Feature Reviews Shadow of a Doubt was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite of his own work. The story takes place in peaceful Santa Rosa, California and features Joseph Cotton in a chilling role as the Merry Widow Murderer. The film also features Hume Cronyn as a seemingly mentally challanged, murder novel obsessed neighbor. Better Off Dead is the first collaboration between John Cusack and director Savage Steve Holland. Cusack plays a young man who wants nothing more than to die until he meets a French Exchange student and challanges the local bully to a ski contest. This film forms the first part of the unofficial Cusack Trilogy with Say Anything and High Fidelity.