Notorious (1946)

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101 min – view video trailer

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman

Genres: Drama, Romance, Triller

IMDB 8.2 / Amazon 4.4 / MRQE 87% / Tomatometer 94%

Oscars: Nominated for 2 Won 0

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? IMDB 8.2 from over 49,364 users

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s classics, this romantic thriller features a cast to kill for: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains. Bergman plays the daughter of a disgraced father who is recruited by American agents to infiltrate a post-World War II spy ring in Brazil. Her control agent is Grant, who treats her with disdain while developing a deep romantic bond with her. Her assignment: to marry the suspected head of the ring (Rains) and get the goods on everyone involved. Danger, deceit, betrayal–and, yes, romance–all come together in a nearly perfect blend as the film builds to a terrific (and surprising) climax. Grant and Bergman rarely have been better. Amazon 4.4 stars from over 228 users

Though Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick’s Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an accused WWII traitor, commits suicide. American secret agent Devlin (Cary Grant) is ordered to enlist the libidinous Alicia’s aid in trapping Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group. Openly contemptuous of Alicia despite her loyalty to the American cause, Devlin calmly instructs her to woo and wed Sebastian, so that that good guys will have an “inside woman” to monitor the Nazi chieftain’s activities. It is only after Alicia and Sebastian are married that Devlin admits to himself that he’s fallen in love with her.  Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 94% Audience 90%

MRQE 87% from 47 reviews

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G8HY1UDe7Q]

Casablanca (1943)

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102 min – PG – view video trailer

Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

Genres: Drama, Romance, War

IMDB 8.7 / Amazon 4.5 / MRQE 95% / Decent Films A+

Oscars won (3 of 8): Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz), Best Writing/Screenplay (Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, Howard Koch) / nominated: Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Cinematography B&W (Arthur Edeson), Film Editing (Owen Marks), Music (Max Steiner)

Ranked #2 Greatest Movies Through 1960, in 36 of 41 best movies lists, a Zagat Top Movie

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. IMDB rating: 8.7 from over 222,004 users

Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if you’re wanted by the Nazis. Such a man is Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one, especially Victor’s wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. Amazon 4.5 stars from over 769 users

Among the many happy accidents that make Casablanca what it is, perhaps the most ironic is this: Humphrey Bogart wouldn’t meet his ultimate leading lady, Lauren Bacall, until the following year, on the set of Casablanca knockoff To Have and Have Not… Bogart has such a strong screen persona — tough-minded, jaded, a flawed protagonist with tarnished principles — that it’s tempting to see Rick Blaine as a variation on the characters Bogie plays in, e.g., Key Largo or To Have and Have Not… The problems of three little people may not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but they can sure make for a great film. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+, Superior artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up)

MRQE 95% with over 128 reviews linked

NOTES: Quite possibly more words have been written about Casablanca than about any other movie.  It is in the top ten of most lists of the greatest movies and half of those lists place it in the top three! Here’s looking at you kid!

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