IMDB Top 250 Challenge – Movie #16 – Notorious Review

Notorious (1946) – IMDB Rank #155

Watched 6/5/13

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring:
Cary Grant
Ingrid Bergman
Claude Rains

Plot (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, is recruited by government agent T. R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to infiltrate an organization of Nazis who have relocated to Brazil after World War II.

Alfred Hitchcock:

Alfred Hitchcock is the director with the highest number of films in the IMDB Top 250. I love Alfred Hitchcock and think he deserves to be at the top. (If you’re curious, here’s a list of the directors with the most films in the IMDB Top 250). He currently has nine films in the top 250 and I’d seen all but three (of ten) when I started my IMDB Top 250 Challenge on 01/01/13. The films are:

1. Dial M for Murder
2. North by Northwest
3. Notorious
4. Psycho
5. Rear Window
6. Rebecca
7. Rope
8. Strangers on a Train
9. Vertigo

I’m working off the list as it was on 01/01/13. Unfortunately, Shadow Of A Doubt has now been knocked out of the Top 250. That’s a real shame. Again, far too many current films are knocking the classics out of the top 250 (don’t get me started on that). Anyway, I figured I’d work my way through the Alfred Hitchcock movies I’d not seen first. My previous reviews are here :

Rope Review

Shadow Of A Doubt Review

With Notorious, I’ve now seen all the Hitchcock films in the Top 250.

My Opinion on Notorious:

Of the three I watched to complete my Hitchcock Top 250-watching, I enjoyed Rope the most. Notorious is a close second but it felt very different from other Hitchcock films to me. The plot sounds intriguing & suspenseful but the story that unfolds is actually far more simple than in a lot of other Hitchcock films. This felt more like a romance film than a film from the master of suspense. Not that I’m complaining, though. Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman have great chemistry and all that kissing was AWESOME. Seriously. They kissed. And kissed. And kissed. And having just looked Notorious up on Wikipedia, I read that there was actually a ban at the time on movie kisses more than three seconds long so Hitchcock got around this in Notorious “by having his actors disengage every three seconds, murmur and nuzzle each other, then start right back up again.” Well, it worked because those kisses felt like they went on forever. Loved it. 🙂

I’m still a bit new to watching classic films but I’m trying to watch more of them and working my way through the IMDB Top 250 should help with that a bit. I’ve not seen THAT many films with Cary Grant but even fewer with Ingrid Bergman (other than Casablanca but to be honest I was SO young when I saw that that I really should watch it again). She’s fabulous. Sexy. Why can’t more actresses be like that nowadays? Classy. And not exactly a thin little stick insect, either. Give me CURVES on women! Why am I going on about this? Lol. How about Cary Grant? So handsome and SO cool & aloof in this film. What is it about the cool & aloof men that I always find SO sexy? 😉

Okay – this film is about more than lots of sexy kissing (although that’s what I happened to enjoy the most about it). I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that Bergman & Grant’s characters fall in love in this (what with all that kissing talk). Or do they? You’re kept guessing on the true nature of their relationship throughout the entire film. Bergman is asked to go further and further into her deception of her father’s Nazi friends, forming intimate relationships with them and putting herself in great danger while never knowing if the agent who recruited her, Cary Grant, cares about her fate. These are the things that remind you that this is a Hitchcock film – there ARE some great moments of suspense in amongst all that sexy kissing.

Summary:

Cary Grant & especially Ingrid Bergman shine in this excellent classic from Alfred Hitchcock. As to
be expected from Hitchcock, there’s some real suspense as Bergman’s character puts herself in great danger while infiltrating a Nazi organization. But the thing that really makes this film such a classic (for me, at least) is the smoldering romance between the steamy & passionate Bergman and the cool & aloof Grant. And ALL THAT KISSING. Great stuff. 🙂

My Rating: 7.5/10

(Oh, I’d just like to say how annoying it is that when you Google Notorious, it’s the Notorious B.I.G. movie that always comes up first!)