Notorious (1946)

  It took me five days to watch this movie.  For whatever reason, the blu-ray did not bookmark where I stopped so I would have to find my place again every time, which was very annoying.  It also started automatically and re-started from the beginning when I finally did finish it.  I guess there are people who would want an automatic loop of a film but I am not one of them.

Alicia Hubelman (Ingrid Bergman) is contacted by U.S. intelligence agencies after her Nazi-sympathizer father is found guilty of treason.  They want her to ingratiate herself with one of her father's old friends in Brazil, Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), and see what he is planning.  Her handler, Devlin (Cary Grant), is supposed to keep her on track.  Alex is very jealous of anyone spending too much time with his beloved, making it all the more difficult to get around him, even if Alicia and Devlin weren't also falling for each other.

This is not my favorite Hitchcock film, not by a long shot.  I was expecting a good deal more suspense, more comedy, more everything.  It's still a great movie, if only for the chance to see Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman together, and Claude Rains lifts every picture he's ever been in.  The plot holds up even to this day, with themes of trust and suspicion.  I'm not sure why it was titled "Notorious" since it has nothing to do with notoriety or infamy, but Hitch was big on one-word titles for his films.