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Released by: MGM
Released on: January 24, 2012.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
Year: 1946
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The Movie:
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1946, Notorious follows the exploits of a beautiful young woman named Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) whose German father has just been arrested on American soil for high treason. Understandably upset about this turn of events, she hits the bottle and tries to find comfort in the arms of a man and soon enough makes the acquaintance of a government agent named Devlin (Cary Grant). He asks her to help him spy on some of the men that her father was collaborating with who are currently hiding out in Brazil. Lead by an ex-Nazi named Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), these guys have gotten their hands on some uranium ore, which can obviously only lead to one thing. Alicia agrees and she hits it off with Devlin - as their relationship grows from a professional one to a romantic one, trouble arises when Devlin starts to feel Alicia is getting a little too involved in her new career as a spy.
All in all, this is just a really solid film. Those who criticize Grant's performance and feel he's better suited for comedic roles (a common criticism when it comes to this picture) are obviously entitled to their opinion but here, in this writer's opinion, he shows some real chemistry with Bergman. His work here is the right mix of the type of stoic soldierish coldness and genuine caring for the woman he's falling in love with. Bergman delivers one of the best performances of her career in this picture, falling into the role of spy quite fluidly and seemingly a great match for the part. Far from perfect, her tendency to take a drink and to intentionally attract male attention when maybe she shouldn't be after either makes her an interesting character and very three dimensional. They make a great looking couple and they have a good on screen vibe together, one that really helps to make their two central characters both charming and interesting despite his temper and her tendency to waif.
The romantic angle of the plot makes up a big part of the story but there's quite a bit of strong suspense here as well, particularly towards the finish, as you'd expect. Also noteworthy is some fine acting work from Claude Rains as the central villain in the film. He could have easily gone over the top with the material here and he doesn't, instead his performance is genuinely tragic once the movie makes the big reveal.
A lot of the typical Hitchcock themes are easily spotted here, from the more obvious (the sexy blonde leading lady) to the marginally more subtle (Rains' domineering mother) to the more unsettling (a constant invasion of one's private life) but Ben Hecht's script is tight and it works all of this into the movie without any of it ever feeling forced. The film also does an interesting job of pointing out the dangers of drink by using the ore that the two spies are after as an allegory for alcohol. In fact, the use of wine bottles and alcohol consumption in the film is quite interesting, as many of the important plot points reveal around them.
Beautifully shot by Greg Toland and Ted Tetzlaff and set to a great score from Roy Webb, the film looks as good as you'd want it to and occasionally even better while the use of music is never less than completely appropriate. Some great point-of-view shots help put the viewer right in the middle of things as the suspense starts to creep in, while the performances and tight script keep us there to the finale. If not Hitchcock's greatest film, certainly close to it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MGM's Blu-ray debut of Notorious presents the film in its original 1.37.1 fullframe aspect ratio in a nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation. It's pretty safe to assume that the elements that MGM had to work with here were in good shape as the transfer is really quite impressive, even more so when you take the age of the film into account. Detail is quite a bit improved over previous DVD offerings and though there are a few instances of very minor edge enhancement evident in a few spots, overall this is a very natural looking image. Detail is, for the most part, pretty impressive and aside from a few obvious nicks and scratches here and there, print damage is never much of an issue. There's the expected amount of natural film grain present, as there should be, but contrast looks nice and natural. Overall, yes, Rebecca definitely looks very good on Blu-ray.
The only audio option is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track with subtitles provided in English only. The track is obviously limited in range but it sounds fine for its age. Dialogue is easy enough to follow and to understand and any hiss that pops into the mix now and again is so minor that it's not a big deal. The score sounds quite good here and the levels are properly balanced throughout.
Extras kicks off with two commentaries, the first from Professor Rick Jewell who spends more time providing history on the studio and the producer behind this picture than on Hitchcock and his work, at least for the first half of the picture. From there he gets more specific in terms of covering the film itself - regardless, it's an interesting listen and delivered with a refreshingly listenable tone. The second commentary comes from Professor Drew Casper and it's kind of a 'Notorious 101' crash course that gives you the basics on the film but doesn't dive as deep into its history as the first track does.
MGM has offered up a few featurettes here as well, the first of which is the twenty-eight minute The Ultimate Romance: The Making Of Notorious, which is an excellent and fairly thorough look at the making of the picture and its importance. It covers some of the same ground as the commentary tracks do, but as the title implies it is more concerned with the romantic angle of the film than any other aspect so that differentiates it a bit. The second featurette is the thirteen minute Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster bit, which does a great job of making the case for the influence of this film on plenty of the other, more modern, spy movies that would come in future decades. The third and final featurette is The American Film Institute Award: The Key To Hitchcock and it's a three minute clip of Hitchcock's granddaughter, Mary Stone, introducing some clips, one of the more important ones happening to be from Notorious - making its inclusion here completely appropriate.
Rounding out the extras are two audio interviews with Hitchcock conducted by Peter Bogdanovich and Francois Truffaut respectively, an isolated score option, a quick three minute restoration comparison, the 1948 Radio Play version of the story starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman, and the film's original theatrical trailer. Menus and chapter stops are also included. All of the extras are in standard definition.
The Final Word:
Notorious remains a well made, well acted and superbly directed film, a legitimate classic and a film well worth revisiting. A great mix of romance and suspense, it's both entertaining and timeless and MGM have done right by the film with this excellent Blu-ray release.
