Notorious (1946) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this months episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron have a lot to go through before they discuss “Notorious.”

Picture Title: Notorious (1946)

Written by: Ben Hecht

With screenplay contribution by Alfred Hitcock (uncredited), love scenes dialogue by Clifford Odets (uncredited), and based on “The Song of the Dragon” by John Taintor Foote (uncredited)

Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, and Leopoldine Konstanin (as Madam Konstantin)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Director Cameo: At the party in Alexander Sebastian’s mansion, Hitchcock gets a glass of champagne from the bartender and quickly turns to the left and walks off screen.

Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht consulted Nobel Prize winner Dr. Robert Millikan on how to make an atomic bomb. He refused to answer, but confirmed that the principal ingredient, uranium, could fit in a wine bottle.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the F.B.I. had him under surveillance for three months because this movie dealt with uranium.

The legendary on-again, off-again kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman was designed to skirt the Hayes Code which restricted kisses to no more than three seconds each.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock got the shot where Ingrid Bergman is in the background and the coffee cup is in the foreground, with both in focus, by using a giant coffee cup placed farther away than it appears.

Leopoldine Konstantin played the mother of Claude Rains, but in real life, she was only four years older than him.

Unica, is a Portuguese word meaning “sole”, “single”, “only”, “one”, or “unique”. “Unica” is a famous Brazilian key manufacturer brand.

On March 7, 1979, the American Film Institute honored Hitchcock with its Life Achievement Award. At the tribute dinner, Ingrid Bergman presented him with the original ÚNICA key to the wine cellar – the single most notable prop in Notorious. After filming had ended, Cary Grant had kept it. A few years later he gave the key to Bergman, saying that it had given him luck and hoped it would do the same for her. When presenting it to Hitchcock, to his surprise and delight, she expressed the hope that it would be lucky for him as well.

This was screened in competition at the first annual Cannes Film Festival in 1946. The projectionist reportedly ran the reels in the wrong order.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

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