Notorious Cary Grant
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Notorious Cary Grant provides a gripping and memorable performance as the famous Devlin in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Notorious 1946.
Cary Grant plays this character with his usual sexy confidence and dashing good looks.
He struggles to balance service to his country against his growing attraction to the beautiful woman with the “scarlet past” (Ingrid Bergman).
What’s The Plot of The Alfred Hitchcock Notorious 1946 Movie?
In this classic Hitchcock movie, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) travels to South America as a spy to infiltrate a powerful Nazi ring that is developing an atomic bomb.
The Nazi big-wig she must entrap is Alexandar Sebastian (Claude Rains), with the help of another American agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant).
This post is all about Notorious Cary Grant
Notorious Devlin - Any Real Life Parallels to Notorious Cary Grant?
Was the English-American actor Cary Grant similar to the Notorious Devlin in real life?
Let’s see what similarities and differences existed between the actor and his onscreen character.
Notorious Devlin had witty comebacks and one-liners, similar to the real life Cary Grant.
Although there are many Cary Grant quotes to chose from, his one-liner on romance and working out is a classic example of his dry humor:
“I think making love is the best form of exercise.”
Notorious Devlin was attracted to a woman who was elegant and authentic.
In real life, Cary Grant was attracted to similar women who are real and natural. He said:
“I don’t like a lot of make-up or a lot of perfume. If someone wears a lot of make-up, it shows me they’re not happy with their features—it shows their insecurity.” ”
Who did Cary Grant consider classy and attractive? One was his beautiful costar, Ingrid Bergman. Others included other co-stars including Grace Kelly, Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn.
Notorious Cary Grant - Hitchcock’s favorite actor?
Cary Grant was arguably one of the favorite actors of the brilliant director Alfred Hitchcock.
He famously called Cary Grant "the only actor I ever loved in my whole life."
I wonder if their common British heritage influenced this affection?
Notorious 1946 was the second Alfred Hitchcock film that Cary Grant acted in.
He was also cast in three other Hitchcock movies: Suspicion (1941), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).
Since Cary Grant was such a favorite of Alfred Hitchcock’s, I wonder why they didn’t share a drink when Hitchcock made his cameo appearance at Sebastian’s party in Notorious?
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Notorious Devlin - Skilled spy
Notorious Devlin is a highly-skilled undercover spy.
He is very much the handsome, cool and competent 007 agent, working tirelessly to bring down the bad guys. Although his later film with Hitchcock, North by Northwest was much more bond-like, this was certainly a good warm-up role for him!
The first snapshot we have of him is when he’s crashing Alicia Huberman’s party in the beginning of the film.
After her remaining friends at the party are passed out, she decides to go for a joy ride while drunk. 🧐
On the way out, he disposes of her cup by carefully balancing it on the drunken sprawled couple.
Not sure how that stayed in place there, another example of Cary Grant’s humor.
One-liners are his forte in this movie.
Alicia: “My car is outside.”
Devlin: “Naturally.”
On the way to the midnight joy ride, Devlin pulls out a handkerchief and carefully ties it around Alicia’s bare midriff to keep her warm.
The evening obviously means a lot to Alicia, as she keeps Devlin’s scarf until much later in the movie, before dramatically returning it.
Cary Grant sure had a thing with scarves, huh? I wonder if this film was in color whether it would be red with white polka dots, similar to the one donned in a later Hitchcock film, To Catch a Thief.
Devlin’s actions are understated masterfully and get results. Near the end of the film, to get out of a tight spot, he uses tact.
He then brilliantly coerces Sebastian and his mother’s help Alicia escape, “How’d you like your friends downstairs to know? They’ve yet to be told” Devlin warns. He adds, “You haven’t forgotten what they did to Emil, have you, Sebastian?”
The group descends dramatically down the long staircase and past the entire group of Nazi conspirators to the safety of the getaway car.
Has a walk down a staircase ever kept you on the edge of your seat like this?!
Fun fact!
If you count the number of steps it takes for Devlin and Alicia to walk down, it’s more than the number of steps Devlin took to go up! This was "Hitchcock's way of prolonging the suspense."
Notorious Devlin - Hestitant boyfriend
Devlin fights his feelings for Alicia, and tries to stay aloof and uncaring.
During the flight to South America, Devlin has a highly charged reaction to a casual gesture of Alicia, as she leans closer to look out the window.
Devlin is hesitant to fall for someone with a ‘checkered’ past, uncertain if she’s changed.
He is also afraid of being hurt. “I’ve always been scared of women, but I’ll get over it,”
Devlin finally falls deeply in love with Alicia.
But once her mission is revealed (to seduce a nazi agent), Devlin agonizes between suspicions on her true character and his desire to be with her.
“Notorious is one of the most romantic and sensual movies ever made. The continuous and rising tension between the two antagonists is almost tangible. Their desperate need of each other explodes in the ever-lasting kiss and the revelation of his love on Alicia’s death bed. Cary Grant has never been so dark and vulnerable.”
Once Devlin made up his mind, he’s all on. It just took awhile…well, almost too long.
This post was all about Notorious Cary Grant
Notorious Devlin was the polished and complex American spy.
His character was masterfully performed by Cary Grant. This film also provides a glimpse of Cary Grant’s darker side. Alfred Hitchcock called it:
“The frightening side to Cary that no one can quite put their finger on.”
What are your thoughts on Devlin in the Notorious movie? Why did he try to stifle his feelings for Alicia? Should he have stopped her mission?
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