If a film student
asked me to recommend a movie for them to watch to learn the rudiments
of movie making I would not hesitate to tell them to watch this classic
Alfred Hitchcock film. Everything about this mo vie,
which by the way I saw again the other night for maybe the 5th time is
perfection, from the great Ben Hecht script, to the cinematography and
of course Hitchcock’s direction and the superb performances by Cary
Grant and Ingrid Bergman both of whom were at the peak of their beauty
and talent. The plot is typical Hitchcock that touches on themes that
have occupied him for pretty much his entire impressive career, and I’ll
try to give away as little of the story as I can so that first time
viewers of the film can feast on it without knowing too much about the
plot. The story involves espionage and the efforts of a secret agency of
the United States (think O.S.S. ) to find out what a rogue group of
Nazi’s are up to in Rio de Janeiro. Its just after the war and this band
of nasty Nazi’s is headed by Claude Rains (brilliant and Oscar
nominated) who lives in a very large mansion with his mother from hell
played with relish by Leopoldine Konstatin who gives a marvelous scary
performance and is the first of Hitchcock’s long list of mommy horrors.
Grant plays an agent who must get Ingrid Bergman to work with them to
find out what the Nazi’s are up to and he pushes her to come into the
mix because of her family ties, you see her father was a Nazi spy who
she hated and also at one time she had Rains eating out of the palm of
her hand and falling madly in love with her. Bergman of course is no
Nazi but she is one hell of a play girl and a nasty drunk (in the
original story that the film is based on she was actually a prostitute)
who loves a good time and makes no bones about it. Here is Madonna
Bergman who just a year earlier was playing a nun in The Bells of St.
Mary and is now playing against type a bad girl (she also played another
bad girl in 1946 in Saratoga Trunk). In real life this Madonna was a
few years away from playing to some a real life bad girl, cast away for
more than a decade by Hollywood for her life choices but that’s another
story. Grant is also playing against type oh he’s still suave and
debonair but he’s also a cold son of a bitch who tosses Bergman left and
right to make sure she plays by his rules. The film has several famous
sequences including the long erotic kissing scene between Bergman and
Grant that begins on a balcony overlooking a process shot Rio and moves
inside to answer a ringing phone, the incredible crane tracking shot
that begins high above an elegant party and then swoops down to an
important key prop and the very taunt and suspenseful wine cellar scene
with the Hitchcockian MacGuffin sitting on a shelf. In the end of course
Grant finally becomes Cary and Bergman Ingrid and this very
entertaining and smooth romantic thriller comes to a satisfying end.
Also with the always terrific Louis Calhern as the laid back boss of
Grant’s and the complex cinematography is by Ted Tetzlaff . One of the
ten best films of 1946.
If a film student
asked me to recommend a movie for them to watch to learn the rudiments
of movie making I would not hesitate to tell them to watch this classic
Alfred Hitchcock film. Everything about this mo vie,
which by the way I saw again the other night for maybe the 5th time is
perfection, from the great Ben Hecht script, to the cinematography and
of course Hitchcock’s direction and the superb performances by Cary
Grant and Ingrid Bergman both of whom were at the peak of their beauty
and talent. The plot is typical Hitchcock that touches on themes that
have occupied him for pretty much his entire impressive career, and I’ll
try to give away as little of the story as I can so that first time
viewers of the film can feast on it without knowing too much about the
plot. The story involves espionage and the efforts of a secret agency of
the United States (think O.S.S. ) to find out what a rogue group of
Nazi’s are up to in Rio de Janeiro. Its just after the war and this band
of nasty Nazi’s is headed by Claude Rains (brilliant and Oscar
nominated) who lives in a very large mansion with his mother from hell
played with relish by Leopoldine Konstatin who gives a marvelous scary
performance and is the first of Hitchcock’s long list of mommy horrors.
Grant plays an agent who must get Ingrid Bergman to work with them to
find out what the Nazi’s are up to and he pushes her to come into the
mix because of her family ties, you see her father was a Nazi spy who
she hated and also at one time she had Rains eating out of the palm of
her hand and falling madly in love with her. Bergman of course is no
Nazi but she is one hell of a play girl and a nasty drunk (in the
original story that the film is based on she was actually a prostitute)
who loves a good time and makes no bones about it. Here is Madonna
Bergman who just a year earlier was playing a nun in The Bells of St.
Mary and is now playing against type a bad girl (she also played another
bad girl in 1946 in Saratoga Trunk). In real life this Madonna was a
few years away from playing to some a real life bad girl, cast away for
more than a decade by Hollywood for her life choices but that’s another
story. Grant is also playing against type oh he’s still suave and
debonair but he’s also a cold son of a bitch who tosses Bergman left and
right to make sure she plays by his rules. The film has several famous
sequences including the long erotic kissing scene between Bergman and
Grant that begins on a balcony overlooking a process shot Rio and moves
inside to answer a ringing phone, the incredible crane tracking shot
that begins high above an elegant party and then swoops down to an
important key prop and the very taunt and suspenseful wine cellar scene
with the Hitchcockian MacGuffin sitting on a shelf. In the end of course
Grant finally becomes Cary and Bergman Ingrid and this very
entertaining and smooth romantic thriller comes to a satisfying end.
Also with the always terrific Louis Calhern as the laid back boss of
Grant’s and the complex cinematography is by Ted Tetzlaff . One of the
ten best films of 1946.
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