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Quote of the Day: 1946 Hitchcock Movie Notorious
SEBASTIAN (Claude Raines):
Mother. Mother.She awakens and looks at the clock on her night stand.
MME. SEBASTIAN (Leopoldine Konstantin)
Why are you up so early?SEBASTIAN:
I need your help.MME. SEBASTIAN
Something is wrong?SEBASTIAN:
A great deal. Alicia.Madame Sebastian breaks into a smile.
MME. SEBASTIAN
I have expected it. I knew. I knew. What is it? Mr. Devlin?SEBASTIAN:
No. I am married to an American agent.A deadly pause. Madame Sebastian lights a cigarette.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SEBASTIAN’S BEDROOM – DAY
Alicia, still asleep in her bed. Sebastian’s bed is empty.DISSOLVE TO:
INT. MME. SEBASTIAN’S BEDROOM – DAY
Sebastian and his mother assess the situation, that same morning.MME. SEBASTIAN
Yes, it is easy to see now. I knew but I didn’t see. They picked her because of her father.SEBASTIAN:
I must have been insane, mad. Behaved like an idiot, to believe in her with her clinging kisses.MME. SEBASTIAN
Stop wallowing in your foul memories.SEBASTIAN:
Then what do I do? There’s nothing to do.
I’m done, finished. They’ll find out.MME. SEBASTIAN
They won’t find out.SEBASTIAN:
They’ll find out what I’m married to. Look what they did to Emil Hupka. Emil, who did nothing. And I’ve betrayed them, I’ve bungled and there’s no excuse. I’d do the same myself– kill the fool that betrayed them.MME. SEBASTIAN
There’s no need for them to find out.SEBASTIAN:
Mathis is very sharp.MME. SEBASTIAN
Yes. He dislikes you. But his criticism of your talents wouldn’t go that far to imagine that you are married to an American agent.
You are protected by the enormity of your stupidity. For a time.
Published in Group Writing
I laughed hard. It is rather applicable to the situation today, is it not?
The 10-minute clip below from Notorious includes the scene in question (it runs from about the 4 minute mark to the 6 minute mark).
As they slowly, over weeks, poison Alicia, with the psychological effect of distancing her from reality, Hitchcock uses a subtle, very effective photographic trick; he has her photographed with long lenses (think “telescopic”), so the background behind her and around her is fuzzier and less distinct. There’s a scene with Grant in a park, where everything but them is a blur, and an unnaturally bright blur at that.
A great film.
Claude Rains.
Too bad they could not have found some photogenic actors instead of settling for Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.
One of my favorites. Very applicable.