|
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12
"Notorious" (1946)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains.
 Only Alfred Hitchcock can make it nerve-racking to watch people drink Champagne.
Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense because of the tension in his films. "Notorious" is one of his best; Roger Ebert calls it "the most elegant expression of the master's visual style."
Bergman stars as the title character, a "notorious" woman whose father is convicted of treason for spying for the Nazis. Bergman also once loved current Nazi spy Rains, and is now a hard drinker accused of promiscuity.
Grant plays an American spy who manipulates Bergman into flying to Rio de Janeiro and back into Rains' arms in order to see what he's doing now.
In the most interesting character twist, it's eventually easier to sympathize with Rains, a mama's boy and Nazi, than with the patriotic Grant, because at least Rains' love for Bergman is genuine. The ending of this film is so perfectly staged that I dare not ruin it by tattling.
Where does the Champagne come in?
Grant suspects that the Nazis are hiding a substance used to make radioactive weapons in wine bottles. He and Bergman poke around in the wine cellar of a mansion, opening bottles, while the Nazis throw a big party. If someone finds them down there, they'll be killed.
Meanwhile, the high-society guests are drinking huge amounts of Champagne. All the while, we know that if the Champagne upstairs runs out, someone will be sent to the cellar to fetch more, and Bergman and Grant will be shot.
Talk about pressure: Viewers find themselves practically shouting at the screen, "Have an iced tea or something, dammit!"
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12
| 
