Cary Grant (His Girl Friday)
and Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) in
an Alfred Hitchcock film. Could
this possibly go wrong? Well,
we’ll never know because this espionage/romance thriller is fantastic.
Jumping right into the story from the first frame’s court scene to
the next scene of a wonderful drunken Bergman, the viewer is thrown into a
story that just keeps building and building.
Centering around an almost instantly strained relationship between
Grant and Bergman and involving a highly dangerous and morally questionable
(the movie almost didn’t get made because of the portrayal of Bergman’s
character) undercover mission with very, very serious implications, the film
is rife with questions and conundrums. Bergman’s
character is forced to make some major decisions and promises so as not to
compromise the integrity of the mission she’s been given.
Grant is fantastic as the torn lover no longer able to prioritize his
duty over his heart. Never sappy
and always intriguing, Hitchcock moves the story forward with all his inherent
intensity. Soon the driving
question of the film switches from What Are the Nazis Up Too to Will Grant and
Bergman Be Able To Stay Together? and the question of the Nazis seems very
secondary. Hitchcock brilliantly
captures, with an astounding assist by Grant’s acting, the difficulties of
the male ego and stupidities inherent therein.
He also showcases, in a non-sugary way, the power of love and how all
things can become secondary to it, even national security and
self-preservation.
Claude Rains is fantastic as a high ranking Nazi in love with Bergman
and greatly subject to his overbearing mother (who seems the direct
inspiration for Mel Brooks’ Frau Blucher in Young
Frankenstein, “Zome coffee,…perhaps?).
Thanks to Psycho, you’ll
find yourself slightly chilled as Rains walks through his house calling,
“Mother…mother!”
Questioning how far one would go for patriotism and how far one would
go for love, Hitchcock pulls no punches in bringing his characters right into
the very face of danger and immorality… and what is really immoral?
An amazing film with one of the greatest endings ever, in my opinion, Notorious certainly stands as one of Hitchcock’s very best.
