Notorious
Genre: suspense
Director: Alfred
Hitchcock
Release: 1946
Studio: Vanguard Films, RKO Radio Pictures,
Universal
Rating: -
MBiS score: 8.5/10
Loves Me, Loves Me
Not
Miami, August 1946. After Joe Huberman is
sentenced to 20 years in jail for treason, his daughter Alicia (Ingrid Bergman)
is approached by a Secret Service agent who believes she’s ideally suited to trap
Joe’s associates in Brazil Rio …
and she’s not going there for the Carnival. With Cary Grant (T.R. Devlin, the
agent), Claude Rains (Alexander Sebastian), Louis Calhern (Captain Paul
Prescott), Leopoldine Konstantin (Anna Sebastian), Reinhold Schǘnzel (Wilhelm
Renzler), Ivan Triesault (Eric Mathis), Alex Minotis (Joseph) and Eberhard
Krumschmidt (Emil Hupka).
NOTORIOUS revolves around nuclear energy but
draws more on star power to propel its story of intrigue and romance. Ingrid
Bergman wasn’t just a beautiful woman; she also possessed genuine talent and her
performance here is both credible and very natural. As for Cary Grant, I wasn’t
fond of him when I began watching movies but I’m learning to appreciate how
great a thespian he really was. With such a combustible duo as Devlin and Alicia,
you can expect their working relationship to be muddled by uneasiness and personal
feelings… but let’s leave it at that. Claude Rains is also vital to NOTORIOUS for
he provides that spark of danger the movie needed after a rather inauspicious start.
The rest of the cast is quite commendable, especially Leopoldine Konstantin as
one really mean mother.
The movie also stands as a classic because of
its overall direction – Hitchcock was a fine helmer, obviously – and brilliant
screenplay by Ben Hecht, one of the best writers Hollywood CASABLANCA
For those of you who haven’t seen Hitchcock’s
monochrome marvel, you’re in for one hell of a treat. And when you’ll hear
Devlin saying that Alicia ‟is first, last, and always not a lady”, don’t you
believe him!
MBiS
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