100 All-Time Films (To see the entire list, click here)
Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946)
I only have three films from Hitchcock on my list, and I don’t like that one bit. How do you argue against the greatest genre filmmaker who has every lived? The next two Hitchcocks that I will be discussing aren’t a surprise. This one absolutely is. It isn’t Rear Window or North by Northwest (which were ever so close to making my list). What Notorious is, is the most underrated Hitchcock movie.
This movie marks Hitchcock’s transformation to an artistic director with his heightened cinematic maturity. Yet somehow, I feel like Notorious gets lost in the shuffle of his other more popular thrillers. It is probably his best love story and it may be his best script. It remains Hitchcock’s most elegant film. Notorious features brilliant performances from Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives get intertwined during an espionage operation.
The film is known for two shots in particular, with the first being the high and wide shot of a party when the camera moves slowly to a low and close shot of a key in Alicia’s (Bergman) hand. It is unbelievable to watch. The second shot is a little more sly as Hitchcock expertly sneaks around the Production Code’s rule of kisses not lasting past three seconds. Grant and Bergman kiss for 3 seconds, disengage, and then start back up again. The scene lasts two and a half minutes! Easily one of the most intimate kisses in classic Hollywood.
Notorious makes my list because it perfected the style of cinema’s greatest director and because the film itself, is essentially a perfect composition. Often overlooked but never duplicated, Notorious stands as one of the top American thrillers of all time.
