Notorious (1946)

      "...with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads..."

With Ingrid Bergman.

Notorious - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The unease that assaults an artist transplanted bodily out of his native soil has affected even veteran director Alfred Hitchcock who, since his arrival in Hollywood, has consistently failed to live up to the standards of Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes.  A celebration is therefore in order for his most recent effort, Notorious.  With a highly polished script by Ben Hecht, and with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads, Mr. Hitchcock has fashioned a film in the supercharged American idiom of the sort that made Casablanca popular.  With a minimum of tricks and an uncluttered story line, he tells of a beautiful American spy who marries an enemy leader and is rescued at Zero hour by her secret service superior when her husband tries to poison her.

- Hermine Rich Isaacs, Theatre Arts Magazine

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 49 - Notorious (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

For more, see also:

On This Day 22 July 2020

On This Day 22 July 2021

Quote From Today 22 July 2022

Quote From Today... Notorious! (1946)

"Daisies and buttercups, wasn't it?"

With Ingrid Bergman.

Notorious! was Cary Grant's 49th full length feature film.

Devlin: I can't help recalling some of your remarks about being a new woman. Daisies and buttercups, wasn't it?

Alicia: You idiot! What are you sore about, you knew very well what I was doing!

Devlin: Did I?

Alicia: You could have stopped me with one word, but no, you wouldn't. You threw me at him!

Devlin: I threw you at nobody.

Alicia: Didn't you tell me what I had?

Devlin: A man doesn't tell a woman what to do; she tells herself. You almost had me believing in that little hokey-pokey miracle of yours, that a woman like you could change her spots.

Alicia: Oh, you're rotten.

Devlin: That's why I didn't try to stop you. The answer had to come from you.

Alicia: I see. Some kind of love test.

Devlin: That's right.

On This Day...Notorious (1946)

Today, in 1946, Cary Grant's 49th full length feature film was released...Notorious!

In his second of four film collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Grant played agent T.R. Devlin.

Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who agrees to infiltrate a German chemical cartel.

She gets close to the organisations head man (Claude Rains); eventually she marries him. 

The problem; she is in love with Devlin.

"With a highly polished script by Ben Hecht, and with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads, Mr. Hitchcock has fashioned a film in the supercharged American idiom of the sort that made Casablanca popular." - Theatre Arts Magazine

There are a few interesting facts about Notorious.

Ian Flemimg, having seen the film was inspired to create his James Bond character, based on Cary Grant.

Years later, Grant would turn down the role as Bond in Dr. No, because he didn't want to sign up for a multi-picture deal.

 

Another point of interest is the nearly three minute kissing scene, shared by Bergman and Grant.

Why interesting? Well the filmmakers were under the Hays Code.

(see previous blog: Cary Grant and the Pre-code Era)

This meant that a kiss could not be open mouthed or last for longer than three seconds.

Hitchcock was able to get around this by having the kiss interrupted, but for only the shortest length of time. It therefore gave the impression of a much longer kiss.

Cast:

Devlin                             Cary Grant

Alicia Huberman             Ingrid Bergman

Alexander Sebastian       Claude Rains

Paul Prescott                  Louis Calhern

Mme. Sebastian              Madame Konstantin

"Dr. Anderson"               Reinhold Schunzel

Walter Beardsley            Moroni Olsen

Eric Mathis                     Ivan Triesault

Joseph                            Alex Minotis

Mr. Hopkins                    Wally Brown

Ernest Weylin                 Gavin Gordon

Commodore                    Sir Charles Mendl

Dr. Barbosa                     Ricardo Costa

Hupka                             Eberhard Krumschmidt

Ethel                               Fay Baker  

With Ingrid Bergman, Madame Konstantin and Claude Rains.

On set with Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman.

Lobby Cards:

Media Release:

Directed and Produced by Alfred Hitchcock.

Distributed by RKO Radio.

Running Time: 103 minutes.

"Lights, Camera...Action!" - The Directors - Part 2

After Howard Hawks' five films with Cary Grant, there were two directors who completed four films each with Grant...Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Donen.

Alfred Hitchcock:

13th August 1899 - 29th April 1990

"Hitch and I had a rapport and understanding deeper than words. He was a very agreeable human being, and we were very compatible. I always went to work whistling when I worked with him because everything on the set was just as you envisioned it would be. Nothing ever went wrong. He was so incredibly well prepared. I never knew anyone as capable. He was a tasteful, intelligent, decent, and patient man who knew the actor's business as well as he knew his own." 

- Grant on Hitchcock

Suspicion (1941)

On set with Joan Fontaine.

His appearance in the film.

Notorious (1946)

Hitchcock's appearance in a scene with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

To Catch A Thief (1955)

 

On film with Grant.

On set with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.

North By Northwest (1959)

An early appearance in the film.

                                                           

On set and behind the scenes with Cary Grant, Eve Marie Saint and James Mason.

"Cary is marvelous, you see. One doesn't direct Cary Grant, one simply puts him in front of a camera. 

And, you see, he enables the audience to identify with the main character. I mean by that, Cary Grant represents a man we know. He's not a stranger."

- Hitchcock on Grant

To be continued...The Directors - Part 3 - Stanley Donen.

Now wait a minute! You look familiar...

They say that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

Below are some of Cary Grant's films that were either remakes or remade.

My Favorite Wife:

My Favourite Wife (1940) later in 1963 became Move Over Darling, with Doris Day and James Garner.

Notorious:

Notorious (1946) was the basis for the story in Mission Impossible 2 (2000)

Even the horse race was kept in!

 

Charade:

Charade (1963) was remade as The Truth About Charlie in (2002)

The remake stars Mark Wahlberg and Tim Robbins.

An Affair to Remember:

Love Affair (1939) was remade as An Affair to Remember (1957) and again as Love Affair (1994)
Leo McCarey directed the first two films. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening star in the 1994 version.


The Bishop's Wife:

The Bishop's Wife (1947) took on a slight name change as The Preacher's Wife (1996)
In the 1996 version, the cast is headed by Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.

North By Northwest:

North By Northwest (1959) was remade as Double Identity in (2009)
Val Kilmer and Izabella Miko star in 2009.

Walk, Don't Run!:

The More the Merrier (1943) was remade as Walk, Dont Run (1966)

His Girl Friday:

The Front Page (1931), became His Girl Friday in (1940), being remade as The Front Page (1974)
His Girl Friday is the only version where Hildy is portrayed is a woman.

Information sourced from "That Was A Remake!" -IMDB