{"id":1787,"date":"2025-08-01T03:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2025-08-30T17:04:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:04:54","slug":"notorious-1946","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1787","title":{"rendered":"Notorious-1946"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notorious-1946<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Alfred Hitchcock<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #48<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #265<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"813874\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed August 11, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notorious is a classic Alfred Hitchcock film from 1946, a period that preceded his golden age of brilliant works in the 1950s and 1960s, but it is a marvel all the same.<\/p>\n

Perhaps not as wonderful as future works, but that is like comparing prime rib to filet mignon. Shot in black and white, the subject matter is familiar to Hitchcock fans- political espionage.<\/p>\n

The film contains elements familiar with Hitchcock’s films- romance with suspenseful plot.<\/p>\n

Starring two greats of the time (and Hitchcock stalwarts), Carey Grant and Ingrid Bergman, one is immediately enthralled by the chemistry between the characters they play- T.R. Devlin and Alicia Huberman. Devlin, a government agent, recruits Alicia, per his bosses, to spy on a Nazi sympathizer, Alex Sebastian (Claude Raines), who is affiliated with her father.<\/p>\n

Her father, having been convicted and sentenced to prison, has committed suicide. Alicia’s allegiance is questioned as she takes drastic measures to prove her loyalty and complete the hated assignment.<\/p>\n

The film is set between Miami and the gorgeous Rio De Janeiro, where much of the action is set at Alex’s mansion.<\/p>\n

A blueprint for his later works, Hitchcock experiments with creative camera shots and angles- specifically the wide and high shot overlooking an enormous ballroom.<\/p>\n

I also love the airplane scene- subtly, Hitchcock treats the audience to background views of Rio from the view of the airplane as Devlin and Alicia converse.<\/p>\n

The plane is slowly descending for landing, which allows for a slow, gorgeous glimpse of the countryside and landscape in the background.<\/p>\n

Subtleties like these that may go unnoticed make Hitchcock such a brilliant director.<\/p>\n

The character of Alicia is worth a study. Well known for his lady issues, did Hitchcock hint at her being an oversexed, boozy, nymphomaniac?<\/p>\n

I did not think the character was written sympathetically, though, to be fair, she is headstrong and loyal in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n

She parties hard, drives at 65 miles per hour while intoxicated, and falls into bed with more than one man. It is also implied that she has a history of being promiscuous.<\/p>\n

Made in 1946, this must have been controversial during that period. The sexual revolution was still decades away.<\/p>\n

Notorious also features one of Hitchcock’s most sinister female characters: Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantin). The woman is evil personified, and her actions are reprehensible. She is arguably the mastermind behind all of the dirty deeds and a fan of slow, painful death by poisoning.<\/p>\n

My favorite scene is, without a doubt, the wine cellar scene. To me, it epitomizes good, old-fashioned suspense and edge-of-your-seat entertainment.<\/p>\n

A cat-and-mouse game involving a secret rendezvous, a smashed bottle, a key, champagne, and the grand reveal enraptures this scene, which goes on for quite some time and is the climax.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Notorious is not quite as great a film as Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), or The Birds (1963), but it is a top-notch adventure\/thriller that ought to be watched and respected.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Supporting Actor- Claude Rains, Best Original Screenplay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notorious-1946 Director Alfred Hitchcock Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman Top 250 Films #48 Scott’s Review #265 Reviewed August 11, 2015 Grade: A Notorious is a classic Alfred Hitchcock film from 1946, a period that preceded his golden age of brilliant works in the 1950s and 1960s, but it is a marvel all the same. Perhaps … Continue reading Notorious-1946<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8052,242,38,501,4001,362,271,510,204,7530,7464,7465],"tags":[8053,243,109,502,4004,363,272,512,258,7533,7460,7461],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-48-favorite-film","category-1946-movie-reviews","category-hitchcockfilms","category-cary-grant","category-claude-rains","category-favorite-film-of-the-year","category-film-noir","category-ingrid-bergman","category-thrillers","category-top-100-films","category-top-250-films","category-top-50-films","tag-48-favorite-film","tag-1946-movie-reviews","tag-alfred-hitchcock-films","tag-cary-grant","tag-claude-rains","tag-favorite-film-of-the-year","tag-film-noir","tag-ingrid-bergman","tag-thrillers","tag-top-100-films","tag-top-250-films","tag-top-50-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22004,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/22004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}