NOTORIOUS

Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film Notorious is an astounding achievement. Many critics label Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, or North by Northwest as Hitchcock's greatest work. I vehemently disagree. Notorious is the work that contains Hitchcock's genius. Its simple structure elegantly complements its complex characters. Emotions drive the action, but the only action the film contains is insinuation. Hitchcock cleverly and subtlely builds the most satisfying suspense film ever made. In fact, he made one of the best motion pictures ever committed to celluloid.

The genius of Notorious is in its characters. At the heart of the film are three complex, tortured individuals. There is Devlin, an agent whose job is to encourage his lover to sleep with a Nazi to obtain information vital to American security. His lover is Alicia, a known drinker with a past of promiscuity driven by her desire to forget her family's past. Her father, an American traitor during World War II, fills her with despair and pain, making her fiercely independent but extremely vulnerable. When Alicia meets Devlin, she soon falls in love. When Devlin tells her what her assignment is, she agrees. Is it out of patriotism? Is it out of courage? It is neither; she does it for Devlin. The Nazi is Alex Sebastian, a villain with three dimensions (uncanny in any age of cinema). Sebastian has a past with Alicia's family. In fact, Alicia and Alex were once in love.

It is interesting how all three of them use the Alex-Alicia relationship to their advantage. Devlin uses the relationship to spy on the Nazis. Alex uses the relationship for a multitude of reasons: social status, subtle separation from his powerful, foreboding mother, and the rekindling of a past love. Alicia uses the relationship to strengthen her relationship with Devlin. This is a love triangle so cleverly developed and yet so amazingly simple that no attempt since has even come close to the mastery of this film's three's-a-crowd.

Devlin is a stone cold man with a shadowed heart. His love for Alicia is masked in bitterness and an air of superiority. He frequently hints at Alicia's "unladylike" behavior. Whenever Alicia does something to Devlin's horror or dissatisfaction, he brushes it off with a "skip it" or an insult. Devlin is not a likable character, but his thick skin is only a mask of the pain he suffers. He essentially has been asked to let his lover marry another man. And Alicia does because that is what Devlin wants him to do. The fact that she does only encourages Devlin's disparagement. Devlin does not trust Alicia when, in fact, she would do anything for him. It's a catch-22 out of pure circumstance.

Meanwhile, Alex is a villain with a heart. Moreover, he is in a most powerless position. He has a power-hungry and mistrustful mother who does not like his new relationship with Alicia. He houses and deals with people who kill without emotion or second thought. The slightest mistake could cost him his life. His escape is Alicia. He boldly and unabashedly falls in love with Alicia and soon marries her, maybe out of the same despair that Alicia has throughout the film. He truly loves her, and there are hints that this love is somewhat returned by Alicia.

But Alicia remains loyal to Devlin. Soon, Alicia and Devlin find that the Nazi home (which is in Brazil) houses radioactive material found in atomic bombs. Hitchcock has labeled this discovery as a MacGuffin. Its discovery is the reason all three characters are where they are, but the discovery itself is unimportant. The MacGuffin is the backdrop; the characters are the story. Interestingly, this MacGuffin is the focal point of the film. Its discovery is key to the movie's shift from setup to build-up. The movie has created its foundation. Now it will provide a continuous rising tension that will lead to the film's flawless conclusion.

Alex soon discovers Alicia's intentions, almost fittingly by a mysteriously re-appearing key. The agony in the face of Alex is almost unbearable. He has discovered the truth, and it breaks his heart. Alex was the one who trusted her, and he got burned because of it.

Alex and his mother must keep Alicia's true identity from the other Nazis in the mansion (since the Nazis would surely kill Alex for marrying an American spy), so they plot a subtle way of killing her. Alicia is to be slowly poisoned. The method was to stir in some arsenic with any drink she was to have. Alicia slowly but surely becomes ill, and in her last secret meeting with Devlin, she hides her sickness by claiming it as a hangover, of course to Devlin's dissatisfaction. However, when Alicia does not show up for her next meeting with Devlin, Devlin is worried and soon realizes that she is indeed in trouble.

He goes to the mansion and asks to see Alicia. When he is told that Alicia is gravely ill, he quietly climbs the steps of the mansion and finds Alicia bed-ridden. Alicia, by this point, has discovered the plot against her but is too weak to fight against it. So Devlin guides her back down the stairs. Soon Alex and his mother spot them. They approach with hesitation, however, because of the Nazis in the house so closely watching them.

Devlin goes down the stairs slowly but confidently. He knows he has Alex right where he wants him. Alex can do nothing because he will die if he says anything. Devlin reaches the door; the tension is palpable. He reaches the car, puts Alicia in, and locks the door before Alex can enter the car. Devlin drives away leaving Alex at the bottom of the stairs.

Notorious is as smooth as silk. It transitions from one scene to the next with such perfect precision. Notorious is also a visual stunner. Light is used so well in this film. Realizations are accompanied by bright light; secrets are envisioned with dark grays. There are frequent close-ups of the characters, and we can see the thoughts they have just by looking at their eyes. Everything we see is everything we need to know.

The acting in this film is exceptional. Cary Grant has his best performance of his career. Hitchcock slyly uses his typecast and colors it with emotional bitterness. Grant nails the tone; his quiet, emotionally cold performance is riveting. Claude Rains is phenomenal. He makes Sebastian as a man of high stature with hints of immense vulnerability. We know he faces a confining life; he is trapped by his surroundings. And then the indelible Ingrid Bergman as Alicia. Only Ingrid could make Alicia what she was: complex, compassionate, vulnerable, and desperate. She is the heart of this film, and she acts with a grace that no one can equal.

Hitchcock uses symbolism throughout the film. Besides the key that alarms Alex about Alicia's true purpose at the mansion, the mansion itself is the perfect symbol for a prison for all three main characters. Alicia is trapped in the mansion, both from the Sebastians' cunning plan to poison her to death and from enjoying her true love for Devlin. Devlin looks at the mansion as a prison holding Alicia back from him. The mansion has engulfed her, and he feels he may never get her back. Alex is also imprisoned in the mansion. His only means of survival is to stay in the mansion, but it will also prove to be the setting of his demise.

Notorious achieves greatness on so many levels, but none maybe more so than the last 10 minutes. The suspense almost becomes unbearable when Devlin takes Alicia down those stairs with the stunned, scared face of Alex looking on. Hitchcock's pace is perfect: slow but progressive. Devlin and Alicia have reached the bottom of the stairs. They have escaped the prison, but when Alex is left behind, his fate is sealed. When Sebastian is asked, "Alex, will you come in, please? I wish to talk to you" by an on-looking Nazi, Alex slowly turns around. He is about to climb those same steps and return to his prison. He will never escape.