Notorious (1946)

Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious is a globe-trotting thriller, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Released in 1946, it follows the story of a socialite turned American spy, investigating suspicious activity in Brazil. With government agent Devlin (portrayed by Grant), Alicia Huberman (Bergman) travel to Rio de Janeiro to infiltrate a Nazi organisation.

Although I liked the premise of this movie going on, I found it frankly confusing at times, with some elements of the plot seeming rushed and half-baked. The performances in the movie were passable, with the character of Alex Sebastian (portrayed by Claude Rains) being a standout, as a chilling antagonist. However, one of my major gripes with the film is that of the relationship between Devlin and Alicia, in that it felt extremely forced and frankly unbelievable.

The filmography was, as to be expected from Hitchcock, excellent, with beautiful scenic shots of the beaches of Rio, bustling marketplaces, and stunning mansions, but this excellence was diminished by the fact that they were acting as backdrops to an altogether uninteresting story. I don’t think that I would necessarily want to watch this again.