Film: 'Notorious' (1946)

This is a curious film. Truly, it can not be said that I liked it, but it is good. The problem is that a Hitchcock film without humour is barely a Hitchcock film, at least to someone raised on the high points of 'North By Northwest', 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Rear Window' or 'To Catch A Thief'. In reality, most of Hitchcock's movies were deadly serious, and so is 'Notorious'. It's so serious that it's hard to like, especially with the presence of the lovely but enigmatic Ingrid Bergman as the 'notorious' lead character. In an extra bid to be confusing, Hitchcock has Cary Grant playing an American agent, and Claude Rains as a German conspirator in South America. Cary Grant as a serious member of the establishment? How bizarre! The man was born to play mavericks, and Claude Rains was born to rave!

So, 'Notorious', the classic Hitchcock film. It's nominally about the scandalous woman Alicia Huberman (Bergman), whose traitorous (Nazi?) father gives her an advantage in helping the secret service infiltrate a post-WWII German ring in Brazil. Escorted by secret agent TR Devlin (Grant), she reforms, they fall madly in love, and then her assignment is revealed in heartbreaking detail: She is to romance her father's old friend Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) and find out the truth behind the ring. Cue the melodrama, followed by drama, followed by genuine thrills. The movie is technically very good, although it has all the weaknesses in setup that its immediate predecessor 'Spellbound' had, as well as a common factor in Bergman. For one thing, the setup of Alicia being notorious doesn't work, and for another the question of why she agrees to do all the things she does is only tenuously answered.

Ingrid Bergman can be a problem, carrying a sense of remoteness with her that is at best offputting. In 'Spellbound' it was a problem, and it is here too, although it's a problem that fades over the duration of the film. Is it a style of acting or just a perceived problem from the observer's point of view? How did Hitchcock compensate over the course of the filming? It's hard to say. In 'Spellbound' it was compounded by the Gregory Peck factor (think wooden, then double the thought), and here by the peculiarly humourless Cary Grant. In fact, Claude Rains may be the most passionate and human character in the film, which is strange given the overall cast. Watching Cary Grant not being witty is like watching a genius try to play violin music with one arm tied behind his back. How strange it is!

The tension in 'Notorious' is palpable - a favourite adjective - once the movie gets going, and the photography excellent. It's a Hitchcock film firmly in the 'Suspicion' and 'Shadow of a Doubt' portion of his catalogue, and definitely not a film to be sneered at. I just wish that I liked it more. The pieces are all there, after all: A starry cast, technical brilliance and uranium. It will continue to be acclaimed and revered, but give me 'North By Northwest' over this any day.

O.