From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
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For other uses, see Notorious (disambiguation).
Notorious is a 1946 thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as two people whose lives become intimately entangled during an investigation of espionage. Claude Rains received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
[edit] 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 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, 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.
[edit] Analysis
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious
The picture fell under scrutiny at the time of its release for a long embrace between Bergman and Grant in an early scene in her apartment. Censorship of the period limited the amount of time a couple on screen could kiss to less than three seconds. Hitchcock circumvented this restriction by having his lovers (in retained close-up shot) maintain close physical contact while moving around. Such extended close-ups of lovers became a Hitchcock trademark. Similar examples occur in Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest.
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 (the film's MacGuffin) in wine bottles in Sebastian's cellar; finally, Sebastian and his mother attempt to kill Alicia by poisoning her coffee.
Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht chose to use uranium as their central plot device before the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. Hitchcock later alleged that he was under FBI surveillance because of this, although it was a coincidence.
[edit] External links
| Alfred Hitchcock's films |
| 1920s: The Pleasure Garden • The Mountain Eagle • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog • Downhill • Easy Virtue • The Ring • The Farmer's Wife • Champagne • The Manxman • Blackmail • 1930s: Juno and the Paycock • Murder! • Elstree Calling • The Skin Game • Mary • Number Seventeen • Rich and Strange • Waltzes from Vienna • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The 39 Steps • Secret Agent • Sabotage • Young and Innocent • The Lady Vanishes • Jamaica Inn • 1940s: Rebecca • Foreign Correspondent • Mr. & Mrs. Smith • Suspicion • Saboteur • Shadow of a Doubt • Lifeboat • Aventure Malgache • Bon Voyage • Spellbound • Notorious • The Paradine Case • Rope • Under Capricorn • 1950s: Stage Fright • Strangers on a Train • I Confess • Dial M for Murder • Rear Window • To Catch a Thief • The Trouble with Harry • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The Wrong Man • Vertigo • North by Northwest • 1960s: Psycho • The Birds • Marnie • Torn Curtain • Topaz • 1970s: Frenzy • Family Plot |
