MovieChat Forums > Notorious (1946) Discussion > Hitchcock's Best Film

Hitchcock's Best Film


I love all of Hitchcock's other classics, but Notorious is the very definition of a perfect film. Thrills, romance, humor, and compelling drama. You get it all in this film

And the direction in this film! I've hardly ever seen a director use a camera as perfectly as Hitchcock does here. Only in certain films (2001, Once Upon A Time in the West, I Am Cuba, The Trial, Persona, to name a few) do I actually rewind the film mid jaw drop to rewatch a stunning shot. Hitch elevates the suspense film to a level of artistry that no one can touch and entertains the hell out of me.

This is what cinema is.

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I love all of Hitchcock's other classics, but Notorious is the very definition of a perfect film.


The extreme abuse of special effects, so common for Hitchcock, leaves it short of perfect. From that shot right in the beginning where courtroom behind the doors is poor rear projection one become prejudiced against the film. It's a great credit to the film that it soon makes you forget and forgive, but perfect it isn't.

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Perfection...110% Agree...A Masterpiece made by the Master of Cinema, Alfred Hitchcock...

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Notorious is a good film but Hitch has done better work.. Rebecca is a much stronger film imo, as are several others like Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo and Strangers on a Train.. I'll take Shadow of a Doubt and Foreign Correspondent over Notorious as well.. not by much but just barely.


Top ten Hitch in no particular order:

Psycho
Rebecca
The Birds
Strangers on a Train
Rear Window
North by Northwest
The 39 Steps
Dial M for Murder
Notorious
Foreign Correspondent

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