Notorious

Notorious (1946)

Timing: 1:43 (103 min)

7.729/10
1730

7.428/10
8455

7.9/10
113000

All about film

Video 9

Photo 81

Actors and characters

Release date

1946-08-21

Country

United States

Production

Vanguard Films, RKO Radio Pictures, Vanguard Films

Genre

Thriller, Romance, Mystery

Budget

$2 000 000

Revenue

$10 464 000

Website

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Actors

Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Leopoldine Konstantin, Louis Calhern, Alex Minotis, Reinhold Schünzel, Ivan Triesault, Eberhard Krumschmidt, Moroni Olsen
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Ben Hecht

Producer

Alfred Hitchcock, Barbara Keon

Operator

Ted Tetzlaff

Composer

Roy Webb

Artist

Audition

Editing

Theron Warth
All team (28)

• Hitchcock also claimed that the FBI monitored him during filming, as the film featured uranium for an atomic bomb, and the Manhattan Project (the project to create the atomic bomb in the USA) was then America's top military secret. Allegedly, the FBI became interested in Hitchcock after he and Heck visited Dr. Millikan at the California Institute of Technology in May or June 1945 and discussed the possibility of creating nuclear weapons. There is no documentary evidence of the FBI monitoring Hitchcock. However, it is known that in May 1945, Selznick received a warning from the FBI stating that all films dealing with American intelligence officers must receive approval from the relevant government agencies before release.
• Interestingly, the height difference between Claude Rains and Ingrid Bergman was so noticeable in close-ups that when they appeared in the frame together, Rains had to stand on a box. During the filming of the scene where they meet walking towards each other, an uneven wooden platform had to be set up, which was raised as Rains approached the camera.
• Filming was mainly done in a studio, and a rear projection screen was used in some scenes (for example, in the scene where a police officer stops the protagonists' car on a night road).
• In 2006, the film was added to the National Film Registry for films of cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
• The renowned film critic Roger Ebert repeatedly confessed that 'Notorious' was his favorite Hitchcock film. In 1991, he included it in his list of the ten greatest films in history.
• Although Hitchcock always maintained that he conceived the story with uranium stored in wine bottles long before the atomic bombings of Japan (even during work on the screenplay with Heckher in early 1945), thus becoming a kind of prophet who predicted the creation of the atomic bomb, the facts indicate that the corresponding changes to the script were made shortly before filming began in the fall of 1945, i.e., after the atomic bombs had already been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• The director's cameo (at 60 min.) – Hitchcock appears at a large reception at Alex Sebastian's house. He is one of the guests, drinking champagne.
• During the filming, Hitchcock poked fun at the restrictions that existed in Hollywood at the time. In particular, an on-screen kiss, according to the rules of the time, should not have lasted more than a couple of seconds. Hitchcock figured out how to circumvent this restriction: his characters continuously exchange light kisses while moving around the room towards the ringing phone.