Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day is my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I’ll pull a previously unseen film from my collection or from my DVR and discuss it here. Each movie will have some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member.]
NOTORIOUS marks the 200th A Movie A Day article, so I figured it’s the perfect time to make an announcement. Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed a comment at the end of yesterday’s review of MOONTIDE that I would have something to say today and it spurned a little bit of discussion in the talkback.
No, I’m not leaving AICN. No, Moriarty, I’m not getting a sex change (those fuckers are so expensive, I figured I could do without… I have a good imagination).
This column has been my main contribution to this site over the last 7 months and I've loved it. A MOVIE A DAY has given me the opportunity to focus on vintage film, classics I should have seen by now, obscure gems and a fair amount of garbage, but that’s what happens when you explore cinema. If it wasn’t for the garbage you come across you wouldn’t appreciate those amazing films, like today’s NOTORIOUS, when you find them.
The responsibility of getting these out every day is one I took very seriously and I only messed up twice and all within the last 2 months of the column and there’s a reason for that. More and more plates are spinning as each week goes by. Next year is going to be a very, very busy one for me, I think, so I've decided to put a halt to A Movie A Day.
Now, this isn’t the last installment. I made this decision about a month ago and I planned to end it on the 7 month anniversary of the column, early next month. I had to take almost a week off because of BNAT and a secret trip (which I still can’t go into detail about just yet), so now the column will have its final movie on the 7th of January, instead of the 2nd, which would be the 7 month anniversary.
Watching these films and writing about them has not only helped me get to know some classics, but it’s also made me a better geek. My horizon has broadened and not only have I found a ton of new favorites, I’ve also had my love of the art form reinvigorated, which was a bit of a shock. I never considered that I needed a recharge until this column, but obviously I did. A Movie A Day has not only helped me put today's films into a better context, but it's has me focusing on the art in a different way.
I do not plan on dropping the vintage film discussion altogether. No, I love this too much to quit cold turkey. I will still watch and review older films for the site, just not on such a hellish schedule. I’d hesitate to call it A Movie A Week because even that promises a schedule and who knows? Maybe I’ll watch a few a week I want to talk about, maybe none.
I still have probably 300-400 unwatched movies on DVD and I will keep going through them. When I find one that really interests me or one that I discover I have a desire to talk about or dissect I will write it up.
So, I’ll have to think of a new title for the vintage discussion… maybe Quint’s Essentials? Or is that too ego-tastic and lame? Maybe you guys can help with that.
But yeah, I know… not a good Christmas present for those who have been following along, but I hope you understand that I’d rather end the column strong and not let it die a miserable, slow death.
Now let’s get out of the melancholy and into Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS.
Have I ever mentioned that I’m in love with 1940s Ingrid Bergman? In my perfect world I’d have the tough decision on who to marry: 1940s Ingrid Bergman, 1960s Julie Andrews or modern day Natalie Portman. Unfortunately for me, I think all three have about the same likelihood of happening.
In NOTORIOUS Bergman plays the daughter of an unrepentant Nazi who is tried and convicted before our story starts. We start with his sentencing and never even get a clear look at the man. That doesn’t matter. What interests us is his daughter, who falls into partying and boozing it up as a means to forget her father’s war crimes and the shame he has put on her.
At one of these parties she gets shitfaced while talking to a guest of a guest, someone she initially thinks of as a party-crasher. That someone is Mr. Cary Grant approaching her with a proposition.
He’s a government agent and because he’s heard her opposition to her father’s work on one of the wires placed in the house he knows she is an ideal candidate to go undercover for him in Rio de Janeiro, where he believes he’s tracked down a small group of escaped Nazi war criminals. It doesn’t hurt that the main man they’re after is a known associate of Bergman’s father and someone who had a thing for her.
The main plotline, the spying, is all well and good, but that’s not what makes this movie remarkable. What is still gripping some 62 years after release is the love story between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It’s almost tragic. They fall in love in their downtime upon arrival in Rio. They have to await the mission from the higher ups and as they do they can’t help but connect.
Grant is hesitant, but submits to his feelings and the brief whirlwind romance is kicked into high gear. Grant makes Bergman want to be a better person. She’s ready to quit the boozing and a referenced, but never seen, slutty life for this man.
Then they get their assignment and the games begin. She is to woo their target, Claude Rains, and gain his confidence enough to get access to his house, where there are secret meetings with unknown people. The government wants to know who is there and what they’re cooking up.
I’m no fan of games during relationships. I’m of the up front and honest school of romance, not the “let’s test how much you really love me” shit. That kind of game-playing is what sped up the nasty demise of my last relationship and it’s not something I have much tolerance for.
So when the game-playing starts here I felt immediately bad for Grant and Bergman. In the brief time we’ve seen them together in love we buy it, we buy them and we want them to succeed. Grant protests initially to his superiors, but relents, ultimately deciding to leave it up to Bergman to decide if she essentially wants to whore herself out in the name of patriotism.
He’s testing her, wanting her to reject that life completely. But she thinks he wants her to do it and is disheartened when he skirts her question about whether or not he protested at the assignment. It’s like watching someone skewer their child, seeing their love wilt onscreen.
Then it becomes about revenge, Bergman striking back, rubbing her sexual relationship with Rains in Grant’s face and watching him squirm, but all the while damn near begging him to ride in and steal her away from the situation.
The spy moments are great. There’s an especially tense moment where Bergman has to steal a key from Rains (now her husband) in order to get into the only room in the house locked to her: the wine cellar. She can only do it if there’s a lot of noise and confusion, so she throws a big party. Grant is a guest at this party and they go to work, realizing on the spot that Rains will miss this key if the booze runs out of the party and the man-servant has to ask for entry into the wine cellar.
Hitchcock visually represents this tension with the ever-diminishing bottles of champagne as the party goes on and on and Grant and Bergman get closer and closer to finding what’s secreted away in the wine cellar.
I’m a big Hitchcock fan and the more of his work I see the more in awe of him I get. Even his misfires show a kind of genius to them.
For instance, I love in this film how Rains isn’t a fool. He’s kind of a likable guy and you believe he’s truly in love with this girl, but they don’t have him ignoring obvious shit all the way through. He sets a very subtle trap for her and when she falls into it, you see him visually torn up. Then the suspense shifts effortlessly from “is he going to discover her” to “what’s he going to do now?” and to be quite honest, the suspense in the second half of the movie is much better than the suspense in the first half. It’s that ticking time-bomb theory of Hitch’s. We know Rains knows, we know it’s going to explode at some point, but when and how?
Final Thoughts: Another classic from The Master. The romance is tragic and completely atypical, especially for the time. Grant is charming as all get out, Bergman as beautiful as Grant is charming and Rains is perfect as the central goal and threat. He plays it very real, very human and that makes for an incredibly memorable character. It all builds to a fantastic moment of tension that is played perfectly. Plus, I was howling at Cary Grant’s final “Fuck You” moment with Rains. I don’t know why it got to me as much as it did, but I was laughing hysterically and clapping my hands. It’s an awesome moment in an awesome movie. Also keep an eye out for one of cinema’s best kissing scenes, the on again off again pecks between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman is some super sensual stuff, even by today’s standards.
Here’s what we have lined up for the next week:
Wednesday, December 24th: THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS (1958)
Thursday, December 25th: THE HIGH COMMISSIONER (1968)
Friday, December 26th: THE SILENT PARTNER (1979)
Saturday, December 27th: PAYDAY (1972)
Sunday, December 28th: A STRANGER IS WATCHING (1982)
Monday, December 29th: THE NEW KIDS (1985)
Tuesday, December 30th: SERIAL (1980)
Tomorrow we have more Ingrid Bergman in THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS, so it’ll be a good day. I’ll have to fit her in amongst some last minute shopping, but I think I can manage.
Thanks to everyone who has followed along with me thus far. If you have any questions about the future of the column or any suggestions, let me know in the talkbacks below. I’ll check in when I wake up.
See you folks tomorrow for the next installment!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Previous Movies:
June 2nd: Harper
June 3rd: The Drowning Pool
June 4th: Papillon
June 5th: Gun Crazy
June 6th: Never So Few
June 7th: A Hole In The Head
June 8th: Some Came Running
June 9th: Rio Bravo
June 10th: Point Blank
June 11th: Pocket Money
June 12th: Cool Hand Luke
June 13th: The Asphalt Jungle
June 14th: Clash By Night
June 15th: Scarlet Street
June 16th: Killer Bait (aka Too Late For Tears)
June 17th: Robinson Crusoe On Mars
June 18th: City For Conquest
June 19th: San Quentin
June 20th: 42nd Street
June 21st: Dames
June 22nd: Gold Diggers of 1935
June 23rd: Murder, My Sweet
June 24th: Born To Kill
June 25th: The Sound of Music
June 26th: Torn Curtain
June 27th: The Left Handed Gun
June 28th: Caligula
June 29th: The Elephant Man
June 30th: The Good Father
July 1st: Shock Treatment
July 2nd: Flashback
July 3rd: Klute
July 4th: On Golden Pond
July 5th: The Cowboys
July 6th: The Alamo
July 7th: Sands of Iwo Jima
July 8th: Wake of the Red Witch
July 9th: D.O.A.
July 10th: Shadow of A Doubt
July 11th: The Matchmaker
July 12th: The Black Hole
July 13th: Vengeance Is Mine
July 14th: Strange Invaders
July 15th: Sleuth
July 16th: Frenzy
July 17th: Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut
July 18th: Cadillac Man
July 19th: The Sure Thing
July 20th: Moving Violations
July 21st: Meatballs
July 22nd: Cast a Giant Shadow
July 23rd: Out of the Past
July 24th: The Big Steal
July 25th: Where Danger Lives
July 26th: Crossfire
July 27th: Ricco, The Mean Machine
July 28th: In Harm’s Way
July 29th: Firecreek
July 30th: The Cheyenne Social Club
July 31st: The Man Who Knew Too Much
August 1st: The Spirit of St. Louis
August 2nd: Von Ryan’s Express
August 3rd: Can-Can
August 4th: Desperate Characters
August 5th: The Possession of Joel Delaney
August 6th: Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx
August 7th: Start the Revolution Without Me
August 8th: Hell Is A City
August 9th: The Pied Piper
August 10th: Partners
August 11th: Barry Lyndon
August 12th: The Skull
August 13th: The Hellfire Club
August 14th: Blood of the Vampire
August 15th: Terror of the Tongs
August 16th: Pirates of Blood River
August 17th: The Devil-Ship Pirates
August 18th: Jess Franco’s Count Dracula
August 19th: Dracula A.D. 1972
August 20th: The Stranglers of Bombay
August 21st: Man, Woman & Child
August 22nd: The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane
August 23rd: The Young Philadelphians
August 24th: The Rack
August 25th: Until They Sail
August 26th: Somebody Up There Likes Me
August 27th: The Set-Up
August 28th: The Devil & Daniel Webster
August 29th: Cat People
August 30th: The Curse of the Cat People
August 31st: The 7th Victim
September 1st: The Ghost Ship
September 2nd: Isle of the Dead
September 3rd: Bedlam
September 4th: Black Sabbath
September 5th: Black Sunday
September 6th: Twitch of the Death Nerve
September 7th: Tragic Ceremony
September 8th: Lisa & The Devil
September 9th: Baron Blood
September 10th: A Shot In The Dark
September 11th: The Pink Panther
September 12th: The Return of the Pink Panther
September 13th: The Pink Panther Strikes Again
September 14th: Revenge of the Pink Panther
September 15th: Trail of the Pink Panther
September 16th: The Real Glory
September 17th: The Winning of Barbara Worth
September 18th: The Cowboy and the Lady
September 19th: Dakota
September 20th: Red River
September 21st: Terminal Station
September 22nd: The Search
September 23rd: Act of Violence
September 24th: Houdini
September 25th: Money From Home
September 26th: Papa’s Delicate Condition
September 27th: Dillinger
September 28th: Battle of the Bulge
September 29th: Daisy Kenyon
September 30th: Laura
October 1st: The Dunwich Horror
October 2nd: Experiment In Terror
October 3rd: The Devil’s Rain
October 4th: Race With The Devil
October 5th: Salo, Or The 120 Days of Sodom
October 6th: Bad Dreams
October 7th: The House Where Evil Dwells
October 8th: Memories of Murder
October 9th: The Hunger
October 10th: I Saw What You Did
October 11th: I Spit On Your Grave
October 12th: Naked You Die
October 13th: The Wraith
October 14th: Silent Night, Bloody Night
October 15th: I Bury The Living
October 16th: The Beast Must Die
October 17th: Hellgate
October 18th: He Knows You’re Alone
October 19th: The Thing From Another World
October 20th: The Fall of the House of Usher
October 21st: Audrey Rose
October 22nd: Who Slew Auntie Roo?
October 23rd: Wait Until Dark
October 24th: Dead & Buried
October 25th: A Bucket of Blood
October 26th: The Bloodstained Shadow
October 27th: I, Madman
October 28th: Return to Horror High
October 29th: Die, Monster, Die
October 30th: Epidemic
October 31st: Student Bodies
November 1st: Black Widow
November 2nd: The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
November 3rd: Flying Tigers
November 4th: Executive Action
November 5th: The Busy Body
November 6th: It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
November 7th: Libeled Lady
November 8th: Up The River
November 9th: Doctor Bull
November 10th: Judge Priest
November 11th: Ten Little Indians
November 12th: Murder On The Orient Express
November 13th: Daniel
November 14th: El Dorado
November 15th: The Gambler
November 16th: Once Upon A Time In America
November 17th: Salvador
November 18th: Best Seller
November 19th: The Holcroft Covenant
November 20th: Birdman of Alcatraz
November 21st: The Train
November 22nd: Gunfight At The O.K. Corral
November 23rd: Mystery Street
November 24th: Border Incident
November 25th: The Tin Star
November 26th: On The Beach
November 27th: Twelve O’Clock High
November 28th: Gentleman’s Agreement
November 29th: Panic In The Streets
November 30th: The Hot Rock
December 1st: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
December 2nd: The Day of the Dolphin
December 3rd: Carnal Knowledge
December 4th: The Cincinnati Kid
December 5th: Pocketful of Miracles
December 6th: Mikey & Nicky
December 7th: Two-Minute Warning
December 8th: The Sentinel
December 9th: How To Steal A Million
December 10th: What’s New Pussycat?
December 11th: Being There
December 17th: The Party
December 18th: Casino Royale
December 19th: The StrangerDecember 20th: Brother Orchid
December 21st: The Petrified Forest
December 22nd: Moontide
December 21st: The Petrified Forest
December 22nd: Moontide
