A Movie A Day: NOTORIOUS (1946) Plus Quint has an AMAD announcement!!
Published at: Dec. 24, 2008, 5:56 a.m. CST by quint
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day is my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I’ll pull a previously unseen film from my collection or from my DVR and discuss it here. Each movie will have some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member.]
NOTORIOUS marks the 200th A Movie A Day article, so I figured it’s the perfect time to make an announcement. Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed a comment at the end of yesterday’s review of MOONTIDE that I would have something to say today and it spurned a little bit of discussion in the talkback.
No, I’m not leaving AICN. No, Moriarty, I’m not getting a sex change (those fuckers are so expensive, I figured I could do without… I have a good imagination).
This column has been my main contribution to this site over the last 7 months and I've loved it. A MOVIE A DAY has given me the opportunity to focus on vintage film, classics I should have seen by now, obscure gems and a fair amount of garbage, but that’s what happens when you explore cinema. If it wasn’t for the garbage you come across you wouldn’t appreciate those amazing films, like today’s NOTORIOUS, when you find them.
The responsibility of getting these out every day is one I took very seriously and I only messed up twice and all within the last 2 months of the column and there’s a reason for that. More and more plates are spinning as each week goes by. Next year is going to be a very, very busy one for me, I think, so I've decided to put a halt to A Movie A Day.
Now, this isn’t the last installment. I made this decision about a month ago and I planned to end it on the 7 month anniversary of the column, early next month. I had to take almost a week off because of BNAT and a secret trip (which I still can’t go into detail about just yet), so now the column will have its final movie on the 7th of January, instead of the 2nd, which would be the 7 month anniversary.
Watching these films and writing about them has not only helped me get to know some classics, but it’s also made me a better geek. My horizon has broadened and not only have I found a ton of new favorites, I’ve also had my love of the art form reinvigorated, which was a bit of a shock. I never considered that I needed a recharge until this column, but obviously I did. A Movie A Day has not only helped me put today's films into a better context, but it's has me focusing on the art in a different way.
I do not plan on dropping the vintage film discussion altogether. No, I love this too much to quit cold turkey. I will still watch and review older films for the site, just not on such a hellish schedule. I’d hesitate to call it A Movie A Week because even that promises a schedule and who knows? Maybe I’ll watch a few a week I want to talk about, maybe none.
I still have probably 300-400 unwatched movies on DVD and I will keep going through them. When I find one that really interests me or one that I discover I have a desire to talk about or dissect I will write it up.
So, I’ll have to think of a new title for the vintage discussion… maybe Quint’s Essentials? Or is that too ego-tastic and lame? Maybe you guys can help with that.
But yeah, I know… not a good Christmas present for those who have been following along, but I hope you understand that I’d rather end the column strong and not let it die a miserable, slow death.
Now let’s get out of the melancholy and into Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS.
Have I ever mentioned that I’m in love with 1940s Ingrid Bergman? In my perfect world I’d have the tough decision on who to marry: 1940s Ingrid Bergman, 1960s Julie Andrews or modern day Natalie Portman. Unfortunately for me, I think all three have about the same likelihood of happening.
In NOTORIOUS Bergman plays the daughter of an unrepentant Nazi who is tried and convicted before our story starts. We start with his sentencing and never even get a clear look at the man. That doesn’t matter. What interests us is his daughter, who falls into partying and boozing it up as a means to forget her father’s war crimes and the shame he has put on her.
At one of these parties she gets shitfaced while talking to a guest of a guest, someone she initially thinks of as a party-crasher. That someone is Mr. Cary Grant approaching her with a proposition.
He’s a government agent and because he’s heard her opposition to her father’s work on one of the wires placed in the house he knows she is an ideal candidate to go undercover for him in Rio de Janeiro, where he believes he’s tracked down a small group of escaped Nazi war criminals. It doesn’t hurt that the main man they’re after is a known associate of Bergman’s father and someone who had a thing for her.
The main plotline, the spying, is all well and good, but that’s not what makes this movie remarkable. What is still gripping some 62 years after release is the love story between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It’s almost tragic. They fall in love in their downtime upon arrival in Rio. They have to await the mission from the higher ups and as they do they can’t help but connect.
Grant is hesitant, but submits to his feelings and the brief whirlwind romance is kicked into high gear. Grant makes Bergman want to be a better person. She’s ready to quit the boozing and a referenced, but never seen, slutty life for this man.
Then they get their assignment and the games begin. She is to woo their target, Claude Rains, and gain his confidence enough to get access to his house, where there are secret meetings with unknown people. The government wants to know who is there and what they’re cooking up.
I’m no fan of games during relationships. I’m of the up front and honest school of romance, not the “let’s test how much you really love me” shit. That kind of game-playing is what sped up the nasty demise of my last relationship and it’s not something I have much tolerance for.
So when the game-playing starts here I felt immediately bad for Grant and Bergman. In the brief time we’ve seen them together in love we buy it, we buy them and we want them to succeed. Grant protests initially to his superiors, but relents, ultimately deciding to leave it up to Bergman to decide if she essentially wants to whore herself out in the name of patriotism.
He’s testing her, wanting her to reject that life completely. But she thinks he wants her to do it and is disheartened when he skirts her question about whether or not he protested at the assignment. It’s like watching someone skewer their child, seeing their love wilt onscreen.
Then it becomes about revenge, Bergman striking back, rubbing her sexual relationship with Rains in Grant’s face and watching him squirm, but all the while damn near begging him to ride in and steal her away from the situation.
The spy moments are great. There’s an especially tense moment where Bergman has to steal a key from Rains (now her husband) in order to get into the only room in the house locked to her: the wine cellar. She can only do it if there’s a lot of noise and confusion, so she throws a big party. Grant is a guest at this party and they go to work, realizing on the spot that Rains will miss this key if the booze runs out of the party and the man-servant has to ask for entry into the wine cellar.
Hitchcock visually represents this tension with the ever-diminishing bottles of champagne as the party goes on and on and Grant and Bergman get closer and closer to finding what’s secreted away in the wine cellar.
I’m a big Hitchcock fan and the more of his work I see the more in awe of him I get. Even his misfires show a kind of genius to them.
For instance, I love in this film how Rains isn’t a fool. He’s kind of a likable guy and you believe he’s truly in love with this girl, but they don’t have him ignoring obvious shit all the way through. He sets a very subtle trap for her and when she falls into it, you see him visually torn up. Then the suspense shifts effortlessly from “is he going to discover her” to “what’s he going to do now?” and to be quite honest, the suspense in the second half of the movie is much better than the suspense in the first half. It’s that ticking time-bomb theory of Hitch’s. We know Rains knows, we know it’s going to explode at some point, but when and how?
Final Thoughts: Another classic from The Master. The romance is tragic and completely atypical, especially for the time. Grant is charming as all get out, Bergman as beautiful as Grant is charming and Rains is perfect as the central goal and threat. He plays it very real, very human and that makes for an incredibly memorable character. It all builds to a fantastic moment of tension that is played perfectly. Plus, I was howling at Cary Grant’s final “Fuck You” moment with Rains. I don’t know why it got to me as much as it did, but I was laughing hysterically and clapping my hands. It’s an awesome moment in an awesome movie. Also keep an eye out for one of cinema’s best kissing scenes, the on again off again pecks between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman is some super sensual stuff, even by today’s standards.
Here’s what we have lined up for the next week:
Wednesday, December 24th: THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS (1958)
Thursday, December 25th: THE HIGH COMMISSIONER (1968)
Friday, December 26th: THE SILENT PARTNER (1979)
Saturday, December 27th: PAYDAY (1972)
Sunday, December 28th: A STRANGER IS WATCHING (1982)
Monday, December 29th: THE NEW KIDS (1985)
Tuesday, December 30th: SERIAL (1980)
Tomorrow we have more Ingrid Bergman in THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS, so it’ll be a good day. I’ll have to fit her in amongst some last minute shopping, but I think I can manage.
Thanks to everyone who has followed along with me thus far. If you have any questions about the future of the column or any suggestions, let me know in the talkbacks below. I’ll check in when I wake up.
See you folks tomorrow for the next installment!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com