NOTORIOUS

MGM / 1946 / 102 min. / NR

Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant.  Have two more perfect specimens – and peerless film actors – ever had more palpable movie chemistry?  In Alfred Hitchcock’s post-war, spy/suspense/ romance, Bergman and Grant literally seethe on the screen.  Mix in the dark heart of Ben Hecht’s twisted screenplay and Hitchcock’s perfectly attuned direction, and you get NOTORIOUS – a timeless masterpiece.

Bergman’s Alicia Huberman and Grant’s Devlin are two broken souls just waiting to find each other.  While she’s been leading an ongoing life of drinking and partying, Alicia’s father was collaborating with Nazis.  As the film begins, she is accosted by reporters outside the Miami courtroom where her father was just convicted as a traitor.  She is also met by Devlin, a smooth government agent with a flinty heart, who tries to enlist the beautiful woman with questionable morals to go to Rio de Janeiro to smoke out a suspected plot being hatched by some escaped Nazi scientists and sympathizers.

Hitchcock and Hecht build our empathy for the couple, as we watch these two deeply flawed characters fall in love during the first act.  We get the feeling that despite a lifetime of experiences, for Alicia and Devlin, this is the one time they have each met their match. 

It’s only when they get to Rio that Devlin reveals to Alicia that her assignment is to infiltrate herself into the life of Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), a compatriot of her father’s who was once madly in love with her.  At this point the dynamics of the film completely flip, with Devlin essentially pimping out Alicia in order to break the Nazi spy ring, and Alicia going along with the plan.  The master of suspense flawlessly milks the situation for all it’s worth, as forces of love, jealousy, betrayal, abandonment and a higher cause all come crashing into each other in this beautifully plotted and executed film.

Magnetically good looking Cary Grant was arguably the greatest, most versatile male movie star, ever.  Light on his feet and deft with comedy, Grant could also plumb the darkest recesses of character while never losing the audience.  And as phenomenal as Grant was, the stunning Ingrid Bergman was easily his match, drawing us into the plight and the feelings of the relatively unsympathetic Alicia.  It should also be mentioned that the movie wouldn’t succeed as brilliantly as it does without the third spoke of the acting wheel, the magnificent Claude Rains.  Sebastian’s evil is never in question, while the incredibly versatile Rains allows us to glimpse the character’s humanity.  In the end, he is as trapped as anyone else in the story.

And of course, the glue that holds the movie together is the genius of Alfred Hitchcock.  So much has been said and written about Hitchcock and his work over the years that adding anything to it feels like cliché.  Let’s just say that the bottom-line job of a director is to direct the audience’s attention by controlling the images, sounds and emotions within the rectangle of the frame.  Hitchcock, at his best, was the unparalleled master.  In NOTORIOUS, every frame is exquisitely composed.  Every camera move (and this movie has one of his most famous) clearly conceived and executed.  The performances, down to the smallest parts, are deeply, evocatively nuanced.  And all of these elements come together for one purpose… to tell a compelling story.

THE DISC

The black and white photography shimmers on the screen in this restored print, presented in an AVC-encoded 1080p transfer.  The original grain and filmic look is never lost, as contrast and black levels are beautifully maintained.  A wonderful-looking Blu-ray!

Working with vintage sound elements, the mono soundtrack is nicely presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix.

EXTRAS

Two separate commentary tracks with film professors Rick Jewell and Drew Casper provide a good deal of valuable background information on the making of the film.

An isolated music and effects track highlights Roy Webb’s underrated score.

“The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious” is a 28 minute look at the making of the film that offers a fair amount of insight, mostly from Hitchcock experts, including Peter Bogdonavich.

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster” shows how the master of suspense influenced the whole spy genre of films.

“The AFI Award: The Key to Hitchcock” features a short excerpt from Hitchcock’s Life Achievement Award ceremony, including a lovely moment with Ingrid Bergman.

An hour-long radio play with Bergman and Joseph Cotton is included.

Audio interviews with Hitchcock and Bogdonavich and Francois Truffaut are also here.

A restoration comparison and theatrical trailer are also included.

MY SAY

One of Hitchcock’s best… which means one of cinema’s best!

--Reviewed by David Newman