Notorious

In Notorious, a film classic from legendary director Alfred Hitchcock released in 1946, Cary Grant plays T.R. Devlin. He is American agent ordered to plant the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy into the home of Alexander Sebastian, a Nazi sympathizer (played by Claude Rains) who is plotting to develop secret military technology.

The plot is complicated when Devlin falls in love with the daughter, Alicia (played by Ingrid Bergman).

As Alicia draws closer and closer to Sebastian, she faces increasing tests of loyalty and endurance, as she must play off her role as Sebastian's woman with her love for Devlin.

Notorious is a supreme example of Hitchcock's inimitable blend of love, danger, and suspense. The film, mainly set in Rio de Janeiro, is striking for its stark portrayal of American espionage agents using underhanded means to thwart suspected enemies.

Hitchcock described the film as "the story of a woman sold for political purposes into sexual enslavement."

The love scenes between Grant and Bergman were considered daring at the time of the film's release. It is also notable for its mention of uranium. Although the atom bombs had been dropped by the time of its release, the public was still mostly unaware of the use of uranium in their development.

The script is credited to acclaimed screenwriter Ben Hecht, who developed it in collaboration with Hitchcock over a period of several weeks in early 1945. Their relations during the project were apparently ideal, mainly because Hecht did not care how much Hitchcock rewrote his work. Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan has described it as a script for " a consummate Hitchcock film, in every sense filled with passion and textures and levels of meaning."

Film critic Roger Ebert included Notorious on his Ten Greatest Films of All Time list in 1991 and said it was his favorite of Hitchcock's films.