BEFORE: Ah, I'm back to World War II-related material for Memorial Day, nice. And Ingrid Bergman carries over from "Spellbound", which is even nicer.
THE PLOT: A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America.
AFTER: This is where I'm starting to see Hitchcock's visual language really starting to develop. Oh, he toyed with overlapping images and dream sequences in previous films, but what really works better than anything else is directing the viewers' eyes where they need to go, by use of camera zooms and close-ups. But I'm betting this wasn't possible until he had built up something of a reputation for films with intrigue. In "Notorious", when the camera zooms in on a small key, you better believe that it's important in some way. If he zooms in on a drink and lingers just a bit longer than usual, we start to wonder, "What's in that drink?" and thus we've got a visual shorthand - a non-verbal communication directly from the director to the audience, bypassing the main characters.
In much the same way, there's a shorthand he established over several films by always having a male lead and a female lead falling in love, despite their circumstances. They could be on the run, accused of murder, surrounded by pirates, but you just know that in the end, male lead's going to fall for female lead, or vice versa. In tonight's film, we know that they're falling in love even though Alicia is the daughter of a Nazi and T.R. Devlin is the U.S. agent who wants to send her in undercover in Brazil.
What's complicating matters is that we're back to the typical Hitchcock woman - she's had a lot of relationships before, so Devlin's put off by her promiscuity - plus his job forces him to put her into harm's way, so he either resists his feelings, or buries them deep as a safety measure. Sure enough, one of the top Germans in Brazil is one of her ex-lovers, so her orders are to get close to him, and form a relationship with him if the opportunity arises. Devlin is probably proud of her, repulsed by her, and falling madly in love with her, all at the same time. It's complicated.
Wikipedia informs me that Hitchcock's mother died in 1942, and this is his first use of a strong mother figure, as the mother of Alicia's Nazi husband lives with them, is a constant presence, and seems to be running the show. According to at least one interpretation, Hitchcock had mother issues, and that becomes a running theme in his later films. "Psycho", of course, but which others?
Also starring Cary Grant (last seen in "Suspicion"), Claude Rains (last seen in "Casablanca"), Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin.
RATING: 6 out of 10 bottles of Champagne
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