Monday, July 26, 2010

NOTORIOUS (1946)

Though not may be Hitchcock’s greatest, it’s a fine classic worth viewing once. The plot involved American agent and secret Nazi syndicate. Soon after her German father convicted for treason Alicia is approached by US agent Devlin. He led her into a secret plan to spy on her father’s syndicate friends. Alicia’s romantic obsession with quite cynical Devlin involves her in trouble and trauma.

One must watch the film for enormously beautiful Ingrid Bergman. She’s having one of the most heavenly faces and this is absolutely her movie; she overshadowed even Cary Grant paired with her here. She’s quite effortless in her act compared to Grant. Besides Grant didn’t have much to perform here except being catalyst; showing his grinning face, sharing kisses and help her out in the end. Claude Rains as Nazi Sebastian is impressive.

Hitchcock’s long fixation with Freudian elements is visible in his earlier films. Here he represented Oedipus complex between Sebastian and his old mother reminds me the mysterious old lady in ‘Rebecca’. Hitchcock’s trademark tension lies here in a sequence showing lifting the key of the room where Uranium ore is hidden in wine bottle. Movie ends surprisingly and too abruptly without any sort of climax; contradictory in Hitchcock films except his unconventional ‘The Birds’.

Ratings-7/10

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