Sunday, September 30, 2018

Movie review - "Notorious" by Ben Hecht

A lot of this wouldn't pass muster today - Devlin knocks out Alicia with a fist, and there's a lot of slut shaming going on. But it's an expert, adult film - it's clear Alicia sleeps with Alex and Devlin and lots of others. It's also expertly, but simply plotted - a superb star vehicle but also strong support characters: Alex, his mother, the other Nazis. The goodies are smart but so are the baddies and Alicia is active a lot of the time even at the end when she's dying of poison she manages to figure out what's going on.

One big set piece is going into the wine cellar which is cleverly done. I guess there's also the walk out at the end. The shooting script I read had added pages - three small scenes of a Greek chorus of secretaries at the CIA or wherever it was, to give it a happy ending, commenting on the honeymoon.

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