FaveFilms: Notorious (1946, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)

Alfred Hitchcock is probably the single individual most responsible for my love of movies. My earliest introduction to his name and image was being terrified beyond all reason as a young child when the chilling “Funeral March of the Marionettes” accompanied by the massive film director’s silhouetted outline came onto my television screen. As a child I did not understand the irony in Hitchcock appearing with a noose around his neck and dryly saying “good e-vening … I’m … Alfred Hitch-cock.” All I saw was a macabre, death obsessed British gentleman prepared to take me to a world of pure terror.

As I grew older, I realized that Hitchcock was not just a television personality on Nick at Nite reruns, but also directed some movies too. I sought out such standard titles as Rear Window and The Birds. My childhood fears of the gloomy silhouette on the small screen morphed into an intense admiration, even obsession, for the techniques and themes of the greatest of all cinematic artists. My teenage years were accompanied by screenings of most of the Master’s great works. The first time I saw Vertigo was a real turning point in my life, the moment at which I understood that cinema is indeed an art form worthy of my utmost respect and admiration. For whatever reason, Notorious is the one great masterpiece of Hitch’s that I did not see until much later, after my tastes in cinema had largely already been formed. The film has been difficult to find on DVD for some time, existing for a while only on an expensive Criterion edition, and then going out of print altogether. I am happy to report that the film is now available for the entire world to see as part of MGM’s Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection. Wow, what a film it really is.

Notorious is important and magnificent for numerous reasons. One can point to the amazing performance by Ingrid Bergman, perhaps the most nuanced and sympathetic of her career. I was also blown away by the film’s incredible story, structured so tightly that you think it is going to burst in two. There’s the film’s overall atmosphere, the post-war paranoia that pervades every frame. Hitchcock’s films, though, are always about the technical virtuosity the director delivers from scene to scene. Notorious is perhaps the greatest of Hitchcock’s films in its impeccably-planned structure and cinematic technique.

Hitchcock was known for planning every last detail of a movie in his head before filming even began. We can tell that the Master most certainly employed this technique when he made Notorious. Consider the much-discussed scene in which Cary Grant and Ingmar Bergman kiss for three minutes, defying the censors and all sense of decency in 1946 filmmaking practice. Hitchcock gets away with it by having them talk, answer the phone, and engage in other innocuous activities in between passionate kisses. Consider the miraculous camera movement in which we start with an extreme long shot overlooking a private party and crane ever so deliberately to an extreme close-up of an important key clutched in Bergman’s hand. Or, consider the suspenseful scene in which Grant and Bergman rummage through vintage bottles in the wine cellar looking for the one that contains a radioactive substance before they are discovered by Bergman’s Nazi husband. These are the moments that make Notorious an absolutely thrilling ride.

Bergman plays a young woman who is hired by the American government to spy on post-war German Nazis. Her father was an American traitor, so she automatically has an “in” with the Germans, especially a wealthy businessman played by Claude Rains. The film is deeply concerned with questions of loyalty and patriotism, as Bergman must decide how far she is willing to go to serve her country. Is she willing to give up her body? How about her soul?

A cursory plot summary, though, doesn’t do justice to the overall mood and suspenseful emotion the film evokes. While Notorious is often named by critics as one of the greatest Hitchcock films, if not the greatest, it still seems to be underappreciated by the public at large. Make no mistake, Notorious is an absolute treasure and deserves to be ranked with Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Strangers on a Train as the best of the best in Hitchcock’s massive oeuvre.