Notorious (1946)

The latest of Hitchcock’s flicks to be restored and re-released (this one thanks to the British Film Institute), this film never used to particularly stand out to me amongst my favourites of his, that was reserved for Rear Window, Vertigo and The Birds, now having had the chance to watch it on the big screen I have to reevaluate, it is a film of its time, being released in 1946 and the Germans are the bad guys, oddly enough it never refers to the Germans as Nazis, the suspense in this film rivals anything Hitchcock did later in his career, the cross cutting at the party and the use of champagne bottle is nail biting, it is what is charming about Hitchcock to watch him play with his audience, he did it in an open and knowing way that warmed many audience members to the director, probably more so than any other filmmaker, names like Lucas and Spielberg might be more well known, but neither of them could get away with the constant cameos, or trailers in which they appear to set up the premise in a monologue, it also a pleasure to see early traces of Hitchcock’s later work, particularly the film’s central villain, a grown man constantly taking advice from ‘Mother’.