Notorious - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: Another Hitchcock classic big for its time
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Notorious was a film of its time. Made in 1946 it is the story of a young woman whose nazi-supporting father is convicted of treason after the end of World War II. The government then recruits her to track down his accomplices in Brazil.

The film is said by some to be overlooked but I think that that could be said of almost any Hitchcock film. The film is different from other Hitchcock films in some of its plot elements but is still good.

The Criterion DVD has great special features too and they are typical of a good release. There are two audio commentaries, one by Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane and another by Rudy Behlmer. There is the unedited 1948 Lux Radio Theater version with Ingrid Bergman reprising her lead role. There are numerous theatrical trailers and many production photos, publicity stills, and lobby cards. There are also facsimilies of correspondence between the filmmakers. Thre are parts of the short story "Song of the Dragon" which the film is based on. There is news footage if Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman attendign a gala of the film. Finally there are parts script which were cut from the film and alternate endings in script form.

The DVD wend out of print at the beginning of 2004 but is still available at a low price. Buy before the price goes up, or hope it will be back in print.

Rating:
Summary: This film is an artistic monument !
Review: Hitchock threw his glow to the immortality with this fine , elegant and aristocratic film where the suspense element is not the mean starring but the admirable way in which it is told .
The camera in the sequence in we see Bergman trying to hide the keys is simply marvelous .
Since the script turns around political events when a governemet agent and a refugee girl undertake a dangerous mission in Brazil , the puzzle is just for start and Hitchcock will build an interconected plot with unbeatable maestry, with that unforgettable casting .
Claude Rains to me , makes a role even better than in Casablanca , this acting is much more demanding and exigent . Ingrid Bergman splendid as always and Cary Grant may be well has given the best role of his career .
Many Hitchcock hard fans consider this one as the best work of the british director . I do not agree but this one is his best artistic issue told in a very european style .

Rating:
Summary: I have to disagree
Review: A lot of people (Roger Ebert among them) seem to think that Notorious is Hitchcock's neglected masterpiece, but to me it seems like a remarkably inferior film, especially compared to the rest of Hitchcock's output. Aspects of the film may be brilliant, but as a whole it's difficult to watch and drags badly. The ambiguous nature of its villains is one problem. In his 'political' films, Hitchcock liked to make 'the enemy' ambiguous in order to keep from taking sides in an actual conflict, as he was always more concerned with personal dramas. Here, however, Rainier fails as a 'Nazi' with no defined agenda, a man who is entirely lacking in menace, along with his cohorts (it is implied that they commited one murder, but aside from that, they resemble a gentlemen's club). Since most of the film even takes place in his house, it seems important that he be a striking character. Yet everything about him, from his physical appearance to his manner of speaking, to the lines accorded him by the script, makes him unconvincing and dull. When he realizes that he will have to poison his wife, it is only when his domineering mother leans on him that he agrees to do it. This even could have been a fine dramatic moment, but it fails, reading more like a mother nagging her son to take out the garbage: 'Oh, alright, fine.' He could, of course, be called a human villain, but he is far too human. Cary Grant's secret agent character is equally dull. He starts out seeming very debonair, but his love affair with Bergman seems to suck all the drama out of his character. His final rescue of Bergman is as routine and unremakable as a plumber coming in to fix the household toilet. Bergman, at least, was given a unique character and acts well, but there is not enough for her to do to make the film engaging.

In all, Notorious is rightly disregarded today, and should never approach the pedestal of Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho or the Birds. Hitchcock may be at his best here, but his actors, and most especially his screenwriter, let him down.

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Summary: Bergman as the "notorious" Alicia Huberman, "not a lady."
Review: Filmed in 1946, just after World War II, 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