with you. 1792 has not impressed for me so far, man. I'm really excited to try the foolproof when we get to that one in our last week, both because I want to see if these samples that we were sent have something off on them and. Because it gives me a chance.

39:34 To bust open my actual bottle that I have of Foolproof on the shelf and kind of compare and contrast 'cause I remember loving the Foolproof. But I'm kind of with you man. These three have been more of a let down than I was anticipating. Yeah. Well, Speaking of more of a let down than you were anticipating, let's get into our next section, Bob. All right, Brad, let's get to it. All right, everybody that was. 1792 The highest rye. A whiskey that probably had a lot of rye in it. You know, probably. Who's to say? Who's to say? I have a shadow of a doubt about that, Brad. You know, it has a lot of, you know, it has a lot of Canadians in it.

40:19 Is it Canada? Canada's. Favorite segment, 2 facts and a falsehood Brad is going to. Try to stump your ball. 2 All right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. Wait, was that really your? Segue What has a lot of Canadians? 2 facts and a falsehood. Is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie and fabrication and I have to figure out which one that is. Bob, how you've been doing. I just want to. Win one. I'm not asking for a clean sweep at the end of this season. I'm so upset about last week.

41:00 Still, Brad, I feel like you purposely tripped me up. I was just helping you work through the logic of your statements, Bob. I'm very upset, but I. This week I will not say a single word. I'll just read the facts to you and let you come to your own conclusion, unimpeded by my influence. It's it's really. More crushing when it happens with a movie that I love as much as Rope because I thought that I had it pegged and I did have it pegged this time around. I'm like, I don't really know a lot about this movie. It's a it's a pretty good movie, but like I am not optimistic. Yeah, you shouldn't be. You're not good at this, all right? Man, hit me with your two facts and a falsehood fact #1, Charlie's sister mentions that he had had an accident on a bicycle when he was a boy.

41:50 Earl Nelson, the serial killer on whom this story is loosely based, suffered from an extremely serious mental illness which was attributed to a near fatal bicycle accident in his childhood. Fact #2 Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright's characters had about a 20 year age gap in the movie, but in real life they were only seven years apart, with Cotton being born in 1911 and Wright in 1918. Fact #3. While saying her prayers, Little Anne asks for Captain Midnight to be blessed. Captain Midnight was the main character on a popular radio serial in the late 1930s and 40s. That followed Captain Midnight as he fought spies and saboteurs for the American government. I have heard of Captain Midnight. Before there's actually a YouTube account called Captain Midnight, and they use, like the clip from the old newsreels featuring him, like the short oh that's funny And like all his videos.

42:48 Start with Captain Midnight. So, dude, announcers in the 30s. They just knew what was what. Oh, 100%. Like I I really bothers me that we don't talk like that anymore. Yeah, well, and. The fact that, like radio DJs have been the exact same since like the late 80s, right? Like you could play the clip from Parks and Rec of the IRA and the Douche? Oh, 100% And like, it just fits every single shock jock in America for the last 40 years. OK, you're throwing. Me off? You said you weren't going to talk any. I'm sorry, OK. The serial killer one.

43:31 I I know that this was based on a serial killer. I have no idea whom or to what extent he rode a. I have no freaking idea. No, you're not up on your, on your serial killers on my. Yeah, my Pee Wee Herman bike riding serial killers number. 2 sounds. Plausible, but I have learned to question that number. Was which one? What was #3? Captain Midnight? Oh, Captain Midnight, I'm going to say. Captain midnight's true. Just because. OK, how old? Was Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright? So I I think I said she's probably like 27, I think in best years of our lives, which would put her at like 24 here, which means 1918 sounds plausible, but when was Joseph Cotton born? Was he 1911?

44:24 He makes Citizen Kane. In 41. He it seems like. He would be about 30 there. I don't freaking know, man. I'm going to say #2 is the falsehood because you've been trying to get me on these little technicalities lately, so I'm just going to go out on a limb and say Joseph Cotton must be older than I think he is. And #2 is the falsehood locked in, I'm going to lock it in. Man, you're locking it in. I'm locking it in. Yeah. You're positive? Come on, tell me. Bob, you have officially reached 500. Oh man, yeah.

45:09 So Cotton was born in 1907, I believe. No 1919051905. He was 36 years old when he made Citizen Kane. That's crazy, yeah. I never would have guessed because, like, you know, Wells was only 24 or something. And I just kind of always thought they were contemporaries. Yeah, I know he was. He was a little bit older. Wow. Huh. But just older enough to be a sexy uncle, you know? Isn't that the dream, Brad? You know, it might be somebody's dream. Well, we're all shooting for here. It's 2023, man. Yeah, you know, don't. Kink shame.

45:49 I guess this is the theme of this movie. The shadow of a doubt. Hashtag. No king Shaving. All right, man. What do you want to talk? About with the the rest of this movie, because I feel like we did a good job talking about Hitchcock infusing this with a kind of sincerity that he doesn't typically do. I guess we could talk a little bit about the camera work. That's something that you mentioned I was about to say. I was going to say you mentioned it multiple. Times in the early going of the episode and I think that the camera, like the the composition of the shots is really beautiful in this movie. I don't know that I think it's as inventive of a camera as rope, which I really loved, but there are some shots in this movie. I sent you a screenshot of one right after, right after Joseph. Cotton realizes not only has she figured out who he is, but that she is going to obstinately stand in his way until he does something about it.

46:43 And he's walking up the steps of the house and he turns around and then there's a point of view shot from him looking down the steps to the front door where Theresa Wright is standing. And the shot that they compose of her shadow being cast all the way into the house, it it made me pause the movie and just make a mental note of I have to send Brad a screenshot of this because it's such a great shot. Oh, it's incredible, dude. And even just like the storytelling aspect of like the doorway represents a path to freedom. They they light the shot so beautifully because everything inside the house is completely dark. And then it's this bright light and then her like this Angel standing in his way keep barring him from paradise like he oh dude, what an incredible shot. I think that throughout the film he does a really great job of keeping the camera at the right height for all of the shots. And and I'm with you that the movement of the camera might not be the the best that he's ever done but I think that the still camera shots that he has he just always has him at the exact right height like when the when the trains coming in it's a famous shot the trains coming into town it's billowing out this like black smoke it's rolling coal real hard Bob I like literally.

48:08 I was like, you know what? I know we pollute a lot these days. But it literally, like, obscured the entire sky for miles. Yeah, 100%. And and like also like, let's think, how many, how many takes do you think it took to get that shot, right? Like at least 10, right. So there's a lot of pollutants in the air. It's no big deal. Here's the thing, though. The way he keeps the camera just a little bit closer to ground level than it would normally be pushes the train and the smoke into this menacing, like, larger than life figure. And it's it's shots like that throughout the film, where the camera always is presenting its subjects in either the most menacing or the most innocent of lights that I just I was like, man, Hitchcock.

49:00 He just knows what he's doing. I was reading. A thing about the, you know some of the the shots in this movie and they mentioned that the scene where the the mom brings him breakfast in bed, that the way they designed the headboard and his shadow cast upon it is meant to look like dark wings. Like, he's the Angel of death coming. And I didn't really notice it when I watched the movie, but I didn't. I didn't see it. You know, I didn't read that until after I had seen the movie. So you're absolutely right. Like, there's a ton of iconography and and symbolism in the way this movie is shot. I do think that once again, Hitchcock had such a fantastic eye for what he wanted to put on screen. I was reading today an interview that he gave where they he talked about how.

49:45 He had basically the whole movie storyboarded with every movie that he did before he started filming. And the interviewer said, like, you know, if you're going to pre visualize the whole movie, like what fun is it in directing? And he's like, it's not, I hate it, I wish someone else could do it. Like all the creativity is gone by the time I get behind the camera. And then the person says, well then why don't you have someone else shoot the movie? And he said, well, they might screw it up. And I'm like, you know. Good for you, Hitchcock. A true work quote should be like the definition for OTIR theory 100% man. Brad, I think I'm in a good spot talking about this movie. For us to get into our final segment of the day, which we call, let's make it a double. Near the end of the.

50:29 Episode. So thanks listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. You're going to. You're going to hate my. Let's make it a double. Let's make it a double is the. Part of the podcast where we pick a second movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. I'm going to go really quickly here because I've already mentioned mine. I think Night of the Hunter is a really great movie to pair up with this one they're both about. You know Americana and introducing the Angel of Death into the equation and what that might do. I think if you wanted to go modern with it, you could probably pair it with something like No Country for Old Men, which kind of does the same function or as Brad would call it, No Country for Old Men.

51:14 I think. I think that those are both they really good. But Night of the Hunters in movie, I've never mentioned on this show before. So check that one out. Yeah, don't check that out. You should go watch. So I married an axe murderer. There you go. That's. Actually a great one. It's such a great campy film, man. And as I was thinking about other like, you know, whodunit murderer films, I immediately was like, I remembered I was in college and my, the church that I worked for was like 4550 minutes away. And so a lot of times on Saturday night, I would just head up, hang out with my pastor, we'd play some Madden, and then I just spend the night in his basement.

51:58 Well, one day his wife was like, oh, you like movies. We need to watch this great film that I loved when I was younger. So I married an axe murderer and I watched it with my pastor and his wife. And even as like a 1920 year old, I was like, this is not a great movie, but I really love it. I feel like you could talk about. A lot of like the early 90s comedies. You know, like, not a great movie, but I'm here for it. Yeah, I mean, do you have you have Mike Myers playing his fat Scottish dad singing Rod. What's his face? Rod Stewart IF.

52:39 Yeah, if. Yeah, I got sexy. It's incredible. All right. So I guess. You can pair this movie up with that that makes a perfectly logical double feature. Brad, let's get into final scores here. You know, I want to be like the movie critic who sees what what they all see in this movie and mark it as an important movie at the very least. And like I understand the significance of this movie to Hitchcock's career. It just doesn't quite work for me. It's like really close to working, but at the end of the day it's like a fun three star diversion. Whereas I feel like something like rope is a four-star diversion, you know what I mean? And and so for me, I'm just going to give this a 7.5 out of 10.

53:27 Yeah, I'm. I'm in a similar place. I really enjoyed the film and I think that's what kept me in it, is that all the silliness didn't detract from the movie for me. I kind of enjoyed it. We didn't even talk about it. But like the detectives that come, she just randomly falls in love with one of the detectives based on zero amount of chemistry or romance or anything. Stuff like that. Just it just was silly and fun. I I think I'll give it an 8 out of 10. I think it's I think it's yeah, I think it's a fun movie. I think that because of Hitchcock's direction it definitely its reach exceeds its grasp.

54:09 I'll just say that. All right. Well, there you have it. Brad gives it an 8, I give it a 7.5, taking us to an average of 7.75 out of 10. But we would like to know what you think. Have you seen Shadow of a Doubt? You can let us know what we're missing, if we're missing anything at any of our social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or you can jump onto the Discord. We are on there every single day talking about weird uncle niece relationships, so if you want to join the conversation. You can find a link to our Discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. Next week, we.

54:50 Are watching a movie that I'm pretty excited to watch. Actually Brad it's one I just saw for the first time about a year ago. It's from Hitchcock pre America, so it's when he's still making movies in Britain. This is 1935's spy thriller The 39 Steps. So join us for that one next week. Until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G and we'll see you next.