602. Notorious (1946)

Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Running Time: 101 mins

Notorious is an American film about a woman who is recruited to ingratiate herself in a community of American Nazis in Brazil, however this leads to both political and romantic complications.

This isn’t the greatest Hitchcock production ever, it’s a little different to the normal fast-paced thrillers of his, with a more romantic story and slower, deeper relationships, so it isn’t an adrenaline-pumping excitement adventure, but there are some different elements from the main Hitchcockean thrillers.

The main problem with this film is its slow start. Although it develops and speeds up a little later, it didn’t have the spellbinding start that I had expected from a Hitchcockean thriller, and because of that, it took me a whole lot longer to get really involved and interested in the story.

This isn’t the most complicated of plots, though. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it was a little bit predictable at points and even quite cheesy, with some silly spy themes, and occasionally annoying espionage clichés, which was again a bit of a disappointment for a Hitchcock film.

However, there is a good element of fun in this film. Although it isn’t a pounding thriller, it does give you an opportunity for some respite throughout, and the romance story and film-noir style is also a more entertaining thing to see.

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are also fantastic here. Cary Grant plays the sophisticated spy very well, while Ingrid Bergman works perfectly in the role as the femme fatale lead, both romantic and stuck in the middle of a love triangle, while also mysterious and exciting enough to inject some energy into the story.

Overall, this gets a 7.3, because although the performances were very good, and it was largely entertaining, it may have been a little too slow and predictable to be truly exciting.