Don't Blame It On Rio-Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious 

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Notorious, starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains, directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, 1946    

No question that in the aftermath of their defeat in World War II certain Nazis, having seen the writing on the wall in time before the Soviets and then the Americans stormed Berlin, got themselves conveniently shuffled out of Germany by any means necessary with whatever they could bring out and landed wherever they could find some hospitable locale. (Yeah, let the Fuehrer take the pill, make the big gesture, but a lot of the others were happy to desert a sinking ship, to live another day.) Maybe find places with a little sun, a little nightlife to wait out the exile, places like Rio and Buenos Aires which fit the bill. Those who made their escape though, at least those who still had political fire and unabated dreams of empire, when to those locales to make preparations for the next Reich. And it is the smashing of such a budding network in Rio which is at the heart of the film under review, Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot, there is also a little love triangle to be taken care of as well, sorry.     

Here how love and intrigue combine to make this I believe Sir Alfred’s first serious romantic thriller. Alicia (played by, well, beautiful, Ingrid Bergman) playgirl daughter of a convicted Nazi spy who eventually committed suicide had been estranged from her father, despised what he had done. An American intelligence agency has gotten wind of that fact and sent Dev (played by, well, handsome, Cary Grant) to recruit her ultimately to flush out that Nazi network working out of Rio (although don’t blame, well, beautiful Rio for who shows up there). She balked at first but then relents under Dev’s charms, and her own sense of self-worth. Problem, big problem, always a big problem is that agent and handler, beautiful and handsome, fall in love while waiting for the new assignment to come in. That is sure to monkey up the works some way.           

And it does because Alicia’s assignment is to get information about whatever it is the bad boy Nazis are up to in their next round of wreaking havoc on the world. Her assignment: get close to one of the members of the circle, Alex (played by Claude Rains who always seems to be playing second fiddle to somebody for Ms. Bergman’s favors), who in the past had been smitten by Alicia. Well Alicia plays her part very well, too well since as part of getting close to Alex she is asked by Dev’s boss agent to marry him in order to get very close to what the network is up to (basically looking for minerals for bombs, atomic bombs, I would image given the time of the film, if anybody is asking). Of course that did not sit well with Dev since he had his doubts about Alicia and her, ah, virtues, given her notorious past.         

So Dev was in a snit and became at least formally cool to Alicia from there on in, leaving their relationship at a professional level. Well not quite “from here on in” because while trying to find out about what experiments were being performed under the cover of Alex’s home (okay, mansion) Alicia needed to get access to a wine cellar where it was suspected the nefarious work was being carried out. Which she got, by procuring the key to the wine cellar in a famous cinematic scene, but in the process the job got botched a little by, well, by Dev. By fair means or foul Alex thus found out the bitter truth that his wife was an American agent. That is a serious problem for him since, as in Germany, these Nazi thugs play rough with those who fall off the wagon. So Alex contrives (with his dear mother) to poison Alicia. No good, no good in the end anyway since Dev finally figured something had been wrong with Alicia and headed to Alex’s house, mansion, to save her. And he did, with a little help from Alex who really did love Alicia when the deal went down. Problem for Alex though was the rough boys were watching as he helped Alicia and Dev out the door. Out the door but out of luck as Dev left him in the lurch to face those rough boys. Do you want to bet they found him face down in some sleepy unnamed hollow with a couple of slugs in his head? So, yes, this really was a love story disguised as a thriller but any time the Nazis get their noses pushed around is okay by me. So, thanks Sir Alfred.