Notorious (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Hitchcock was the greatest director and made many masterpieces but Notorious was by far the best. And that places this film in the group of finest ever made. Every aspect is superb.These were the finest performances ever given by Grant, Bergman and Rains, and that would be due to the material and director. There is intense chemistry between Grant and Bergman, with Grant showing rare vulnerability and pain. The supporting cast was exceedingly strong. The writing is exquisite. The camera work and editing are masterpieces in their own right. With all elements available at the highest level, Hitchcock was able to fully display his genius.The only flaw I know of was the decision to not use the early scene written by Ben Hecht in which Alicia is shown as a kept woman who is dumped by a New York business man. Although her "notorious" character is alluded to in the movie that scene painted a vivid picture of just how lacking in scruples and adrift she was. It would have made her change of character more dramatic and compelling.But Hitchcock at that point in his career had less control and could not insist on keeping great material. Hecht's writing of that scene is powerful and should be read by students of this production.Hitchcock said in interviews that an early experience as a child made him deathly afraid of the police. In this film he not too subtly takes a shot at the authorities for forcing a woman to have sex with someone in order to infiltrate a criminal organization. Although she is criticized by government agents for lacking morality we see it is they who actually have none as they have no hesitation to pressure her into appalling sexual conduct, basically making her a prostitute.North by Northwest, also considered one of Hitchcock's best, was essentially a remake of Notorious but lighter and with moments of humor. Again the theme is a woman who is used by US intelligence to spy on an enemy agent. The significant difference, which makes NBNW less horrible to contemplate, is that the woman was already having an affair with the villain when approached by the US agency. Yet the Cary Grant character openly criticizes the agency for "asking women to bed down" with adversaries. That is Hitchcock speaking through Grant. That's exactly what Alicia was asked to do in Notorious, and unlike the intelligence employees who lacked any sense of morality, she had a problem with it. That is the irony. She was "notorious" for being loose sexually but the government actually was more lacking in morality. Both movies involve a love triangle with a foreign agent, but in Notorious the female character loves only one of the men. The other significant difference is that Notorious is primarily about the female character, Alicia, whereas North By Northwest focuses on the male, Thornhill.In both of these movies, Hitchcock openly criticizes the authorities for their lack of morality, and their belief that the end justified the means, causing them to appear little better than their targets. It was one of the few messages in his films. The other was showing the perspective of birds who were eaten and caged, and fight back.Notorious is unique among Hitchcock films for its intense romantic power. The acting in Notorious has the greatest depth of any of his films. The superb writing by Ben Hecht also raises this film above other Hitchcock movies. The excruciating love triangle where the two who are actually in love are placed in an impossible and almost unendurable situation, one being forced to marry a person who she is not in love with and the other forced to see a woman he loves have sex with another man, perfectly acted, makes this film endlessly fascinating. When the unloved member of the triangle then attempts to murder the one who has betrayed him, while continuing to feign affection, and finally in desperation seeks an alliance with his adversaries, the compelling emotional roller coaster reaches its conclusion, leaving the audience exhausted. I'm not aware of a plot that so tortures the characters and the audience. In that way it is psychologically a horror movie, and more intense and macabre than the Hitchcock films that showed actual killings.This movie needs to be released in 4K Ultra.

Good story. Classic from Hitchcock.

PHOTO 1: MGM blu-ray issued in 2012PHOTO 2: Hitchcock’s cameo @ 1:04:47 on the Criterion blu-rayPHOTO 3-5: Life Magazine article from 1946PHOTO 6: Possible Blooper @ 17:09PHOTO 7: Hitchcock worshiped Ingrid BergmanThe new 2019 Criterion Collection blu-ray of ‘Notorious’ comes into direct competition with the 2012 MGM blu-ray:Notorious (hitchcock) [Blu-ray]The Criterion blu-ray has the magical words “4K digital restoration”, giving it a theoretical advantage over MGM’s ten-year-old 2-K (?) digital restoration,but the actual improvement is not dramatic, at least on my 40 inch, five year-old JVC TV.Both blu-rays look quite good.Of course, if you own a state-of-the-art 70 inch 4-K television (or plan to), the choice is obvious.Making the choice easier, the price of the old MGM blu-ray is twice that of the new Criterion blu-ray (apparently the MGM is out-of-print).COMMON TO MGM & CRITERION:--- Uncompressed 2.0 mono soundtrack in English--- English SDH subtitles for the feature film--- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of ‘Notorious’ from 1948, starring Ingrid Bergman, with Joseph Cotton in the Cary Grant role (60 minutes)--- Trailers--- Audio Commentaries - each blu-ray has two separate commentary tracks:------ Criterion has Rudy Behlmer (my favorite, recorded way back in 1990 for Laserdisc) and Marian Keane (recorded in 2001 for DVD)------ MGM has Richard Jewell and Drew Casper (both recorded in 2008 for DVD)Fortunately there has not been that much new Hitchcock scholarship lately (sorry cinéastes), so none of this material is outdated.BONUS MATERIAL UNIQUE TO MGM:--- Isolated music and effects track - unfortunately composer Roy Webb was no Bernard Hermann. Compare to the final 20 minutes on the isolated music track on the blu-ray of ‘North by Northwest’.--- "The Ultimate Romance: The Making of 'Notorious'" (28 minutes)--- "Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster" (13 minutes)--- "The Key to Hitchcock: 1979 American Film Institute Award” (3 minutes)--- Hitchcock audio-only interviews with Peter Bogdanovich and Francois Truffaut (18 minutes)BONUS MATERIAL UNIQUE TO CRITERION:--- “Once Upon a Time ... ‘Notorious’, a 2009 Franco-British TV documentary by David Thompson in English (mostly) and subtitled French (52 minutes)--- Interview with Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto (21 minutes)--- Analysis of the film’s visual style by cinematographer John Bailey (23 minutes)--- Scene analysis by film scholar David Bordwell (30 minutes)--- Analysis of Hitchcock’s storyboarding process by filmmaker Daniel Raim (16 minutes)--- British newsreel footage from 1948 of Ingrid Bergman and Hitchcock arriving at Heathrow Airport (1 minute)--- Booklet essay by critic Angelica Jade BastiénThe quality and quantity of the Criterion bonus material puts MGM in the shade.Most of the Criterion bonus material from their 2001 DVD has been deleted - a lot of text articles on DVD (even the obscure short story that inspired the screenplay) and replaced by ninety minutes of newly filmed blu-ray bonus material, plus an hour-long 2009 TV documentary. Scholarly and entertaining.I plan to sell my MGM blu-ray, but keep my old MGM DVD for the commentaries.The luxury of having four different commentaries appeals to my O.C.D.Old DVDs:2001 Criterion DVD: Notorious (The Criterion Collection) (different bonus material)2008 MGM DVD: Notorious (hitchcock) (same bonus material as MGM blu-ray)Photo 6: POSSIBLE BLOOPER:Alfred Hitchcock was famous for his cameo appearances, and for the artificiality of the rear projection in his films.The rear projections in ‘Notorious’ are especially unrealistic.Either Hitchcock (or the studio technicians) didn’t care - hard to believe - or this was intentional.Hitchcock’s way of telling the audience “Don’t worry. It’s only a movie”.Something really weird happens @ 17:09 on the Criterion blu-ray:Cary Grant and Ingmar Bergman are seated on an airliner.In the window behind them, you can see a rear projection of the clouds going by.Apparently the projectionist loaded the film backwards, because for the next ten seconds the airplane is flying backwards.‘Notorious’ (1946) was the ninth of thirty films directed by Alfred Hitchcock during his American period.Producer David O. Selznick brought him to America in 1939, but Selznick sold the rights for ‘Notorious’ to RKO, where Hitchcock was happy to be his own producer.It was the second of three films Hitchcock made with Ingrid Bergman, the second of four films with Cary Grant, and the only time both appeared together in a film directed by Hitchcock.The new blu-ray of ‘Notorious’ is welcome, but I am still hoping for blu-rays of the only two films from Hitchcock’s American period that have not been released on blu-ray: ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ (1941) and ‘Stage Fright’ (1950).ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILMOGRAPHY:Alfred Hitchcock directed 56 feature films (not counting short subjects).One film, 'The Mountain Eagle' (1927) is lost.'Blackmail' (1929) is counted twice - it was Hitchcock's final silent film, and was also filmed as his first talkie.PART ONE: BRITISH PERIOD, 1925 - 193925 films survive: 11 are on blu-ray (5 of these are on Criterion)PART TWO: HOLLYWOOD PERIOD, 1940 -197630 films: 28 are on blu-ray.For a complete list, along with links to these films on Amazon, see Comment One (click on “Sort by Oldest”).

Almost all critics and fans place "Notorious" among the finest of Hitchcock's masterpieces. Maybe not full of psychological horror as with Psycho or terrifying phobias as Vertigo. Nor the homage to voyeurism of Rear Window. No, this film is a dark as night suspenseful spy film noir with one of the most complex, painfilled romances seen on the screen. Hitchcock hits his full stylistic stride here. The one of kind camera work. You'll never think of a simple key ever the same way again! Or the 3 minute long "kiss" that outsmarted the censors. The use of light and shade to highlight narrative and emotions. Dialog that says one thing and means another. Cary Grant takes a risk and plays against type. Claude Rains is as always solid as the Nazi occupying one of the corners of the love triangle. And of course, Ingrid Bergman strides through the film like a colossus. Radiant in beauty. Painful in vulnerability and yet icy strength just underneath. When Bergman cries on screen you really feel it in your bones!The Criterion Blu-ray remastering off of a 4K scan does its best on a pretty marginal and multiple sourced film. Grain is for the most part tight allowing for good detail with nice shadows. Nicks, marks and other film damage has been removed almost totally. A clear, easy to hear dialog is presented in LPCM mono with good fidelity on the score. No distortions or tinniness is present. Typical Criterion supplements are extremely deep and wide ranging with several hours of fantastic info and commentary. So, if you are a lover of classic cinema and especially the work of "The Master" you should have a copy of this in the collection. Highly recommended.