Notorious (1946)

High quality DVD, official release, manufactured in South Korean. Superior, clear, full screen black and white image. Original English dialog with optional Korean subtitles which can be easily turned off. All region NTSC format. Can be played on any North American DVD player. Many extras in special features section. Cast:Cary Grant .... T.R. Devlin; Ingrid Bergman .... Alicia Huberman Sebastian; Claude Rains .... Alexander Sebastian; Louis Calhern .... Captain Paul Prescott; Leopoldine Konstantin .... Madame Anna Sebastian (as Madame Konstantin); Reinhold Schünzel .... Professor; Wilhelm Renzler (as Reinhold Schunzel); Moroni Olsen .... Walter Beardsley. The following review sums up the movie well:Post-War Espionage and Romance in Rio, September 21, 2005 Reviewer: Paul Kellogg (New York, NY)Elegant Cary Grant and beautiful Ingrid Bergman play the leads. Grant is Devlin, an American intelligence agent; Bergman acts the part of Alicia Huberman, daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, and party girl. The American government has an assignment for Miss Huberman in Rio; Devlin delivers the proposal. She is to infiltrate a group of Nazi scientists working on atomic energy. She accepts. Though the leads are romantically attracted, Grant's Devlin tries to maintain a cool distance, yet simultaneously manages to criticize a colleague's wife when he says that Bergman's character is "not a lady." Bergman's Huberman gains entry to the Nazi circle, and then offers to marry the man who's running the operation. That's Alex Sebastian - played by Claude Rains. He's totally smitten with Bergman, but he's also a mama's boy. Mama runs his home, and also finds time to help him when he discovers he's "married to an American agent." These Nazis are a nasty lot. Suspenseful finale. Product Description

Wonderful Romance!!

Oh my gosh! I love this movie SO MUCH! Its SO romantic....'dies'.......Ingrid Bergman is just so meltingly beautiful and tormented by her love for Cary Grant. Cary Grant is desperately in love with her and plays his role perfectly. If you love to read romance stories...anything romance..you will totally feel for both of these characters. The ending is just so great and romantic and Cary is so brave and bold. The bad guys are just really bad too and mean. I just seriously loved this movie. Watch it. So good. July 1, 2008

Hitchcock and Bergman at Their Zenith in Brilliant Thriller

It's difficult to identify the exact pinnacle of Alfred Hitchcock's masterworks, especially as he had a most fruitful period during the 1950's until the 1960 classic Psycho, but this 1946 melodrama is arguably his most perfectly crafted and cast film. First, there is a sharp, intensely plotted script by the estimable Ben Hecht that focuses on Alicia Huberman, the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, and T.R. Devlin, an American agent hired to convince Alicia to spy on a clandestine group of neo-Nazis based in Rio de Janeiro. This means she would have to seduce and eventually marry Alex Sebastian, a key group member who has never gotten over Alicia in his heart.

This triangle is embodied by three stars at the height of their powers. A primarily poker-faced Cary Grant portrays Devlin close to the vest and charismatically hides his emotions under a veil of cold arrogance. In a series of scenes that pierce with a subverted eroticism, Devlin falls in love with Alicia but cannot find the courage to admit that to himself or to her. Claude Rains, on the other hand, imbues Sebastian with such an open romanticism and sad streaks of jealousy that we can actually sympathize with a Nazi war criminal a year after WWII ended, quite a daring feat within the film's historical context.

At the vortex, though, is Ingrid Bergman, who probably gives her most accomplished performance as Alicia. At the time, she was deified as the chaste Mother Superior in Leo McCarey's harmless The Bells of St. Mary's with Bing Crosby. Bergman turned a smart corner here as a "loose" woman in love with the bottle until she is transformed by her love for Devlin, at which point, she becomes a stylish decoy to draw the naïve Sebastian to her alluring charms. Ethereally beautiful and constantly pained, she conveys much of her character's feelings through her eyes and subtle facial expressions because she and Grant portray two people who can't admit they desperately want to be together even if her life depends on it. Their failure to communicate leads to Alicia sinking deeper into the morass of some nasty espionage business that ultimately puts her life in jeopardy.

The chemistry between the two legends is palpable, especially in the then-controversial, three-minute kissing sequence that put censors into a tizzy. However, above all, this is a Hitchcock film, the film is filled with his genius for ingenious subjective camerawork and suspenseful set pieces, the latter perfectly illustrated by the party sequence at Sebastian's mansion starting with an unbelievable dolly shot right into Alicia's hand clasping the cellar key, which she passes to Devlin to find what is being hidden in the wine bottles. There are intriguing performances on the sidelines with Louis Calhern as the head of the American agency in Rio and the intimidating Madame Konstantin as Alex's ice-cold mother, both displaying a Machiavellian spirit to get what they want. This is a true classic and required viewing for any fan of Hitchcock, Bergman, Grant or Rains. March 17, 2008

notorious

the best movie of them all. great delivery would do business again with them again. very pleased. January 28, 2008

Notorious

First Rate Movie!!!!!
Buy it! It's a classic!
Great Buy!!!!
Sara Gutierrez July 30, 2007

A great film, great cast at their prime

This is truly one of the greatest Hitchcock films. Cary Grant is at his all-time best as is Ingrid Bergman and their chemistry sizzles. (The famous kiss scene got around time limits set by censors of the period by--barely-- breaking up the actual liplock from time to time as they work their way to the door.) No wonder Hollywoood paired them again in their later years, but "Indiscreet" couldn't touch the magic of "Notorious." I've watched and re-watched this one more than I can count. The plot is interesting, characters complex, the setting intriguing, and-of course-the camera angles are superb. July 2, 2007

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