NOTORIOUS (1946 FILM)

'''Notorious''' is a 1946 thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as two people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. It is based on a story written by Alfred Hitchcock.
Claude Rains was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as the Nazi officer under surveillance, and Ben Hecht was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.
In the UK it has been given a PG certificate (parental guidance for a child under the age of 12 years)
by the British Board of Film Classification.

Contents

Plot

Style and themes

Radio adaptations

Popular culture references

Cameo

External links

Plot

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

During her training, Alicia falls in love with Devlin; his feelings for her are tempered by his knowledge of her wild past. When Devlin is ordered to convince her to marry Sebastian (Claude Rains), one of her father's friends and a member of the group, to find out what he's plotting, he agonizes before choosing duty over love. Bitter at his betrayal, Alicia does wed Sebastian.

Alicia accidentally stumbles upon the plot, but in the process leaves a clue that her husband traces back to her. Now Sebastian has a problem: he must silence Alicia, but cannot expose her without being suspected by his fellow Nazis. He discusses the situation with his mother (Leopoldine Konstantin), who suggests that Alicia "die slowly", gradually by poisoning. The poison is mixed into Alicia's coffee and she quickly falls ill. Devlin becomes suspicious when she meets him and tells him that she merely has a hangover and yet shows signs of grave illness. He becomes alarmed when she fails to appear at their next meeting. Devlin later finds out about the poison and carries her out of the mansion in full view of the conspirators, leaving the hapless Sebastian to the non-existent mercy of his "friends", who question Alicia's odd departure.

Style and themes

Critics have noted a "beverage motif" that runs throughout the picture: at the beginning of the film, Alicia is portrayed as a dipsomaniac and bottles and glasses are prominent in many scenes; later, Alicia and Devlin discover uranium in wine bottles in Sebastian's cellar; finally, Sebastian and his mother attempt to kill Alicia by poisoning her coffee.
The MacGuffin in this film is uranium, which Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht originally chose to use before the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. In his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock alleged that he was under FBI surveillance for several months because of the uranium reference. In the same interview, Hitchcock said that the original producer of ''Notorious'', David O. Selznick was overbudget on his ''Duel in the Sun'' (1946), and so sold Hitchcock, Hecht's script, and the two stars to RKO as a package for $500,000 (''Truffaut/Hitchcock'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967).

Radio adaptations

A ''Lux Radio Theater'' adaptation was broadcast on January 26, 1948, with Ingrid Bergman reprising her role as Alicia Huberman and Joseph Cotten taking Cary Grant's role of T. R. Devlin. Another radio adaptation was produced for ''The Screen Guild Theater'', again starring Ingrid Bergman, with John Hodiak, was broadcast on January 6, 1949.

Popular culture references

The '' episode "Vortex" features an homage to the film, as a drink is carried in a similar manner to the poisoned one in the film; the allusion is specified in the episode's script. [1]

Cameo

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature occurrence in all of his films, takes place at the big party in Sebastian's mansion. Hitchcock is seen knocking back a glass of champagne and then quickly departing, about 60 minutes into the film.

External links

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★ Criterion Collection essay by William Rothman

★ Radio adaptation of ''Notorious'' January 26 1948 on Lux Radio Theatre; 59 minutes, with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten (MP3)