HITCHCOCK’S NOTORIOUS:
Being the daughter to a convicted Nazi spy has made life for Alicia Huberman (played by Ingrid Bergman) tough. After a night at a party, with lots of drinking, a drunk Alicia takes Devlin (played by Cary Grant) for a drunken drive where she barely escapes being arrested with the help of Devlin. In the morning the next day, the hungover Alicia is told by Devlin that he is an agent for the US that wants Alicia to play an undercover spy for America getting information on some Germans. Her new life as a spy is not that easy for Alicia, especially with being in love with Devlin, who seems not to care anything about her, even after she is married to one of the men she is spying on. Having already given so much for Devlin and the US, Alicia might have to make the ultimate sacrifice with her life if she is found out to be a spy.

A SPY THRILLER:
It might be a spy thriller in category, but Notorious is more like a spy sleeper. With this being a spy movie, a spy movie made by Alfred Hitchcock, I figured it would be filled with some good twists and turns that would lead to a witty and odd ending. What happens in this movie is nothing like that of what I expected, instead I got a movie that was slow paced, very little intrigue, and pretty boring to watch. I kept waiting for something to happen in this movie but nothing really does, it just seems to move along with the characters walking around. For the plot the characters are supposed to be spies trying to get information but it seems like it became a movie that was about keeping Alicia’s love for Devlin hidden from the man she was spying on.

There’s only one moment in Notorious that has some action, which is at the beginning when Alicia is speeding while drunk and gets pulled over. It’s a short scene, does nothing but show that this woman likes to drink and don’t care too much for the cops. Aside from that one scene there’s nothing else going on in this movie, nothing that would make it a good spy movie. It’s more a love story than anything else and a boring one at that since the male character seems to be trying to make the female lead believe he cares nothing for her. I wasn’t expecting this to be a high octane movie with high speed car chases, fast women, and shoot outs, but I expected there to be some tense moments as Alicia tried to get the secrets out of the people she was spying on.

Though there might not be much action going on in this movie and it is a little boring to watch, the acting being done by everyone in this movie was really good. Ingrid Bergman goes flawlessly from being the secret spy wife to the woman who is madly in love with another man. And as good as the acting is in this movie it’s some of the cinematography that is really nice. There’s one scene where Alicia is sitting on a chair feeling sick while talking to a doctor that shows how a different angle on a scene can make even the tiny teacup seem like a huge mug. For the most part the cinematography is the typical close up and wide angles, but there are some shots that look really good. However, even with the cinematography in this movie looking good Notorious still was boring to watch.

SPIES ON BLU RAY:
Here’s another example of how some movies just don’t need to be put on Blu Ray just because the format exists. Throughout the whole movie there is a lot of noise, grain, and scratches in the picture making it look it’s age. As far as the clearity of the picture, well if it wasn’t for the noise and grain it would have been really good. The brightness levels for Notorious are high enough that the everything stands out of the shadows, which is also what makes the noise and grain stand out more. What this Blu Ray has going for it though is all the bonus features on the disc, which I really liked the radio play and hearing audio interviews with Hitchcock.