Notorious

Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1946, 101 mins

US intelligence man Devlin (Cary Grant) is assigned to watch Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), a socialite whose father has been convicted of spying for the Nazis. Alicia seems not to share her father's political leanings. Devlin soon has a job for her. He wants Alicia to go to South America and, using her family name, infiltrate Alexander Sebastian's chemicals operation. Alicia meets Alexander and the two are soon married. But Alexander becomes suspicious of his wife and, with his domineering mother, plots her demise.

With Notorious Hitchcock brought his spy thrillers (Secret Agent, The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent etc) into the nuclear age. Remarkably, he and scriptwriter Ben Hecht devised the idea of using nuclear materials as the film's "McGuffin" (i.e. plot device) without knowing that, at the same time, Allied scientists were working on the atomic bomb.

Notorious is also famous, of course, for having the longest on-screen kiss, with Bergman and Grant's clinch clocking in at a little over three minutes. Their relationship had a real spark. Grant's character is unsure whether he can trust Bergman, wary that she might hold a grudge against the US and its agents, while Bergman thinks that Grant is just using her. Their uncertainties aid the villains, of whom mummy's boy Alexander - a typically Hitchcockian villain - is only the least despicable. There is also, of course, virtuoso direction from the master. Early on there's a nice point-of-view shot when Alicia wakes up with a hangover after a night socialising. Later, at Alexander's party, there's a crane- shot in which the camera moves downstairs, glides across and over the crowded ballroom and finally zeroes in on Alicia's hand, clutching the stolen key to Alexander's mysterious wine cellar, all in a single magnificent take!

Keith H. Brown
EUFS Programme 1998-99