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Notorious - Criterion CollectionRating:
Release Date: 16 October, 2001 Retail Price: $39.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Notorious - Criterion Collection Reviews
Tremendous Romantic Thriller
It's easy to see from "Notorious" why Cary Grant's name was bandied about to play James Bond -- his stellar performance here brings to life exactly the sort of conflicted emotions that are trademarks of the hard-edged but romanticized super agent in Ian Fleming's pages. In fact, it's not too hard to imagine that the author used the characterization when dreaming up 007. As an intelligence operative seeking to thwart post-war Nazis (led by an almost sympathetic Claude Rains), he is at once ruthless and noble in his determination to use the disgraced daughter (mesmerizing Ingrid Bergman) of a treasonous American to his advantage. That they fall in love is inevitable, but Hitchcock's stylish direction and the smart screenplay by Ben Hecht allow the proper amount of angst to make "Notorious" rise above simply being a well-crafted thriller. The performances by the three leads are impeccable, multi-layered and often quite subtle, with the only real flaw in the film being a need for about 10 more minutes of story to let things boil over more (the diabolical mother of the Rains character, for instance, never exactly gets her villainous moment in the sun.) Kudos to Hitchcock and Hecht for giving the bad guys the pretense of civility rather than simply making them the cartoonish thugs of lesser films.
Romantic and courageous Ingrid Bergman at her best
Cary Grant is playing more than just the charmer he played in so many other films. Here he is an American agent working with his beloved Ingrid Bergman as she spies on Nazis in Brazil in 1946. Nazis have located uranium, and they are unrepentant and still ambitious to finish what Hitler started. In 1946 the Cold War with the Soviet Union hadn't begun yet, and America's enemy was still thought of as Germany.
The plot seems farfetched to us today because we know that the Soviets replaced the Germans as our rivals, but when the film was made it would have been very believable and important.
Ingrid Bergman is assigned the task of going into deep cover in a Nazi nest in Brazil. One of her former boyfriends is now an important member of that nest. The plan is to stage a rendezvous between Ingrid and her German acquaintance, and have her report back to Cary and crew about what she learns.
The Nazi, Claude Rains, instantly falls back in love with Ingrid. Who wouldn't. They marry. The only problem is that Cary and Ingrid are in love.
Why would Ingrid marry Rains? Because Cary is unable to tell her that he loves her. It is an odd part of the story, an apparent weakness. We have to stretch a bit in order to excuse the writing, so I'll just call it a weakness of the script and move on.
The key to the whole spy story is a wine closet. This is yet another weakness in the writing. How did Ingrid and Cary know that the key to everything was the wine closet? Because they read the script, that's how.
Suffice it to say that at the end Cary must rescue his damsel in distress in a house full of Nazis.
Ingrid Bergman is superb in this film. She makes the film. Her romanticism and her expressive face make this film. Cary Grant is a bit wooden, as Hitchcock had to balance romantic leading man with a James Bond type, and also had to make him undemonstrative in order to justify Ingrid's betrayal of him. We're walking a tight line here, and it shows in the wooden quality of Cary's acting. The fact that he didn't really succeed in the role is probably due to the awkwardness of the script. But Ingrid is good enough for the both of them.
The "ending" of this film isn't really shown. What will happen to Claude Rains isn't shown. There are some very suspicious Nazis asking to speak with him, a door closes behind them, and our movie is done.
Despite the script problem that dictates that Cary Grant can't tell Ingrid he loves her because he "just can't", therefore draining the blood out of his character, this is a top notch film highlighted by a wonderful performance by Ingrid Bergman.
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