NOTORIOUS [1946 / 2019] [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Two Great Stars in Alfred Hitchcock’s Greatest Thriller! ‘NOTORIOUS’ has a Woman of Many Desires! Fateful Fascination! Bold Intrigue!
With this twisted love story, Alfred Hitchcock summoned darker shades of suspense and passion by casting two of Hollywood’s most beloved stars starkly against type. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, an alluring woman with a chequered past recruited by T. R. Devlin [Cary Grant], a suave, mysterious intelligence agent, to spy for the U.S.A. Only after she has fallen for T. R. Devlin and Alicia Huberman learns that her mission is to seduce a Nazi industrialist Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian [Claude Rains] hiding out in South America. Coupling inventive cinematography with brilliantly subtle turns from his mesmerizing leads, Alfred Hitchcock orchestrates an anguished romance shot through with deception and moral ambiguity. A thriller of rare perfection, ‘NOTORIOUS’ represents a pinnacle of both its director’s legendary career and classic Hollywood cinema.
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FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1946 Cannes Film Festival: Nominated: Grand Prize of the Festival for Feature Film for Alfred Hitchcock. 1946 Faro Island Film Festival: Nominated: Golden Train Award for Best Film for Alfred Hitchcock. 1947 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Claude Rains. Nominated: Best Writing and Original Screenplay for Ben Hecht. 1952 Bambi Awards: Win: Best International Actress for Ingrid Bergman. 2006 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry for the film ‘NOTORIOUS.’ 2009 Online Film & Television Association: Win: OFTA Film Hall of Fame for the Motion Picture ‘NOTORIOUS.’
FILM FACT No.2: ‘NOTORIOUS’ started life as a David O. Selznick production, but by the time it hit American screens in August 1946, it bore the RKO Radio Pictures studio's logo. Alfred Hitchcock became the producer, but as on all his subsequent films, he limited his screen credits to “Directed by” and his possessive credit above the title. The music for ‘NOTORIOUS’ is the least celebrated of the major Alfred Hitchcock scores, writes film scholar Jack Sullivan, one that few writers or fans talk about. “The neglect is unfortunate, for Roy Webb composed one of the most deftly designed scores of any Alfred Hitchcock film. It weaves a unique spell, one Alfred Hitchcock had not conjured before, and the hip, swingy source music is novel as well.” The composer was Roy Webb, a staff composer at RKO Radio Pictures, who had most recently scored the dark films of director Val Lewton for that studio and wrote the fight song for Columbia University while he was there in the 1920’s, then served as assistant to film composer Max Steiner until 1935; his reputation was “reliable, but unglamorous.” Alfred Hitchcock had tried to get composer Bernard Herrmann for ‘NOTORIOUS,’ but Bernard Herrmann was unavailable; and Roy Webb too was a Bernard Herrmann fan: “Bernard Herrmann writes the best music in Hollywood, with the fewest notes,” he said. The film ‘NOTORIOUS’ was the official selection of the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. ‘NOTORIOUS’ had its premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on the 15th August, 1946, with Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, and Cary Grant in attendance. Biographer Patrick McGilligan writes that “Alfred Hitchcock rarely managed to pull together a dream cast for any of his 1940’s films, but ‘NOTORIOUS’ was a glorious exception.” Indeed, with a story of smuggled uranium as a backdrop, “the romantic pairing of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman promised a box office bang comparable to an atomic blast!” Director Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance, a signature occurrence in his films, takes place at the party in Sebastian's mansion, and into the film, Alfred Hitchcock is seen drinking a glass of champagne as Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman approach and Alfred Hitchcock sets his glass down and quickly departs.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schünzel, Moroni Olsen, Ivan Triesault, Alexis Minotis, Wally Brown, Charles Mendl, Ricardo Costa, Eberhard A. Krumschmidt, Fay Baker, Bernice Barrett (uncredited), Bea Benaderet (uncredited), Candido Bonsato (uncredited), Charles D. Brown (uncredited), Eddie Bruce (uncredited), Paul Bryar (uncredited), Aileen Carlyle (uncredited), Beulah Christian (uncredited), Richard Clarke (uncredited), Tom Coleman (uncredited), Alfredo DeSa (uncredited), Ben Erway (uncredited), Bess Flowers (uncredited), Almeda Fowler (uncredited), Gavin Gordon (uncredited), William Gordon (uncredited), Virginia Gregg (uncredited), Harry Hayden (uncredited), Alfred Hitchcock (Man Drinking Champagne at Party) (uncredited), Art Howard (uncredited), Warren Jackson (uncredited), Ted Kelly (uncredited), Donald Kerr (uncredited), James Logan (uncredited), Leota Lorraine (uncredited), George Lynn (uncredited), Frank Marlowe (uncredited), Thomas Martin (uncredited), Francis McDonald (uncredited), Frank McLure (uncredited), Tina Menard (uncredited), Howard M. Mitchell (uncredited), Bert Moorhouse (uncredited), Antonio Moreno (uncredited), Sandra Morgan (uncredited), Howard Negley (uncredited), Ramon Nomar (uncredited), Fred Nurney (uncredited), Garry Owen (uncredited), Jeffrey Sayre (uncredited), Louis Serrano (uncredited), Patricia Smart (uncredited), Dink Trout (uncredited), Lenore Ulric (uncredited), Emmett Vogan (uncredited), Friedrich von Ledebur (uncredited), Peter von Zerneck (uncredited), John Vosper (uncredited), Alan Ward (uncredited), Lillian West (uncredited), Frank Wilcox (uncredited), Elizabeth Wilson (uncredited) and Herbert Wyndham (uncredited)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited)
Screenplay: Ben Hecht (screenplay), Alfred Hitchcock (screenplay contributor) (uncredited), Clifford Odets dialogue: love scenes) (uncredited) and John Taintor Foote (story “The Song of the Dragon” 1921) (uncredited)
Composer: Roy Webb
Music Department: C. Bakaleinikoff (musical director) and Gil Grau (orchestral arrangements)
Cinematography: Ted Tetzlaff, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Special Effects: Paul Eagler, A.S.C. and Vernon L. Walker, A.S.C.
Costume and Wardrobe Department: Edith Head (gown designer: Ingrid Bergman) and Eugene Joseff (costume jewellery) (uncredited)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black and White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 101 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures / The Criterion Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: In the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ [1946], it informs us that we are in Miami, Florida at Three-Twenty PM., and it is Nineteen Hundred Forty-Six and love assumes different shapes and presentations — as a wound, a weapon, a promise, a curse. For Ingrid Bergman as the lusciously complex and raw-nerved Alicia Huberman, it’s all these things.
As the film begins, Alicia Huberman is on the razor’s edge of a new chapter in her life, one that isn’t wholly of her own making. She’s a socialite getting drunk in Miami with no sense of direction, the kind of woman with more passion than the world around her knows how to handle. But her drunken revelry is shot through with so much sorrow and confusion that you can’t help but feel for her. Alicia Huberman is reeling from the conviction of her father as a Nazi conspirator. An opportunity for her to atone for his mistakes, in some small way, comes in the form of Cary Grant as U.S.A. government agent T. R. Devlin. But the mission he ultimately enlists her for, to seduce and garner information from suspected Nazi Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian [Claude Rains], is complicated by Alicia Huberman and T. R. Devlin’s own love affair. ‘NOTORIOUS’ is resplendent with pleasures.
The shadows are as rich as velvet. Director Alfred Hitchcock and cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff are constantly reminding us where characters are in relation to one another, creating an intricate choreography in which even the most minute gestures — a hand enclosing a key, a gaze, a shaky grin — are charged with eroticism and violent potential. The narrative of this spy drama contains such decadent pessimism that it moves the film into noir territory. The performances by Cary Grant and Claude Rains are dynamic high-water marks in their towering careers. But even amid these wonders, it is Ingrid Bergman who is the crowning jewel. Ingrid Bergman brings an untold warmth, a sincerity, and a vulpine physicality that make her character a beguiling outlier not only in Alfred Hitchcock’s canon but also within forties cinema and Ingrid Bergman’s own career.
After an “accidental” meet-up, Alicia Huberman and Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian share a few drinks in a ritzy Rio de Janeiro restaurant humming with the dull murmur of the rich and powerful, including T. R. Devlin’s superior, whom she eyes with wary recognition. Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian is ever the gentleman, greeting Alicia Huberman with a kiss on the hand and eyes brimming with warm affection. With its jaunty music and moneyed atmosphere, the scene is almost romantic, but there is an air of something bitter undercutting that potential. Alicia Huberman is an imperfect spy, but she’s learning quickly and her bright smile, charming confidences, and apologetic tone over their shared past lull Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian into submission. “I knew this was going to happen. I knew when we met the other day that if I saw you again, I’d feel what I used to for you.”
With the same hunger, Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian says, in his voice dropping to a throaty whisper, his eyes digging into her. With those last three words, Claude Rains communicates a whirlpool of emotion, marking a character who is worlds away from the charmingly amoral Captain Louis Renault in ‘Casablanca’ and the tender-hearted, paternalistic Dr. Jaquith in that quintessence of women’s pictures, ‘Now, Voyager.’ But when Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian isn’t looking, Ingrid Bergman allows a jolt of grief to puncture her pleasant facade. Gloom wraps Alicia Huberman like a heavy winter coat. Ingrid Bergman smile slips; her eyes grow glassy and unfocused in a manner that makes her thoughts apparent —“How the hell did I get here?” In this scene, ‘NOTORIOUS’ reveals that the dynamic its main characters share isn’t so much a love triangle as a tangled web of obsession and bruised longing.
The conversations between Alicia Huberman and T. R. Devlin are not brimming with lustful bon mots and bedroom-eyed revelations. T. R. Devlin is, in fact, quite lacerating. Like many other men in “film noir,” T. R. Devlin feels anxiety over the emotional vulnerability he experiences in Alicia Huberman’s presence, and punishes her for it. T. R. Devlin uses her history — as a woman with an appetite for alcohol and sex — against Alicia Huberman, even as her vitality is obviously what attracts him in the first place.
T. R. Devlin is only too ready to believe her when she tells him the symptoms of her arsenic poisoning are merely a hangover, another example of her trying to inhabit the role every man expects of her. “Immoral” behaviour is never bluntly shown or spoken about, but it is there. When T. R. Devlin spits at Alicia Huberman the phrase “a woman like you,” we don’t need to see flashbacks of her history to understand just what he’s talking about.
One of the most iconic scenes in the film is the erotically charged, nearly three-minute kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as their characters swan around her apartment and melt into each other while he speaks on the phone. This was Alfred Hitchcock’s method for circumventing the Hays-code rules regarding the allowed length of kisses. Alicia Huberman snuggles into the crook of T. R. Devlin’s neck as he walks across the apartment to make a call. They kiss deeply, breaking every few seconds to nuzzle each other, swim in each other’s presence, before kissing once more. Here we have Alfred Hitchcock at his most intimate, his camera shifting from soft close-ups to wider shots that drink in the elegance dance of the actors bring to the scene.
In ‘NOTORIOUS,’ characters are constantly remade and unmoored by their love. Writer Ben Hecht cleverly creates a dynamic wherein the mores and identities are never static. Alicia Huberman is seen as a femme fatale, but in reality she operates as the film’s detective figure, victim, martyr, and muse — sometimes all at once. Characters are forever caught between categories. T. R. Devlin rushes to save Alicia once he understands she’s being poisoned, but he’s also cold, cruel, and controlling. Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian seems to genuinely love Alicia Huberman in a way T. R. Devlin may not, but he bends to his mother’s will and projects onto Alicia Huberman to the point where he realises her truths too late. This is a film that reveals the intimate scripts of our heart’s desires. It offers an education in the erotic landscape of the psyche, what happens when the mask you’re forced to wear — as a dazzling spy, a grim-faced secret agent, a war criminal whose ability to trust guarantees your undoing — doesn’t match your insides.
As Alicia Huberman travels deeper and deeper into Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian’s world, eventually becoming his wife, the suspense gives way to touches of horror. Domestic items —delicate teacups, house keys, broken wine bottles — glow with menace. The next time a woman appears in all white, toward the end of the film, it is Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian’s mother, Madame Anna Sebastian [Leopoldine Konstantin]. She wears a robe and nightgown, her silver hair braided down her back, when her son reveals Alicia Huberman’s betrayal and relishes the news until she comes to recognize that it isn’t cheating that has severed the relationship but Alicia Huberman’s true identity as an American spy. Madame Anna Sebastian’s face trips into seething repose as Alicia Huberman figures out a plan, fulfilling the fatalistic promise of noir. That Alicia Huberman doesn’t interact intimately with any women — even her encounters with Madame Anna Sebastian are fleeting — makes the film feel even more claustrophobic.
Ingrid Bergman’s performance in ‘NOTORIOUS’ is the most transfixing of all of her Hollywood career, before the scandal of her taking up with Roberto Rossellini led to her being denounced on the Senate floor. In ‘NOTORIOUS,’ Ingrid Bergman is sexy and self-possessed, bruised and bruising. Ingrid Bergman’s face is a beautifully charged terrain forever subverting the dynamics we’ve come to expect of the bad girls of the forties: lips pursed on the edge of promise, eyes drinking in each detail, jaw tightening with fear or anger. But her secret weapon is her voice.
If you close your eyes and merely listen to Ingrid Bergman’s voice you can chart the emotional arc of the film — from alcohol-laced melancholic murmurings to champagne-bright sweet nothings whispered into Cary Grant’s ear to startled, anxious exclamations to, finally, the trembling aria of the closing moments of the film, as Alicia Huberman collapses into T. R. Devlin’s arms and speaks of their love with near-religious ardour. T. R. Devlin and Alicia Huberman may survive this ordeal — unlike Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian, whose death march back into his home marks the end of the film — but they are headed into an uncertain future. In the final moments before the film fades into darkness, ‘NOTORIOUS’ reminds us that love can be as much an opportunity for freedom as a prison.
NOTORIOUS MUSIC TRACK LIST
Carnaval, Op. 9, Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes: 'Chopin' (uncredited) (Written by Robert Schumann) [Performed in the distance as Alicia Huberman enters Alexander 'Alex' Sebastian’s house for the first time]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – The Criterion Collection presents the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ with a glorious 1080p black-and-white image and presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This new digital restoration was undertaken by The Walt Disney Company and the Criterion Collection. A new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director Film scanner at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging in Burbank, California, from three elements: the 35mm original camera negative and a 35mm nitrate fine-grain, both held by the Museum of Modern Art, and a 35mm safety fine-grain held by the British Film Institute. Several sections of the original camera negative, the primary source for this restoration, have sustained damage over the years and been replaced by duplicate negatives; for some of these portions, the fine-grains were used. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was first restored in 2001 from a 1954 35mm acetate release print and a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master. Additional restoration work was performed by the Criterion Collection for this release, using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The Criterion Collection presents the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ with a standard 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio experience. The basics of the original soundtrack are solid. However, its age immediately shows, so this means that you should have the proper expectations for the type of things that the lossless audio track can and cannot do. For example, while dynamic balance is very good – which means that there are no sudden drops or spikes in dynamic movement -- the overall dynamic intensity is quite limited. Also, the depth does not have the type of ranges that other films from the late 1950’s and 1960’s, for instance, have. But this is how the original soundtrack was finalized, and these are the type of qualities that the lossless track recreates. The background is free of conventional age-related imperfections, such as hiss, hum, and distortions. Please Note: The original monaural soundtrack was restored in 2001 from a 35mm acetate release print and a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master. Additional restoration was performed by The Criterion Collection for this release, using a Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray.
Special Feature: Audio Commentary featuring Marian Keane [2001] [1080p] [1.37:1] [000:00] This audio commentary was recorded by The Criterion Collection in 2001, and features Alfred Hitchcock Scholar Marian Keane. To listen to the audio commentary while viewing the film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ then press the AUDIO key button on your remote control and select 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio. This first audio commentary that features Marian Keane, who provides an amazing insightful scene specific discussion that analyses the story and characters of ‘NOTORIOUS’ within the context of Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic style, and examines how that style influences our interpretation of the narrative. Marian Keane uses a more focused & often technical approach, taking each scene and breaking it down, in terms of visuals, storyline, characters, and beyond. Marian Keane also addresses the fairy tale elements that pervades the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ and talks about how the shot/reverse shot pattern that Alfred Hitchcock employs enhances the viewer’s perspective, but most of all, provides us with tons of insightful information, and is always presented in an easy to understand perspective on the Alfred Hitchcock ‘NOTORIOUS.’ Due to lack of space, this is all the information I can provide, which I hope it does not disappoint you and of course to really enjoy the full professional audio commentary with Marian Keane, then of course one will have to purchase this Criterion Blu-ray release.
Special Feature: Audio Commentary featuring Rudy Behlmer [1990] [1080p] [1.37:1] [000:00] This audio commentary was recorded by The Criterion Collection in 1990, and features Film Historian Rudy Behlmer. To listen to the audio commentary while viewing the film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ then press the AUDIO key button on your remote control and select 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio. With this second audio commentary featuring Rudy Behlmer and really concentrates more on the production the film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ chronicling casting, screenplay development, studio dealings, and the relationships between Alfred Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick, Ingrid Bergman, and Cary Grant. Rudy Behlmer reveals alternate casting choices for key roles, points out script deletions, and explains several proposed endings. Rudy Behlmer also reveals and offers a wealth of insight into the history of the production, even back talks about the short story on which it was based. Once again this Rudy Behlmer audio commentary is really excellent and very professional and was also very insightful as well as very informative and all in all, it was a rewarding Rudy Behlmer audio commentary experience. Once again, due to lack of space, this is all the information I can provide, which I hope it does not disappoint you and of course to really enjoy the full professional audio commentary with Rudy Behlmer, then of course one will have to purchase this Criterion Blu-ray release.
Special Feature: Once Upon a Time . . . ‘NOTORIOUS’ [2009] [1080p / 480i] [1.78:1] [1.37:1] [52:02] With this featurette, we are informed that director David Thompson created this 2009 documentary for the French DVD series “Once Upon a Time . . .” and details the making of the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ and addresses the socio-political climate in which it was created. It features interviews with actresses Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rossellini; filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovich, Claude Chabrol, and Stephen Frears; and others. Contributors include: Stephen Frears [Director], David Thompson [Film Critic and Writer], Alfred Hitchcock [Director], Mary Stone [Alfred Hitchcock’s Granddaughter], Bill Krohn [Cinema Historian, Author of “Hitchcock at Work”], Claude Chabrol [French Director], Sidney Gottlieb [Cinema Historian, Author of “Hitchcock on Hitchcock”], Charlotte Chandler [Biographer and friend of Alfred Hitchcock], Isabella Rossellini [Actress, Ingrid Bergman’s daughter], Ingrid Bergman [Actress] and Peter Bogdanovich [Director]. French where spoken with English white subtitles.
Special Feature: Powerful Patterns – David Bordwell on ‘NOTORIOUS’ [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1] [29:42] With this featurette, we get to view a 2018 program by The Criterion Collection and features Film Scholar David Bordwell and gets to analysing and deconstructs the climatic scene in the film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ in which David Bordwell believes all of director Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic preoccupations during the period of his career can be discovered. Personally, I found this David Bordwell featurette utterly and totally boring and most of all I totally detest boring David Bordwell in telling me and stating the totally obvious in what I am viewing in the scenes throughout the film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ because I am intelligent enough in knowing what makes Alfred Hitchcock's unique style of directing any of his films. So all in all, David Bordwell should get a life!
Special Feature: Glamour and Tension – John Bailey on ‘NOTORIOUS’ [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1] [23:25] With this featurette, it was conducted in 2018 by The Criterion Collection, where we get to view cinematographer John Bailey, where he discusses the visual style of the film ‘NOTORIOUS.’ In this brand new video featurette, John Bailey sometimes concentrates on some key techniques that director Alfred Hitchcock incorporated in his directing style over the course of his long career.
Special Feature: Poisoned Romance – Donald Spoto on ‘NOTORIOUS’ [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1] [21:01] With this featurette, was produced in 2018 by The Criterion Collection, and with this program it features Donald Spoto and Author of “The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock,” and talks freely about the director Alfred Hitchcock and discusses in-depth of the film ‘NOTORIOUS.’ But also gives great praise to the prolific screenwriter Ben Hecht, who was involved with so many iconic films, but also informs us that originally Ben Hecht originally was a prolific journalist, but eventually turned his hand to become a great screenwriter of some seventy films and they included some really iconic films like ‘Underworld,’ ‘Queen Christina,’ ‘The Prisoner of Zenda,’ ‘Gone With The Wind,’ ‘Rebecca,’ ‘Spelbound,’ ‘The Paradine Case,’ ‘Spellbound,’ ‘Strangers On A Train,’ and of course the incredible and outstanding ‘NOTORIOUS.’ Among other things Donald Spoto mentions about Ben Hecht was his screenwriting attribute relating to a myriad of motifs in the films he was involved with, including the woman-in-trouble theme that pervades many Alfred Hitchcock works, salutes the screenwriter Ben Hecht as the movie’s unsung hero, and rhapsodizes about the picture’s “brilliant structure.”
Special Feature: Writing With The Camera [2018] [1080p / 480i] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [15:54] With this featurette, we get to view a new program, and features new and archival interviews with scholars Steven D. Katz and Bill Krohn, storyboard artists Gabriel Hardman and Harold Michelson, production designer Robert F. Boyle, and others. Filmmaker Daniel Raim delves into the extensive production and previsualisation process director Alfred Hitchcock undertook to ensure that his cinematic vision for the film ‘NOTORIOUS' would be realised precisely. We get a very absorbing piece focusing on Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession with storyboards and how he used them to maintain control of his films and protect them from studio interference. Several Alfred Hitchcock collaborators discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s director’s technique and how the storyboards acted as a visual screenplay, and side-by-side comparisons between the storyboards and finished film illustrate just how closely Alfred Hitchcock followed them and all in all, this is a very fascinating featurette. Contributors include: Henry Bumstead [American Production Designer for the film ‘Vertigo’], Bill Krohn [Film Critic and Autho for “Hitchcock at Work”], Steven D. Katz [Author of “Film Directing Shot by Shot”], Harold Michelson [Storyboard Artist for the films ‘The Birds’ and ‘Marnie’], Robert F. Boyle [Production Designer for the films ‘The Birds’ and ‘Marnie’] and Gabriel Hardman [Storyboard Artist for the films ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Interstella’].
Special Feature: LUX Radio Theatre [Audio only] [1948] [1080p] [1.78:1] [59:56] With this featurette, we get to hear the original CBS radio broadcast of the 1948 LUX Radio Theatre adaptation of ‘NOTORIOUS.’ Ingrid Bergman reprises her role as Alicia Huberman, while Joseph Cotten takes the role of T. R. Devil. Also appearing as Joseph Kearns, Gerald Moore and Janet Scott. With its nuances, subtleties, and long stretches of visual exposition, ‘NOTORIOUS’ is not the kind of film that translates well for the audio medium, and this condensed version, though efficient, lacks the romantic and physical tension of the original work. Unfortunately Joseph Cotten is also no Cary Grant, and the character of T.R. Devlin loses a fair degree of magnetism in this radio adaptation.
Special Feature: Pathé Reporter Meets . . . [1948] [480i] [1.37:1] [0:48] With this featurette, we get to view a very brief 1948 vintage newsreel footage clip showing Alfred Hitchcock interviewing Ingrid Bergman two years after the release of the film ‘NOYORIOUS,’ and was shot on the airport tarmac, the footage features playful banter between the director and the star and largely revolves around the British cuisine.
Trailers: Here we get to view four different Original Theatrical Trailers for the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ and they are as following:
A Notorious Woman of Affairs! [1946] [1080p] [1.37:1] [2:09]
Gems In Her Hair and Ice In Her Heart! [1946] [1080i] [1.37:1] [0:55]
Notorious! Notorious! Notorious! [1946] [1080i] [1.37:1] [0:52]
All She Was All He Wanted [1946] [1080i] [1.37:1] [0:16]
PLUS: An essay entitled THE SAME HUNGER by critic Angelica Jade Bastién. Cast. Credits. About The Restoration. Special Thanks. Acknowledgments. Production Credits.
Finally, in the film ‘NOTORIOUS’ [1946], love assumes different shapes and presentations — as a wound, a weapon, a promise, a curse. For Ingrid Bergman as the lusciously complex and raw-nerved Alicia Huberman, it’s all these things. ‘NOTORIOUS’ becomes a consideration of what happens when a woman’s sexual history frames the totality of her identity. Ingrid Bergman radiates in a way that makes it seem that if you reach your hand to the screen, you’ll feel her skin. One of the most iconic scenes in the film is the erotically charged, nearly three-minute kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as their characters swan around her apartment and melt into each other while he speaks on the phone. This was Alfred Hitchcock’s method for circumventing Hays-code rules regarding the allowed length of kisses. In film ‘NOTORIOUS,’ characters are constantly remade and unmoored by their love. Ben Hecht cleverly creates a dynamic wherein the mores and identities are never static. Alicia Huberman is seen as a femme fatale, but in reality she operates as the film’s detective figure, victim, martyr, and muse — sometimes all at once. Characters are forever caught between categories. This is a film that reveals the intimate scripts of our heart’s desires. It offers an education in the erotic landscape of the psyche, what happens when the mask you’re forced to wear — as a dazzling spy, a grim-faced secret agent, a war criminal whose ability to trust guarantees your undoing — doesn’t match your insides. ‘NOTORIOUS,’ reveals that the dynamics its main characters share isn’t so much a love triangle as a tangled web of obsession and bruised longing. ‘NOTORIOUS,’ becomes a consideration of what happens when a woman’s sexual history frames the totality of her identity. Ingrid Bergman radiates in a way that makes it seem that if you reach your hand to the screen, you’ll feel her skin. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
