| “ | Women keep busy in towns like this. In the cities, it's different. 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? | „ |
| ~ Uncle Charlie's famous "Widows Monologue" |
Charles Oakley, best known as Uncle Charlie, is the main antagonist of Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt. He is a charming serial killer of elderly, wealthy widows who provokes the suspicion of his niece and namesake, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton.
He was portrayed by the late Joseph Cotten.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He hates women, particularly elderly widows.
- He strangles three wealthy widowed women and stole their money.
- While he does indeed spend a lot of time with his family and provides them with gifts and is friendly towards them, it's so he could bribe them, gain their trust and get them to protect him from anyone who could take him in.
- Snaps at his niece, grabs her wrists tightly, and violently wrenches down on them when she busts him with the newspaper article.
- Referring to his victims as "horrible, faded, fat, greedy women", and comparing them to animals fit for slaughter.
- Sabotaging a stair step in a failed attempt to kill Young Charlie
- Locking Young Charlie in the garage and turning on the gas.
- He seduces another elderly widow and plans to kill her.
- Trying to throw his niece into an oncoming train.
- Although, it's possible he had his personality change due to an accident on his bicycle, colliding with a streetcar, causing a skull fracture, this is unconfirmed and it's not played for sympathy and he still has clear moral agency.
Trivia[]
- Uncle Charlie is the only Alfred Hitchcock villain to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Uncle Charlie on the Villains Wiki
