While not completely up to par with Hitchcock, Joel Newton came pretty close.
I love how this film opens! While the opening credits roll, you start at the front doors to the mansion (add some creepy-ish music with some equally creepy singing) then pan to the ground which at first just looks like shadows, but as the ghostly voice "chirps" - for lack of a better descriptor - one of the shadows begins to look like the shadow of a person. As the credits continue, all you see is the shadow-person approach the front doors of the mansion, full circle. The audience never sees who really makes that shadow.
The movie begins by following Agnes Langley as she makes her way to the Gale (or Gayle) Estate.
Basically, Agnes (the main character) is hired as caretaker to replace the "missing" cousin.
Agnes is told by Lorna Gayle to throw away "Jennifer's" Things. However, it feels wrong to her, so she keeps them instead. As time passes, Agnes becomes more and more curious and searches through Jennifer's things. She finds a diary. Some will point out how "convenient" it is that it says "diary" in bold letters on the cover, but it's anything but convenient because diaries actually did have "Diary" printed on the front. Currently, many just say "journal" now. :D
The following was composed by me for a wiki page on the movie - While the diary contains some paltry entries like "oiled the sewing machine" and such, the more Agnes reads the entries, the more she finds herself obsessed with Jennifer and her, "disappearance," and takes on a mission to sleuth out what actually happened. Over time, we see Agnes discover more and more of Jennifer's things and become more and more unhinged as a result as she tries to understand what could possibly be going on in Jennifer's life/mind in the days leading up to her "disappearance."
As almost anyone would, Agnes uses the "facts" she finds to concoct a somewhat plausible scenario for what happened to Jennifer, even if it seems a bit out there.
It isn't until Agnes tells what she believes happen to Jim Hollis (Howard Duff) at the end of the movie that we learn what really happened to Jennifer. Hollis realizes the only way to pull Agnes from the brink of madness is to reveal what he knows as the truth.
The ending, however, shows the same shadow again walking on the grounds. Is it Jennifer or someone else? We never really know, so in truth, the audience never really knows if what Hollis says happened to Jennifer is what really happened to her. - (end of composed material)
The way I see it, the fact that we're never really sure if it's Jennifer's shadow or not adds to the creepiness of the movie as a whole.
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