Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide: Notorious (1946), Part 2

by Brent Reid

Home video

  • Complicated: Like its tortuous plot, the film itself has a complex history
  • There are five different transfers currently available across every format
  • Most are uncut but German political sensitivities see censorship persist
  • Many releases have a cornucopia of extras, including an isolated score
  • Beware the treasonous bootlegs that aren’t worth your love or loyalty

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

Notorious: Writing on a Classic; Critics Choice; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Home video

Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) UK 2019 re-release poster

UK August 2019–April 2020 theatrical re-release poster (alt) by Julian House


Contents


1954 re-release version

↑ 1954 re-release trailer

The four Selznick-related films directed by Hitch – RebeccaSpellboundNotorious and The Paradine Case – are often packaged together due to their current shared ownership. Most of my notes for Rebecca’s re-release version regarding extras and so on also apply to this bunch but in brief: the UK discs have a few extras, detailed in the link, while the rest are barebones, bar the odd trailer or gallery. In addition to the aforementioned censored German dubs, Notorious has been dubbed in French, Spanish and Italian; all of which are optional on their domestic releases. Be wary of the US DVD, which apparently has several splices resulting the loss of up to a minute of footage; more details are welcome in the comments.

Also as with Rebecca, there are two different versions of Notorious in circulation with this one from a print of uncredited producer David O. Selznick’s 1954 US re-release. It swaps the opening RKO ident for that of Selznick Studios and the animated matte skyline for a freeze frame; additionally, the main title now has solid black text, whereas originally it was paler and outlined. The 1954 transfer only exists as a late 1990s standard definition video master and, unlike Rebecca’s re-release print, the credits are correctly in fullscreen.

  • Netherlands: WWC 4-DVD H Collection
  • Sweden: Scanbox DVD (2002), also in 3-DVD AH Collection
  • Japan: JVC DVD (2000, reissued 2002)

Also like Rebecca, the 1954 version is not common to all early home video releases: it appears on the US Anchor Bay and all UK DVDs, while others are unconfirmed but likely. If you own any of them and let me know which version they have, I’ll amend this article accordingly. This marks the last time the re-release transfer was in circulation; from this point on, a restoration of the film exactly as seen in its original run, and with the RKO opening ident intact, is the de facto version.

Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) UK Fremantle DVD

UK Fremantle DVD artwork, used on the latter two of four issues of the same disc


1946 version

The first high quality transfer of the original 1946 version arrived via Criterion’s 1990 double LaserDisc (LDDb). It was reissued later that same year squeezed onto a single disc (LDDb), losing the extras which formerly occupied the second half of side four. From the rear sleeve:

“…for this special Criterion LaserDisc edition, a carefully preserved original negative was located at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and painstakingly transferred with shot-to-shot and scene-to-scene quality control.”

Additionally, the sound was transferred using the optical soundtrack from a 35mm fine grain element. It included a decent amount of extras, including an audio commentary and essay by film historian Rudy Behlmer, also reprinted in the Euro Pioneer LD (1994) booklet. But ’twas merely a stepping stone…


1999 restoration

“The picture was restored and preserved from the original 35mm nitrate camera negative, a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master, and a 35mm nitrate copyright print. A newly printed 35mm fine-grain master, and the 35mm nitrate fine-grain master for Reels 4A and 5B, were used for the digital film-to-tape transfer. Inherent film artefacts were corrected in video with the MTI Digital Restoration System. The soundtrack was restored and preserved from a 1954 35mm acetate release print, a 35mm fine-grain master, and a 35mm nitrate optical music & effects track positive. New 35mm magnetic analog masters and DA-88 digital masters were created utilizing Sonic Solutions noise reduction software.” – Criterion DVD notes

Along with the other three Hitchcock-Selznicks, Notorious had a photochemical restoration in 1999 and, as you’d expect, its DVDs have A/V that’s more detailed and in better shape than the 1954 releases. However, though the original opening credits have been reinstated, they’re also incorrectly windowboxed but overall it’s another big step in the right direction. The Criterion easily wins out here as it’s packed with all their LaserDisc extras bolstered with a second audio commentary by film scholar Marian Keane, and an isolated music and effects track. As if that isn’t enough, bear in mind that on DVD “this movie is so amazing it actually melts lesser movies.” And “You can get laid just by having this in your collection.” Once again all the other discs are barebones, bar the odd trailer or gallery. Just avoid the cut German version.

To this day, Notorious has never been released uncut or accurately dubbed in Germany. Both its dubs have appeared on all bootleg formats from VHS through to streaming, official VHSs and on the sole official DVD so far. Said disc initially had the 1951 dub but was soon reissued with the 1969; they look superficially identical but the discs and rear sleeves respectively state “© ABC Inc.” and “© Buena Vista International, All rights reserved”. The first 5-DVD box set has the 1951 dub, while the subsequent 2-DVD and 3-DVD sets have the 1969. Extras consist of some text screens and two unrelated trailers. When the original English-language audio is present on any release, it’s naturally cut at the splices.


2008 remaster

Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) US MGM Blu-ray

In 2008, in common with all the other Hitch-Selznicks, the 1999 restoration was remastered in HD and given a digital clean-up; further, the credits are no longer windowboxed. The MGM discs are stacked with a similar amount of almost entirely different extras to the earlier Criterion DVD but the one item they do have in common is that all-important isolated music and effects track. They also include two new commentaries by film scholars Rick Jewell and Drew Casper; while the first is fine and focuses on facts, the second is more theory-based and has drawn criticism for being somewhat sloppy. The first Brazilian set has a 28-minute featurette on the film and around 90 minutes of extras pertaining to the others, while the second disc is barebones but has three new essays in the Digibook.


2018 restoration

Notorious aka Les enchaînés (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) French Carlotta Blu-ray

The Enchained: Carlotta Blu-ray

  • US: Criterion BD  and DVD (2019)
  • France: Carlotta Films BD and DVD (2018), also in 4-BD/1-DVD and 5-DVD AH: Les Années Selznick
  • Spain: A Contracorriente BD and DVD (2023)
  • Denmark: Soul Media DVD (2023)

“This new digital restoration was undertaken by The Walt Disney Company and the Criterion Collection. A new digital transfer was created in 4k resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging in Burbank, California, from three elements: the 35mm original camera negative and a 35mm nitrate fine-grain, both held by the Museum of Modern Art, and a 35mm safety fine-grain held by the British Film Institute. Several sections of the original camera negative, the primary source for this restoration, have sustained damage over the years and been replaced by duplicate negatives; for some of these portions, the fine-grains were used.

Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film’s DRS, while Digital Vision’s Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was first restored in 2001 from a 1954 35mm acetate release print and a 35mm nitrate fine-grain master. Additional restoration work was performed by the Criterion Collection for this release, using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX.” – restoration notes

Now Showing: worldwide screenings

The latest makeover manages to improve on the previous remaster in all key areas: detail, grain, greyscale, etc, and is probably the best the film has looked and sounded since its original première night. Though expectedly packed with extras, sadly the music and effects track on the previous US discs has been dropped for these releases. Most unfortunate. However, to make up for it Criterion add two hours’ worth of new documentaries to the key extras from their first DVD.

While nowhere near as comprehensive, Carlotta include a decent amount of extras, especially in their slipcased box set, with a bonus extras DVD and beautiful 300-page hardback book. Note, however, that while the Criterion transfer has similar grading to all previous releases, Carlotta’s is much darker, with deeper blacks but less shadow detail. Meanwhile, the Spanish discs include 50-odd minutes of the Criterion extras while the Danish is barebones.

Many will already have one of the previous releases with more than enough extras for all but the most obsessive, or simply don’t desire them. If you’re just after the new transfer without ponying up for the expensive Criterion, or are region B-locked, either of the French single discs are the way to go.

Criterion essays and videos:

Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) US Criterion Blu-ray

Criterion cover art by Greg Ruth; see above

A glut of bootlegs abound on all formats but be especially vigilant against BD-Rs from several Euro pirates.


Screenshots

There are plenty of comparative screenshots, courtesy of the invaluable Hitchcock Zone, Caps-holic and DVDClassik, as well as those below:

1954 version: US Anchor Bay | 1946 version: US Criterion Collection 01, MGM DVD | MGM BD, Criterion BD

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) French Carlotta Blu-ray

French Carlotta BD

Notorious: Writing on a Classic; Critics Choice; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Home video


This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

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