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With more than 50 crowd-pleasing thrillers to his credit, director Alfred Hitchcock is one of Hollywood’s most popular classic directors (you could even call him notorious). From Psycho to Rear Window to The Birds, everyone seems to have their favorite Hitchcock classic. But ask any fan to list their favorite films by the Master of Suspense, and you’re quite likely to find Notorious somewhere on the list.
Notorious pairs two other beloved Hollywood legends—Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman—for a spy thriller that finds romance and intrigue in beautiful Rio de Janeiro. Bergman is Alicia Huberman, the rebellious daughter of a German man who’s just been convicted of treason. After her father’s trial, she’s eager to get out of Miami, but she was expecting a nice vacation to Cuba—not a mission as a secret agent in Brazil.
When she’s approached by a mysterious stranger named Devlin (Grant), offering her a job infiltrating a German group in Rio, she reluctantly agrees. The sun and surf of Rio prove to be therapeutic—and as they wait for their mission, Alicia and Devlin fall in love. But their budding romance makes her assignment—seducing Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), one of her father’s old friends—all the more challenging for both of them.
Filled with both romance and intrigue, Notorious is the kind of slow-boiling thriller that reels you in gradually, building up the characters and their story before plunging the story into suspense.
In the beginning, it’s all about the characters—about Alicia’s stubbornness and her hard-partying ways, as well as Devlin’s cool, controlled demeanor. Given plenty of time to develop, both main characters are strong. Bergman is absolutely radiant as the scandalous daughter of a German spy, and she gives her character the right amount of drunk and disorderly bravado. Grant, on the other hand, is as smooth as ever as the secret agent—oh-so-charming yet appropriately distant.
While the duo’s Rio romance seems inevitable, though, it certainly isn’t an easy, straightforward one, and both characters are guaranteed to drive you crazy with their constant testing and game-playing. Despite their dangerous mission, they’re surprisingly cautious when it comes to love. They may be risking their lives while trying to infiltrate a group of ruthless Germans, but the bad girl and the suave secret agent have no intention of risking their hearts.
Just when you’ve had about enough of the will-they-or-won’t-they romance, though, the romantic tension gives way to gripping suspense, as Alicia’s target becomes all the more suspicious of his beautiful girlfriend—and as he discovers that he has good reason to suspect her. From there, it’s a race to the finish, with every last character—from Devlin and Alicia to Sebastian and his creepy mother (played by Leopoldine Konstantin)—battling to survive the ordeal unscathed.
From its strong-willed characters and breathtaking suspense to its classic romance and sultry location, Notorious is both dark and romantic, both gritty and elegant. While most directors would struggle to blend the contrasting tones, Hitchcock eases audiences from romance to suspense, from tropical vacation to deadly mission, proving yet again why he’s called The Master.
If Notorious is on your list of Hitchcock favorites, it’s well worth picking up on Blu-ray. If you’ve never seen it, don’t miss it. After watching it, you may just find yourself adding a new favorite to your list.
Blu-ray Review:
The Blu-ray release of Notorious is loaded with extras that are guaranteed to keep fans fascinated. Scan the special features menu, and you’ll find all kind of cinematic treats. Audio treats include a pair of commentaries (by film professors Rick Jewell and Drew Casper), audio interviews with Hitchcock himself, an intriguing music and effects track, and a 1948 radio play version of the story, starring Bergman and Joseph Cotton. For the whole audio-visual experience, meanwhile, there are also a number of featurettes, including a 22-minute making-of feature, The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious, which offers plenty of insights and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Hitchcock’s notorious thriller.
Of course, if you really wanted, you could spend hours and hours (and maybe even days) immersed in the study of Notorious, thanks to this loaded release. But I recommend starting with the making-of feature—to get a brief overview before delving into more in-depth examination.
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