Filmikaze!

By: Alfred Hitchcock (director), Ben Hecht (writer)

Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

My reviews have been so short lately, but I’ve got too much stuff going on just now to change that tonight. Here’s to hoping I’ll get back into proper form when I finally hit spring break in a week.

I’ve been (very) slowly working through Hitchcock’s work recently, principally because I really enjoy his style and think the depressingly small number of his films I’ve seen are great. Because of this, I was really delighted to have to watch Notorious this week for class, as it was one I hadn’t seen. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly underwhelmed, although I’m completely willing to admit part of this impression is due to holding it against Hitchcock’s better work.

Naturally, the film is beautifully-shot, but I found the plot line a bit tedious despite the charisma of its leads. Ingrid Bergman is predictably fabulous, but I find my opinion of Cary Grant to vary by film; he can be either effortlessly charming or gratingly smug, the second of which prevails in this one. The two are good enough at what they do to have chemistry, but the romance is hasty and forced, not to mention thoroughly misogynistic. Overall, it’s a solid film, but it takes way too long for the pace to pick up and if you’re looking to watch Hitchcock, there are better options.