Notorious - Alfred Hitchcock

Looking at Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography, which spans fifty years and just as many films, Notorious arguably stands as its centerpiece. Filmed in 1946, the movie is filled with what would become known as Hitchcockian themes and trademarks, but does it so subtly that it’s debatable whether he was nervously experimenting with them or injecting them right into the spine of the film in a way they’d remain almost undetected. Set in 1946, the film opens in Miami where a doctor Huberman is convicted of being a Nazi spy..

Looking at Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography, which spans fifty years and just as many films, Notorious arguably stands as its centerpiece. Filmed in 1946, the movie is filled with what would become known as Hitchcockian themes and trademarks, but does it so subtly that it’s debatable whether he was nervously experimenting with them or injecting them right into the spine of the film in a way they’d remain almost undetected.

Set in 1946, the film opens in Miami where a doctor Huberman is convicted of being a Nazi spy. His daughter Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) leaves the courtroom where she is hounded by the press who inquire about her notorious past involving men, partying and alcohol.  At a party, where she tries to drown and drink her sorrows, she is approached by T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant), an American agent, who offers her a job as a spy in Rio de Janeiro.

Perhaps trying to atone for her father’s sins, rectify her former persona or to overcome her guilt she takes on the job and goes to Rio where she ends up falling in love with Devlin while waiting to know the details of her mission.

When these finally come, they put a halt to the blooming romance as Alicia is asked to seduce Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), an old friend of her father who is up to some secret mission in Brazil. Torn apart between love and duty, she ends up choosing the latter giving path to a seductive tale of espionage, imprisoned desire and one of the most entertaining thrillers ever made.

While the screenplay and story, written by Ben Hecht and adapted from short story “The Song of the Dragon” by John Taintor Foote, are fairly straightforward, the wonders of Notorious lie in its symbolism and elegant approach. Every element in the film was obviously thought out for a specific reason, and if they weren’t something has to be made about Hitchcock’s ability to stir up a psychoanalytical storm. In Notorious even inanimate objects seem to be conspiring and be part of a bigger picture.

The costumes, specifically the ones worn by Ingrid Bergman often compliment her character’s actual self and serve as unique modes of expression for someone who can’t be who she is around everyone. During a party scene in Miami, we see Alicia’s midriff exposed and it makes sense because she was not only a party girl, but her family’s secrets had been made public for the entire world to see and judge. The flash of skin we see with her outfit is who Alicia is at the moment. Once she takes on the spy job, she is covered head to toe in key sequences where Alicia must try hard to conceal her actual mission while seducing Alexander.

The costumes were designed by the legendary Edith Head, who in her first of many collaborations with Hitchcock created truly iconic pieces of clothing that resonate because of how much they play a part in the characters’ development.

Another interesting element is the use of stairs, one of the Hitchcock trademarks by excellence, which in Notorious almost come to play the part of a Greek chorus, announcing impending tragedy or a sudden turn of events. In two scenes involving Alexander Sebastian they are particularly “alive”, the first time aiding him in the execution of a menacing plan and later turning up against him and showcasing his descent into, a quite literal, hell. There is also a key (which came to be part of Hitchcock lore so to speak) which, ironically, becomes key in Devlin and Alicia’s destiny.

It probably takes several viewings of Notorious to make sense of how even a wrapped champagne bottle comes to mean something in the end, which probably forces the audience to wonder why the director was so interested in the surroundings and external elements of his characters. The answer might be simply because in a film like Notorious where everyone has major trust issues and repressed feelings, it’s only the outside that can do the talking for the inside. This is suggested not only by the fact that the story involves espionage which forces the characters to act under specific directions, but also in scenes where Alicia and Devlin are alone and should feel free and able to be themselves. It’s in these moments in fact where this repression becomes more overcoming, turning the plot’s theme of concealment upside down on us and forcing us to evaluate what the movie is actually all about. Is it a story about Nazi guilt? A tale of pride in the midst of doom? A raw dissection of the process of falling in love or just a perfect, escapist thriller?

Even though Hitchcock had been working in America for the previous six years, it wasn’t until Notorious when he began putting in practice what would lead to his masterpieces of the 50’s and 60’s and executing a style that would be greatly admired and studied for generations to come. Notorious is the first film where the master feels at “home”.

Watch a trailer of this masterpiece here: