:
Cary Grant,
Cary Grant,
Ingrid Bergman,
more...
:
Alfred Hitchcock,
Alfred Hitchcock
see all cast/crew...
: Criterion
: Political Thriller, Espionage, Criterion Collection
: 102 min.
: English
: English
see additional details...
This title is currently out of print.
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Though Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an accused WWII traitor, commits suicide. American secret agent Devlin (Cary Grant) is ordered to enlist the libidinous Alicia's aid in trapping Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group. Openly contemptuous of Alicia despite her loyalty to the American cause, Devlin calmly instructs her to woo and wed Sebastian, so that that good guys will have an "inside woman" to monitor the Nazi chieftain's activities. It is only after Alicia and Sebastian are married that Devlin admits to himself that he's fallen in love with her. The "MacGuffin" in this case is a cache of uranium ore, hidden somewhere on Sebastian's estate. Upon discovering that his wife is a spy, Sebastian balks at eliminating her until ordered to do so by his virago of a mother (Madame Konstantin). Tension mounts to a fever pitch as Devlin, a day late and several dollars short, strives to rescue Alicia from Sebastian's homicidal designs. Of the several standout sequences, the film's highlight is an extended love scene between Alicia and Devlin, which manages to ignite the screen while still remaining scrupulously within the edicts of the Production Code. In later years, Hitchcock never tired of relating the story of how he and screenwriter Ben Hecht (who was nominated for an Oscar) fell under the scrutiny of the FBI after electing to use uranium as a plot device -- this before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A huge moneymaker for everyone concerned, Notorious remains one of Hitchcock's best espionage melodramas. In 1992, Notorious was remade for cable television; it goes without saying that the original is vastly superior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This dvd is currently out of print and we only have a limited number of rental copies. Thank you for your patience.
Special Features: - Commentaries by Hitchcock film scholar Marian Keane and film historian Rudy Behlmer
- Complete broadcast of the 1948 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation, starring Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten
- Rare production and publicity photos
- Script excerpts of deleted scenes and alternate endings
- Rare newsreel footage of Bergman and Hitchcock
- Isolated music and effects track
- Excerpts from the short story "The Song of the Dragon"
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| spy game
by cammelltoe
October 14, 2005 - 3:39 PM PDT
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3 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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This is one of those movies that i stumble upon and know that i already love, but for some reason can't remember why, so i rewatch it and the experience is akin to finding a crumpled $20 bill in the pants you wore last week the day before payday. Money that I would use to buy a thesaurus to obtain more...uh, succulent words to praise Notorious.
Notorious is really great because it is a precision tooled entertainment with all of it's creators working a the height of the powers, transcending the limits of making a popcorn flick that, by definition, should appeal to the lowest common denominator. Few wrote better dialogue than Ben Hecht, and the leaps of faith that are written into the plot, like the love at first sight between the shady agent and the drunken socialite, are more than covered by the superb acting of the three leads--- Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. Hitchcock does a brilliant job behind the camera, bringing an intensity to the romance with out taking you out of the picture and adding some impressive german-experssionistic flourishes. The real treat though is that the macguffin in Notorious is the spy plot: the film's actual raison d' etre is the twisted love story between the three leads, which is fleshed out with admirable depth. Compulsively re-watchable, and essential. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 8.13)
624 Votes
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