Notorious

Jeez, reviews of Sergio Leone, John Ford, David Lean AND now Alfred Hitchcock, all in the first week of 2010? This decade is off to a rousing start...

Notorious (1946) is one of Hitchcock's more serious spy flicks, a radical departure from the frilly escapism of The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondant and North by Northwest. A masterpiece of suspense and direction, it also paints the spy game in a wonderfully dark, ambiguous light.

Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is the daughter of an executed Nazi spy, living as a dissolute playgirl in Florida. She gets taken home by Devlin (Cary Grant), a handsome stranger who turns out to be an American intelligence agent. Alicia is reluctantly recruited by Devlin to woo Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), an American businessman in Rio De Janiero working with a group of Nazi exiles. Alicia falls for Devlin, but Devlin rebuffs her advances, convincing her that it's in her best interest to bed (and marry) Alex while finding out what his associates are working on. Alex eventually wises up to Alicia's game, and he and his mother (Madame Konstantin) begin to poison her - and Devlin must decide whether or not to save her.

Notorious is a product of the morally-ambiguous post-war period which also provided Gilda and The Third Man. The film's elliptical plot about Nazi refugees harnessing uranium ore is really secondary to the character interaction and the story's marvellous moral ambiguity. The Cold War had not yet set in, yet the film presages the dark spy stories of John Le Carre, where neither side has the moral high ground; any superiority the US government can claim is undermined by their cold, callous manipulation of Alicia, and ultimately Alex, destroying their lives for a higher yet more ephemeral purpose. Hitchcock makes the film wonderfully entertaining, balancing story and characters with dark realism, unlike the stultifying boredom of Torn Curtain and Topaz, which sacrifice entertainment for contrived, stilted "realism".

This is one of Hitchcock's strongest film's character-wise, wonderfully developing its three central characters. Alicia in particular is a beautifully drawn protagonist, a sad, isolated "fallen woman" with a past who finds herself manipulated, used and nearly killed by men who see her solely as a useful tool or sex object. Devlin is a cold-hearted agent who callously uses Alicia, only to fall for her in spite of himself. Alex is a charming man whose affection for Alicia seems genuine, and despite his Nazi ties he is sympathetic - particularly when things begin to stack up against him. These three characters play off each other marvellously, their interaction driving the film's plot, heightening suspense, and providing. The film's ending is even more problematic; is it a happy ending because our protagonists get away alive, or is it otherwise, because a likeable (if not exactly innocent) man is left hanging out to dry?

Hitchcock's direction is typically impressive. Ted Tatzlaff's cinematography is perfectly striking, with lots of inventive camera angles and lighting (particularly the scene where Alicia suffers a blackout, imagining her husband and mother-in-law as shadowy demons), creating a unique, striking atmosphere. Ben Hecht's script is wonderfully constructed, emphasizing character and atmosphere over plot, with a boatload of sharp, quotable dialogue. Add Theron Wrath's pitch-perfect editing and Roy Webb's fine score and you have a technically perfect film.

Ingrid Bergman gives perhaps her best performance. Never more beautiful or vulnerable than here, Bergman successfully draws her difficult character, making her convincingly desperate, charmingly in love, and tragically out of her element. Cary Grant does a fine job adding a dark edge to his usual charming cad persona. Claude Rains makes Alex a remarkably sympathetic character, as much a victim of events as Alicia; his reaction to discovering Alicia's perfidy is a moment of incredible poignancy. The supporting cast is equally accomplished, from reliable hand Louis Calhern (Juarez) as Devlin's boss to Austrian actress Leopoldine "Madame" Konstantin, who gives a chilling turn as Alex's domineering mother.

Notorious is an all-around fine film. It only avoids classification as a "Great Movie" because I save that category for my absolute favorite films, but I'm more than happy to acknowledge this as a fine piece of work in its own right.