Film

Notorious

Name: Notorious
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Released: 1946
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin

Other titles called Notorious: the 2009 film.

Notorious is Hitchcock at his most romantic and most cruel — a spy plot that's really about a woman sent to sell herself out of love, and the men too proud or compromised to stop it. The famous kiss, the wine-cellar dread, the slow poisoning of trust: glossy 1946 Hollywood with something genuinely rotten underneath. For anyone who wants a thriller that hurts as much as it dazzles.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love Hitchcock's way of making a love story and a spy plot feed each other, so that every kiss carries suspicion and every glance has a second meaning.

Skip it if you need a fast, action-led thriller; this one moves through quiet rooms, long looks and conversation, and its suspense is built slowly rather than delivered in bursts.

What it asks of you: About an hour and forty minutes of patient attention. It is a black-and-white film that rewards close watching, and its tension comes from what characters don't say.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

North by Northwest1959

Grant again, but innocent this time, mistaken for a spy and chased across the country in Hitchcock's most purely entertaining thriller — all wit, momentum, and that famous crop-duster chase through empty cornfields.

But It's a lark where Notorious is an ache; if you want more heartbreak and less spectacle, this trades emotional weight for pure delight.

Casablanca1943

Same wartime backdrop and the same devastating idea — love sacrificed for a larger cause — with Bogart and Bergman's doomed romance setting the gold standard for this whole genre of noble heartbreak.

But More sentimental and speech-driven than Hitchcock's cool cruelty; the politics feel simpler and the ending offers far more comfort.

The Third Man1949

Postwar Europe, moral rot hiding under rubble, and a woman caught between duty and feeling — Welles' entrance alone justifies the rental, and Karas's zither score will haunt you for days afterward.

But Bleaker and stranger than Notorious, with less romance and more shadow; it refuses the comfort of a clean resolution.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Notorious

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dishonored1931

Fifteen years before Notorious, Dietrich plays a widow recruited by her government to seduce enemy officers for information — the same premise of a woman's body as an intelligence asset, filmed with a pre-Code bluntness Hitchcock could never get away with.

Von Sternberg's shadowy glamour and Dietrich's icy fatalism make this the blueprint Notorious quietly refined — starker, more overtly about sex as tradecraft, and gorgeous in its own doomed way.

But Creakier pacing and broader melodrama; the moral complexity Hitchcock brings is mostly traded for tragic glamour instead.

Charade1963

Grant again, older and wearier, playing a man who may or may not be trustworthy opposite Audrey Hepburn — the closest Hollywood ever got to remaking Notorious's romantic paranoia as a lighter caper.

But Plays for charm and clever twists rather than dread, more interested in delighting you than damaging you.

Suspicion1941

Hitchcock and Grant again, years earlier, testing whether the man you love might actually be the danger — a study in domestic paranoia that predates Notorious's particular flavor of romantic dread.

But The ending was famously softened by the studio and can feel like a cop-out after all that tension.

Spellbound1945

Hitchcock and Bergman again, the year before Notorious, entangling psychoanalysis with obsession instead of espionage — Dalí's dream sequence alone is worth the ninety minutes.

But Slower and more theoretical than Notorious's spy mechanics; the Freudian framing has aged into camp for some viewers.

The Manchurian Candidate1962

Cold War paranoia replaces Nazi hunting, but the same nightmare persists — someone you love may have been turned into a weapon without your knowledge, or even theirs.

But Colder and more political than personal; the romance here is a subplot, not the engine of the story.

To Catch a Thief1955

Hitchcock, Grant, and glamorous European intrigue again, but this time played almost entirely for pleasure — sun-drenched Riviera, jewel heists, and flirtation standing in for dread and guilt.

But Almost weightless by comparison; if you want the ache of Notorious, this breezy romance won't deliver it.

The Ipcress File1965

A grittier, more procedural spy thriller from the next generation — Harry Palmer is everything Bond and Devlin aren't: tired, unglamorous, and entirely believable in his exhaustion.

But Trades romance almost entirely for tradecraft and bureaucracy; the emotional stakes run much lower than Notorious's ever do.

The Little Drummer Girl2018

A le Carré adaptation built on the exact same device Notorious runs on — a woman recruited by an intelligence service to seduce her way into an enemy's confidence, with the handler who recruited her falling for her along the way.

Six hours lets the manipulation and self-deception breathe in ways a 103-minute film never could; Florence Pugh is extraordinary, and the moral queasiness runs deeper than Hitchcock's.

But Slower and more opaque, asking real patience — this is le Carré's bleak realism, not Hollywood's polished heartbreak.

Femme Fatale2002

The same engine as Notorious — seduction deployed as a weapon, with everyone around the woman miscalculating how much of it is real — except De Palma cranks the register up into gleeful, trashy excess instead of Hitchcockian restraint.

If Notorious left you wanting more of that dangerous-woman frisson but with less decorum and more style, this delivers pure pulp pleasure, twist stacked on twist.

But Shameless where Notorious is subtle — campy, sexed-up, and far more interested in clever tricks than emotional truth.