Notorious (1946 film)
| Notorious | |
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 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Written by | Ben Hecht |
| Starring | Cary Grant Ingrid Bergman Claude Rains |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
| Cinematography | Ted Tetzlaff |
| Editing by | Theron Warth |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | New York City: August 15, 1946 |
| Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb • Allmovie | |
Notorious (1946) is a 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. The movie featured a legendary on-again, off-again kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman which flouted then-current Production Code regulations that restricted the length of kisses to only a couple of seconds each.
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Plot
Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, 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 in Rio de Janeiro, 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 seduce Alex 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 eventually weds Alex.
Alicia discovers the plot, but in the process leaves a clue that her husband traces back to her. Now Alex has a problem: he must silence Alicia, but cannot expose her without being suspected by his fellow Nazis. Alex 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 Alex to the non-existent mercy of his "friends", who question Alicia's odd departure.
Cameo
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature occurrence in all of his American 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.
Development
Script
Development of Notorious commenced due to director Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht owing producer David O. Selznick a movie and a script respectively. While collaborating on the movie Spellbound, they decided to meet this obligation by developing a film inspired by a property which Selznick owned and Hitchcock had read many years before called "The Song of the Dragon".[1] Written by John Taintor Foote, "The Song of the Dragon" had appeared as a two-part Saturday Evening Post short story in 1921. Set during World War I in New York, it told the story of a theatrical producer approached by federal agents, who want his assistance in recruiting an actress he once had a relationship with to seduce the leader of a gang of enemy saboteurs.[2]
Hitchcock felt that the first draft fell short of his expectations, leading him, at Cary Grant’s suggestion, to hire Clifford Odets to revise it. Odets, however, soon quit over Hitchcock’s request to add additional dialogue between Devlin and Alicia while she was on her deathbed.
David O. Selznick had trouble understanding the use of uranium as the MacGuffin around which Hitchcock proposed to build the plot. However, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima on August 9, 1945 and the release of details of the Manhattan Project removed any doubts about its use as a plot device.[3] In fact, in his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock/Truffaut (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967), Hitchcock claimed he was followed by the FBI for several months after he and Hecht discussed uranium with Robert Millikan at the Caltech in mid-1945.
Production
Selznick, the original producer, preferred Joseph Cotten over Cary Grant for the role of Devlin. However, once Grant had been chosen, Selznick wanted his role to be increased. Selznick also pushed for the role of Sebastian’s mother to become more central to the plot.[4]
Selznick sold Notorious to RKO for the sum of US$800,000 to help finance the production of Duel in the Sun, which was running overbudget. The package included Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and the script. Selznick was also to receive 50% of the net profits.[5]
Notorious became the first film that Hitchcock collaborated with Edith Head with Ingrid Bergman's outfits being the most notable outcome of this collaboration.
Reception
Notorious premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York on 22 July 1946 with Hitchcock, Bergman and Grant in attendance. The movie made US$4.8 million on its first theatrical American domestic release, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.[6]
Claude Rains was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Ben Hecht was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.
In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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, although this time with John Hodiak, and was broadcast on January 6, 1949.
It was remade in 1992 as a TV movie of the same name, with John Shea as Devlin, Jenny Robertson as Alicia, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Sebastian, and Marisa Berenson as Katarina. [7]
Tribute to Hitchcock
At the tribute dinner on 7th March 1979 where Hitchcock was presented with the American Film Institute’s prestigious Life Achievement Award Ingrid Bergman presented him with the prop key to the wine cellar which was featured in several famous scenes in Notorious. After filming had ended, Cary Grant had kept the key. A few years later he gave the key to Bergman saying that the key had given him luck and hoped it would do the same for her. When presenting it to Hitchcock, to his surprise and delight, she expressed the hope that it would be lucky for him as well. [8]
Cast
- Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin
- Ingrid Bergman as Alicia Huberman
- Claude Rains as Alexander Sebastian
- Louis Calhern as Captain Paul Prescott
- Leopoldine Konstantin as Madame Anna Sebastian
- Reinhold Schünzel as Dr. Anderson
- Moroni Olsen as Walter Beardsley
- Ivan Triesault as Eric Mathis
- Alex Minotis as Joseph, Sebastian's Butler
- Wally Brown as Mr. Hopkins
- Charles Mendl as Commodore
- Ricardo Costa as Dr. Julio Barbosa
- Eberhard Krumschmidt as Emil Hupka
- Fay Baker as Ethel
References
Further reading
- Eliot, Marc [2005]. Cary Grant (hardback), London: Aurum Press, 434 pages. ISBN 1 84513 073 1.
- McGilligan, Patrick [2003]. Alfred Hitchcock - A Life in Darkness and Light (paperback), London: John Wiley and Sons, 850 pages. ISBN 0-470-86973-9.
- Spoto, David [2001]. Notorious - The Life of Ingrid Bergman (paperback), America: DaCapo Press, 474 pages. ISBN 0-306-81030-1.
External links
- Notorious at the Internet Movie Database
- Notorious at Allmovie
- Notorious at the TCM Movie Database
- Notorious at Rotten Tomatoes
- Notorious essay at the Criterion Collection by William Rothman
- Notorious radio adaptation on MP3 aired January 26, 1948 on Lux Radio Theatre (59 minutes, with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten)
- Notorious at Eyegate Gallery
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