Notorious at 80

One of the most chilling last lines in movie history sounds more like someone inviting a friend into their study for a glass of sherry: “Alex, will you come in, please? I wish to talk to you.”

Yet every time I see the scene, it gives me goose bumps. It’s terrifying in a way that Norman Bates crashing Janet Leigh’s shower isn’t. It’s more menacing than a flock of crows silently assembling on a jungle gym behind Tippi Hedren as she smokes a cigarette, blissfully unaware of impeding doom.

Alfred Hitchcock thrillers like Psycho and The Birds jump-scare the stuffing out of most viewers. Not me. Those pictures don’t frighten as much as disturb me: Big-screen violence turns me off. Blood and gore aren’t shocking, they’re nauseating. I want to be swept up in a ripping good yarn, not grossed out by a sicko serial killer.

That’s why, when I finally saw Hitchcock’s Notorious for the first time, I fell in love.

Because in this Hitch pic, words can kill -- not knives or winged assassins – and suspense can build to the nail-biting point, one pulse-pounding minute at a time, thanks to a flawless collaboration between writer (Ben Hecht), director (Hitchcock) and cast (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains).

Let’s start with Hecht, who began his career as a crime reporter in Chicago during Prohibition. In 1925, he was lured to L.A., after his pal Herman Mankiewicz (who later wrote a little masterpiece called Citizen Kane) sent Hecht this telegram: “Millions to be grabbed out here & your only competition is idiots. Don’t let this get around.”

Hecht came, saw and conquered Hollywood, racking up credits like The Front Page, Scarface, Wuthering Heights, Gunga Din and Nothing Sacred, as well as uncredited script doctor gigs on Stagecoach, Gone With the Wind, and seven Hitchcock thrillers, including Strangers on a Train and Spellbound.

But the most fascinating fact about Hecht of all? While researching Notorious, both Hecht and Hitch came under government suspicion – and FBI surveillance -- for the pic’s plot, which “stars” the key ingredient in nuclear bombs, uranium.

Three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman was a casting coup for Hitch, as she was setting Hollywood on fire with dramas like Gaslight, Casablanca and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Needless to say, playing a promiscuous alcoholic amateur spy who trades sex for Nazi secrets like a modern day Mata Hari was an abrupt change of pace for Ingrid, who had just played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary’s.

However, the steam heat generated by Ingrid and leading man Cary Grant was undeniable. As Hitch biographer Patrick McGilligan puts it, “The romantic pairing of Grant & Bergman promised a box-office bang comparable to an atomic blast.” Both actors had worked with Hitch separately, but never together. They had killer chemistry, on camera and in real life, and Notorious launched their lifelong friendship.

Rounding out the film’s explosive love triangle is Claude Rains, the lead Nazi who springs Ingrid’s spy trap. Although Rains was nominated – but robbed -- of an Oscar for his work, there was just one small problem: Ingrid was nearly four inches taller than him. The disparity required a combo plan of elevated shoes, strategic blocking and slanted ramps. In the end, Rains delivered a towering performance as a man caught between his wife, his Mother of All (Nazi) Mothers, and the Third Reich thugs with whom he’s conspiring.

I won’t spoil too much of the tale for you...but when you see Notorious, watch for three of its most iconic moments:

* Cary & Ingrid’s Notorious kissing scene, which lasts 2-1/2 minutes (and pushed Production Code rules to the limit)

* The legendary boom shot that tracks down from a balcony to a critical clue in Ingrid’s hand – a prime example of Hitch’s visual storytelling genius

* A sequence near the end, when Cary carries Ingrid down a staircase which was specially altered to have more steps going down than coming up – a neat trick which critic Roger Ebert called “Hitchcock’s way of prolonging the suspense” (and did he ever)!