Evil glory (film, 1946)

Shortly after the end of World War II, an American court in the city of Miami sentenced Johann Huberman to twenty years in prison for spying for Nazi Germany. "Notoriety" is pursued by his daughter Alicia (Ingrid Bergman), who meets at an party with an elegant man named Devlin. It turns out that Devlin (Cary Grant) deliberately met her on the instructions of the FBI . He was instructed to uncover the Nazi conspiracy in Rio de Janeiro , and for this he needed to recruit an anti-Nazi-minded Alicia in order to introduce her into the group of wealthy Germans who settled in Brazil after the defeat of the Third Reich .

In preparation for the covert operation, Alicia and Devlin fall in love with each other. The task received from the FBI complicates their relationship, forcing them from time to time to doubt the reciprocity of feelings. Alicia needs to return to Rio to gain confidence in Alex Sebastian, one of the German conspirators and an old friend of her father. Between the Nazi and Alicia romance begins, and his jealousy complicates her meetings with Devlin. The FBI leadership advises Alicia to agree to Alex Sebastian’s proposal to marry him.

Alex lives in a luxurious mansion, where he regularly meets with other conspirators, plans that Alicia is trying to find out. One of the careless conversations between the conspirators draws her attention to the fact that access to the wine cellar, located in the basement of the mansion, is for some reason strictly guarded. Now Alicia and Devlin need to get into the cellar to understand the essence of the conspiracy . They succeed. In one of the bottles in the cellar, they find Hitchcock's “ McGuffin, ” a powder that turns out to be uranium ore needed by the Nazis to make a nuclear bomb .

The temporary absence of a key from the cellar (stolen by Alicia) causes suspicion in Alex. He himself and his angry, incredulous mother with horror begin to guess about the true goals of Alicia and her elegant "friend." But they fear, first of all, not the FBI agents (who have neither sufficient evidence nor opportunities to arrest the Nazis, especially in a foreign country), but their own conspirator-friends who can severely punish Alex for his naive gullibility. (The conspirators had earlier executed one of the participants in the conspiracy for much less offense). Mother offers to pretend that nothing happened, and slowly lime Alicia with the help of a slowly acting poison .

Devlin, during periodic meetings with Alicia, notes that something is wrong with her and, after her prolonged absence, decides to visit her in the mansion of her husband. There, he is horrified to find out that she has been sick for a week and is lying in bed in her room, completely isolated from the outside world. After finding out from the girl who guessed what was the matter, Devlin takes her from her husband's house and takes her to the hospital. This arouses suspicion among associates of Alex Sebastian, who are now eager to interrogate him, and possibly get rid of him as an unreliable member of a conspiratorial group. The picture ends with the scene of how the car with Alicia and Devlin leaves, and the bewildered Sebastian, who wanted to go with them, returns to the conspirators.

• Ingrid Bergman - Alicia Huberman
• Cary Grant - Devlin
• Claude Raines - Alexander Sebastian
• Louis Calhern - Paul Prescott
• Leopoldina Constantine - Madame Anna Sebastian
• Reinhold Schünzel - Dr. Anderson
• Moroni Olsen - Walter Burdsley, Secret Service Officer
• Ivan Trisolt - Eric Mathis

The film is based on the story of 1921, in which the action takes place during the First World War . Legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht reworked the script several times. According to the contract, Hitchcock and Hecht were obliged to make another film for producer Selznick , but he was too keen on the blockbuster “ Duel in the Sun ” to pay any significant attention to the filming of “Bad Fame”. The less Selznik interfered with Hitchcock's creative process, the more successful his films were. In the end, Selznik sold all rights to the film studio RKO .

According to Hitchcock, before the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, very few were aware that uranium was somehow related to nuclear weapons. Therefore, when Hitchcock began to make inquiries into this matter, the FBI established him under surveillance. While working on the film, Hitchcock teased about the limitations that existed at the time in Hollywood . In particular, the screen kiss by the rules of that time should not have lasted more than a couple of seconds. Hitchcock figured out how to get around this limitation: his heroes constantly exchange light kisses, moving around the room to the ringing phone.

The film was a huge success at the box office and among critics. Francois Truffaut considered him the most characteristic film of Hitchcock, in which all the best aspects of his talent broke. The camera’s movements in the film are especially virtuoso, especially in the culmination scene of a big party in Alex’s house: first, the camera gives a general view of the scene, then it runs over the key held in her hand. She skillfully snakes between numerous guests, as if an invisible spy is wandering among them (an attentive audience will notice Hitchcock himself among the guests ). Especially closely the camera captures objects that are of key importance to the plot - bottles of wine and mugs with poisoned coffee.

At the end of the film, the camera takes the viewer to the place of Alicia, exhausted by the poison, whose eyes darken and dizzy. This is what director Jacques Rivette says about this :

The last scene is perhaps the most perfect in the history of cinema, in the sense that everything is resolved in three minutes — a love story, a family story, and a spy story — in a few grandiose, unforgettable shots.

Recognition

The film was nominated for an Oscar in the categories of "Best Supporting Actor" ( Claude Raines ) and "Best Original Screenplay" ( Ben Hecht ).

The famous film critic Roger Ebert has more than once admitted that “notoriety” is his favorite Hitchcock movie. In 1991, he included it in his list of the ten greatest films in history ^[2] .

• “Bad Glory” (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database  
• Evil glory (English) on the site allmovie  
•   Wikimedia Commons