TCM Pick O’ The Day: Sunday, January 18th
by John Nolte
7:15 am PST – Notorious (1946) – A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern Dir: Alfred Hitchcock BW-101 mins, TV-PG
Not only is “Notorious” my favorite Hitchcock film, it’s one of my steady top fives of all time. If there’s ever been a more complicated relationship created for the screen than the emotional wringer Hitchcock and his screenwriter (and genius) Ben Hecht crafted to put Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman though, I’ve yet to see it. Both leads are ridiculously gorgeous and Grant’s standout performance is ablaze with equal parts pride, jealousy, resentment and longing.
The film’s climax ranks as one of the most satisfying in screen history when two men, Grant and Claude Rains, both come to separate realizations (and fates) driven by their love for Bergman (whose character is the inspiration for the title). Oh, yeah, and there’s some suspense and intrigue that goes on, as well.
“Notorious” is also a deeply patriotic film, a theme found in much of Hitchcock’s work, but rarely discussed by Those Who Write about the Movies.
One of the ”Wrestler” review readers responded to my complaint about that film’s climax with, ”[t]he hokey ending would have been [the Mickey Rourke character] quitting and setting off on a new life with Tomei and reconnecting with his daughter.”
With all due respect: Rubbish. What a false choice.
“Hokey” isn’t the result of a story point, “hokey” is the result of the execution of the story point, something “Notorious” proves definitively.
Why have we allowed ourselves to buy into the idea that uplifting endings are old-fashioned and “hokey?” Nihilism may never be hokey, but it sure can be lazy. Ending a film on a downer and calling it complicated and nuanced requires almost no work compared to crafting a climax that lifts the human spirit.
“Notorious” ends on an emotional triumph that requires a genius for mature filmmaking that’s all but vanished. Irony and nihilism have their place but too often they’re a refuge for mediocrity.
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26 Comments
I was sooo lucky to see this movie on the big screen last spring. But forgive me, DH, but your review/comments are overshadowed in my little mind by my remembrance of Cary Grant’s visage on that big screen. What a hunk, what a magnificant male speciman, what a beautiful, handsome … enough …
And your “hokey” point is well taken: That’s why Slumdog Millionaire is my current favorite.
Thanks for the great words regarding Hitch’s “Notorious”. I am intrigued by your response to the “hokey” comment. This reminds me of my own theory that our current culture, especially movies, has a real disdain for sentiment. I’m referring to the sort of sentimentality once seen so frequently in the works of John Ford and Frank Capra. Simple, real emotions of love, family and yes, patriotism once were a calling card of the Hollywood films. I agree heartily in your point about “irony and nihilism” having their place, but must they be the only motif used?
At some point, sentimentalism became something to be avoided like the plague. Unfortunately, Hollywood frequently confuses mere sentimentality with sentimentalism.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do melodrama. Unfortunately, Hollywood can’t remember the right way — and even when they remember, the film reviewers immediately mistake it for sentimentalism and damn the product as “hokey”.
Great choice for Pick of the Day. More than any other movie, this was the one that got me to start watching old movies.
Agree…that is one of my all time favorites as well.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw it and was a nervous wreck worrying that she’d never get out of that house alive.
Are you kidding? A happy ending in this day and age?? Why that might give people the idea they are possible. Can’t have that now can we? It would make it much too hard for they to settle.
I would love to see more happy endings in movies as well as real GOOD guy heroes. Not bad guys you cheer for but real do the right thing heroes in movies.
My favorite Hitchcock’e ending is North By Northwest. You have the fight on Mt Rushmore and then the train entering the tunnel as Grant pulls Eva Marie Saint up to bed. I’m not sure Preston Sturges would have ever thought of that.
Hitchcock could have great endings such as The Birds (so creepy as they walk away with all those birds hanging around)or Rear Window (down home girl Grace Kelly pulls out her fashion magazine as Stewart rests with two broken legs)or Foreign Correspondent where Joel McCrea presages the war reporting from London.
But he could also have some stinkers like Suspicion (I know the studio didn’t want Grant to be a killer but it would have been a better ending if the milk was poisoned) or Psycho where the coda about his mental sickness was added to explain Perkin’s behavior (though the part about not hurting a fly was good).
Set to record.
Prediction for Monday’s TCM POTD:
“A Patch of Blue”
It seems astonishing that Hitchcock, Grant, Rains and Calhern though all nominated for Oscars, never won. There were so many great stars and movies then, there just weren’t enough awards.
Thank goodness that now, every palookaville on the planet has a film fest to “award” their golden whoozit to any celebrity willing to appear.
OSweet:
No way. It’s got to be Elmer Gantry.
Shirley Jones playing a woman of ill repute. Tough to top that.
The 40’s was my favorite decade of Hitchcock films. Rebecca, Notorious, Suspicion, Spellbound. These are the best.
Okay, we’ve done Maureen O’Hara, and Ingrid Bergman, two of my favorite actresses of all time. Where’s my Greer Garson!?? Is Mrs. Miniver not one of the most patriotic films ever made?
I hope to see one of her films on this list very soon.
I enjoyed “The Wrestler” and didn’t mind the ending as much as you did, Mr. Nolte, but I like your point about hokeyness.
As Screwtape writes in one of his letters, “Your patient, properly handled, will have no difficulty in regarding his emotion at the sight of human entrails as a revelation of Reality and his emotion at the sight of happy children or fair weather as mere sentiment.”
Oh how I love this movie! There are a couple of scenes that still amaze me, especially the one where the camera swoops in on the key in Ingrid Bergman’s hand. I was so impressed by Claude Rains’ performance, he is a villain yes but a pitiful one and he does love Ingrid Bergman.
She is, hands down, my favorite actress from this period.
“Isn’t this the movie where people were getting shot in the theater in Greensboro?
Word, y’all, that movie is dope.”
LOL, LOL, LOL
That’s funny, yo.
What struck me upon re-watching Notorious a few months ago was how much it resembled Vertigo. Terrific film.
Cary Grant was gay.
“Throughout his time in Hollywood, Grant was rumored to be either homosexual or bisexual. Early in his career he was a roommate of the openly gay silent star William Haines. In 1932, he met fellow actor Randolph Scott on the set of Hot Saturday. The two shared a rented beach house, known as “Bachelor Hall”, on and off for twelve years. In 1944, Grant and Scott stopped living together but remained close friends throughout their lives. Rumors ran rampant at the time that Grant and Scott were lovers.”
Hollywood has always been teh ghey. Big Gay Hollywood.
Thanks for these TCM picks o’ the day! TCM is one of my favorite channels & always have great movies playing.
For quality cinema , I’d recommend ppl set their tivos to record “A Face in the Crowd” & “The Fountainhead” next time they air on TCM.
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