Notorious [1946] (Alfred Hitchcock)

Amazon.co.uk Review

One of Alfred Hitchcock's classics, this romantic thriller features a cast to die for: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains. Bergman plays the daughter of a disgraced father who is recruited by American agents to infiltrate a post-World War II spy ring in Brazil. Her control agent is Grant, who treats her with disdain while developing a deep romantic bond with her. Her assignment: to marry the suspected head of the ring (Rains) and get the goods on everyone involved. Danger, deceit, betrayal--and, yes, romance--all come together in a nearly perfect blend as the film builds to a terrific (and surprising) climax. Grant and Bergman rarely have been better. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

My trall through the IMDB 100, at number 100.........2006-12-20

What better a way to start than with an Alfred Hitchcock movie, and what a cast, Claude Rains, the charismatic Cary Grant and sensual Ingrid Bergman.

This really is a slow burner for Hitchcock, no major shower scenes in this film, it starts off at quite a snails pace but is well worth sticking with as the tension heightens, a fine, fine film to start with..

Almost the perfect film..........2006-03-15

...this Hitchcock film has it all - Cary Grant as an amoral CIA agent, Ingrid Bergman as a (supposed) alcoholic floozy, Nazis plotting to come back to power - and they are all in Rio. It should be a rather florid mix, but Hitchcock brings it all into a tense and exciting film. Grant has rarely been better, using all his charisma to persuade a woman who is in love with him to sleep with a supposed Nazi to get information. Technically, the film is brilliant, with poisoned coffee cups looming hugely at the front of shots, and the shadows of the supposed poisoners wavering and merging into one. Personally, I think Cary Grant is one of the sexiest actors ever to be filmed and this film captures him at his best. A film you should definitely have in your collection.

Classy thriller.......2005-12-07

"Notorious" is still an impressive film, 60 years after it's release in 1946. It has an intriguing plot, a steady build up of tension, excellent characterisation and top quality acting performances from the beautiful Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains. The on screen chemistry between Bergman (Alicia)and Grant (Devlin), playing two FBI agents, is perfect, while Rains (Alex Sebastien) plays his role as a Nazi mastermind hiding out in Rio superbly. Bergman and Grant,who become romantically involved, infiltrate Rains' Nazi circle using her as a "honey trap" for the besotted Alex Sebastien. It then becomes a race against time to discover what the Nazis are up to before they uncover Bergman's deception. Absorbing film ; legendary performanes from Bergman,Grant and Rains.

Bergman as the "notorious" Alicia Huberman, "not a lady.".......2004-08-20

Filmed in 1946, this was a truly sensational film upon its release, its a dramatic impact far stronger than what we experience now. Newspapers were publicizing the fact that major Nazi leaders had escaped to Brazil and other South American countries, and America's use of the atomic bomb in Japan had made every American aware of the importance of uranium, also a plot element here. The work of spies was respected and considered crucial for America's safety.

In this Hitchcock-directed film, Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, daughter of a Nazi spy convicted of treason. A young woman who has always played fast and loose, she is nevertheless recruited to go to Brazil to infiltrate her father's Nazi network there, with Devlin (Cary Grant) as her agency contact. They fall in love as they await orders in Rio, but the stiff and formal Grant cannot bring himself to tell this "notorious" woman ("not a lady") that he loves her. When she realizes that she will get much better information if she marries Nazi Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), Grant allows her to do this, meeting her periodically for agonizing updates. As Alicia uncovers increasingly important information related to the Nazi search for uranium, her own life is threatened.

Hitchcock's camera work is extraordinary, with high-contrast scenes achieving maximum dramatic impact in black and white. He often places objects and people in the extreme foreground with the camera focused on the background, and he uses changes of lighting to emphasize changing moods or realizations by characters. The suspense builds to a crescendo, and when Grant and Bergman manage to get inside a locked wine cellar while Rains is approaching, the tension nears the breaking point.

Part of the suspense is psychological. Alicia's life is nightmarish, as she shares a bedroom with someone she both fears and detests, while she herself is feared and detested by her husband's manipulative mother (Leopoldine Konstantin), who calmly sits and embroiders throughout much of the film. Playing a fey, flighty, and "fallen" woman, Bergman is spontaneous, vibrantly alive, and expressive of every emotion, a marked contrast to the staid Grant, who plays the elegant and formal role for which he is justifiably famous. Rains, playing a Nazi, manages to evoke a certain sympathy because he is so vulnerable to Bergman and so dependent on his mother. One of Hitchcock's best films, this study of a "notorious" woman belongs to Bergman, who dominates the film and brings it to life. Mary Whipple

Perfect.......2003-08-26

The fifteen pounds you spend on 'Notorious' may well be one of the best used fifteen pounds you ever spend. A fornight after having received it I had watched it ten times: it is a simply mesmerising film. Every element that makes a film good comes together in 'Notorious' to make it excellent.

It doesn't fit into any of the 'spy-film' or 'romance' cliches: it's utterly fresh and original. The script is very tight, the two strands - McGuffin and romance - coming together in the form of a scintillating love triangle, a series of agonising misunderstandings and an ending that is simultaneously so surprising and so _right_ that it will take your breath away.

Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant do wonderful work bringing the leads to life - she damaged, vulnerable and exposed, becomming more forlorn and isolated as the plot develops, he slightly morally ambiguous and painfully self-controlled. Watch them in the scene where Alicia takes Dev for a drive: magic! Claude Rains and Madame Konstantin as Alex and his mother lend stellar support, he the villain you pity more than hate and she a cold and jealous manipulator. The downward pan on Alex as he makes his confession to his mother tells you all you need to know, which brings us neatly onto the direction.

What with it being a Hitchcock film and all you expect it to be good, but this is brilliant. Neat little tricks like having Alicia stepping from the shadow into the light as Dev exposes her patriotism and keeping Dev's back to a room so that when he breaks into the conversation his distress is palpable couple with major motifs that occur in later films: the coffee-cup view of Alicia echoed in 'Spellbound' and the pan from the top of the staircase to Alicia's hand also seen in 'Marnie'. Numerous pieces of symbolism - the lost bottle of champagne, Dev lending Alicia his scarf and she returning it when she has finally lost hope - add richness to the texture of the film and ensure that alhtough the editing is beautifully economic the film is never spare in sentiment or meaning. The longest screen kiss in history, although ridiculously chaste by modern standards, in nonetheless the most tender and erotic romance scene I've ever seen on film. And of course it is an incredibly suspenseful film, from Alicia's first, ill-fated party right down to the abrupt ending.

'Notorious' is the first truly great film that Hitchcock made, indeed one of his best three in my opinion. Watch it if you like the stars, watch it if you like Hitchcock, watch it if you like tight scripting, watch it if you like well developed characters, watch it if you don't like to be patronised by a film. Just watch it!

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