Comments on: Notorious (1946)

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:14:15 +0000

Hedwig: Iâ€™m glad you enjoyed Notorious and how strong Ingrid Bergmanâ€™s character was in it. So often in movies today we see characters airbrushed to be â€œlikableâ€. All the rough edges are smoothed over and the result is not only unrealistic, but boring. Rains was anything but as well. Human is the word Iâ€™m looking for.

Megan: The crane shot that begins high above the party and moves in on the key is one that has been employed in so many DePalma movies. I canâ€™t recall the one of Leopoldine Konstantin that you mentioned, though. I was probably watching Ingrid Bergman too closely.

Damian: Donâ€™t get me started! M:I2 was a stupidity spectacle that tried to entertain everyone and thus guaranteed that it wouldnâ€™t. I know that Robert Towne wrote the script, but it was just another piece of crap, one of many heâ€™s turned out since 1974. I canâ€™t recall that Tom Cruise or Thandie Newton were given characters to play, certainly not ones with any hard edges. And Dougary Scott was no Claude Rains.

Justine: Thanks for commenting! It’s interesting that you sympathized more with the Claude Rains subplot than the Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman one. Any movie that ends with the male lead carrying away the female lead in his arms – I’m thinking An Officer and a Gentleman – rarely loses.

By: Justine

Justine — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:53:03 +0000

Actually my favourite Hitchcock film, it’s short, fresh and endlessly fascinating. It’s the ending that always wins me. No need for exposition, just horror… outright cruelty by our “heroes”. Astonshing.

By: Damian

Damian — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:03:46 +0000

Despite the fact that I knew it was one of Hitchcock's most revered films (it's his daughter Pat's personal favorite for example) Notorious was one of the last Hitchcock films I ever saw. I watched it for the first time less than a year ago and was completely captivated by it. What a wonderful movie. And you're absolutely right, joe, in that Mission: Impossible 2 is essentially a remake of it (right down to the scene at the racetrack) and inferior in just about every way... well, except for slow-motion action sequences. In that arena, I'm afraid M:I-2 has the upper hand.

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:13:48 +0000

Two shots (out of so many good ones!) that I especially like in this:

The zoom in on the key in Bergman’s hand as she nervously flips it over and over, and the shot of Rains’ mom descending the staircase. I never understood why one is not supposed to look down at one’s feet, until I saw that.

By: Hedwig

Hedwig — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:16:05 +0000

I had this film on my harddrive for a month or so already – seeing you posted about it finally made me watch it. And I don’t regret it. Wow, do Grant and Bergman sizzle! Stomach pang level, especially towards the end. I especially like how strong and defiant Bergman’s character was, a tramp but not ashamed, a drunk but aware of that fact, openly in love with Grant but never crying over it, just lashing out.

One thing though: I found myself sympathizing with Claude Rains most of all (and boy, did he age in the three years between Casablanca and this, seeing the two film shortly after one another makes you notice these things). Because so little emphasis is put on the nefarious Nazi plot, he’s really just a sucker falling for a girl who lies to him. When he finds out about her true intentions, it’s almost heartbreaking.