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Notorious (1946)
Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock · Shot by Robert Capa, Ted Tetzlaff · Cut by Theron Warth · Music by Roy Webb · 102 min
How it was made
- Because Claude Rains stood several inches shorter than Ingrid Bergman, Hitchcock devised hidden ramps to boost Rains's height for their walking scenes and suggested he wear elevator shoes, which Rains kept using afterward.
- Almost the entire film was shot on RKO sound stages, with apparent exteriors achieved through rear-projection; the sole outdoor scene, at a riding club, was filmed at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
- Second unit crews shot establishing exteriors and rear-projection plates in Miami and Rio de Janeiro to support the stage-bound principal photography.
- The plot's MacGuffin, uranium hidden in wine bottles in a villain's cellar, came from a conversation Hitchcock and co-writer Ben Hecht had with physicist Robert Millikan at Caltech in mid-1945; Hitchcock later claimed the FBI followed him for months afterward.
- To get a sustained two-and-a-half-minute kiss past the Production Code's rule against kisses longer than three seconds, Hitchcock had Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman repeatedly break contact every few seconds while continuing to embrace.
- Edith Head designed Ingrid Bergman's gowns for the film.
Elsewhere
More by Alfred Hitchcock
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