Another Criterion DVD that will be going out-of-print on December 31, 2003 is "Straw Dogs" starring Dustin Hoffman.A Hitchcock Classic Notorious is a classic romantic thriller that should not be missed by movie fans everywhere. Set after WWII, the story follows the efforts of a team of American agents trying to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil. An American agent, T.R. Devlin, recruits the beautiful Alicia Huberman to try and rat out the spies since she was romantically linked with one of them in the past. Upon arriving, she discovers there is much more going on than what they thought. All the while, Devlin and Alicia begin to fall in love as the danger gets worse and worse. Hitchcock made a true classic with this one. A great story, excellent cast, and ground-breaking camera work all help make Notorious a can't miss film. Watching this you can also see how John Woo was influenced by this movie when he made Mission: Impossible 2. The stories are almost identical.
Notorious boasts an excellent cast full of Hollywood's big stars. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman star as T.R. Devlin and Alicia Huberman and are great together. There is an obvious chemistry between the two of them as they realize that they have fallen in love with each other. Claude Rains is equally good as Alex Sebastian, Nazi spy and romantic link with Alicia. Even though he is the bad guy, you can't help but feel bad for him since Rains is so likable. Louis Calhern also stars as the leader of the American agents in Brazil and is very good. I won't go through all the extras on the Criterion Collection DVD, but I will say that if you like this movie then you'll love all of the included extras. For movie fans everywhere, go check out Notorious!
This is a fine film with many suspenseful scenes, such as the party where it becomes vital that the champagne last all night. The heart of the film is the romance and this is also its weakness. There were so many scenes of simple misunderstandings and deliberately hurtful actions meant to disguise their true feelings that the characters began to seem rather childish. Although this may have been in character for Bergman's spoiled socialite, I would have expected more from Grant's seasoned professional spy. Nevertheless, Hitchcock's direction is innovative and the cast is excellent.
But Criterion?s minting of Notorious is neither pristine, nor is it fully restored. What it is, is almost the same transfer that had previously been made available on DVD through Anchor Bay at bargain basement prices. In 1997 Anchor Bay release a bare bones version of "Notorious". Then, the image was smooth, somewhat softly focused, but overall, nicely rendered, with an impressive looking gray scale and deep, rich blacks. The Criterion DVD maintains those pluses but adds a host of negatives to the mix, including a sharpening to the image that makes it grainy and digitally harsh, rather than merely sharper. The blemishes inherent in the original camera negative stick out much more on Criterion?s version than on the Anchor Bay counterpart. Edge enhancement, aliasing and shimmering of fine details rear their ugly head from time to time. The audio is identical to the previously issued DVD from Anchor Bay and is nicely balanced. But Criterion?s version of Notorious misframes the title sequence with a black border and also substitutes an RKO studio credit for the Selznick International original ? both present on the Anchor Bay disc.The packaging of Criterion discs leads one to believe they are getting more for your money than you actually are. The packaging says deleted scenes and alternate endings, but these are actually reprinted script pages that one can read about the film that might have been. There's no actual film footage to accompany these. Also, the isolated music track is rather scratchy sounding and also includes the effects track - ergo - its really pointless to listen for fidelity purposes. Listening to a crowd cheering over a music cue while the principles are rendered mute doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Also, there's a Lux Radio Broadcast (audio only, of course) track that's really not in very good shape, considering how amazing the film was. Do your wallet a favor and wait for the rights to these films to revert back to another studio that is more humble in their asking price than CRITERION.
