Notorious (1992) (TV)

Director:

Colin Bucksey

Writers (WGA):

Ben Hecht (earlier story)
Ben Hecht (earlier screenplay)

Release Date:

28 January 1992 (USA)

Plot:

After Alicia Velorus' father is convicted as a communist spy, CIA asks her to prove her loyalty by getting close to her father's friend, who's a suspected arms dealer. In the meantime she and her CIA contact Devlin fall in love. |

Plot Keywords:

Ambiguous Ending | Whatever It Takes | Poison | Tape Recorder | Spy

Cast

John Shea	...	Devlin
Jenny Robertson	...	Alicia Velorus
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Alex Sebastian
Marisa Berenson	...	Katarina Sebastian
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Norman Prescott
Ronald Guttman	...	Joseph
Igor De Savitch	...	General Genayev
Jean-Pierre Stewart	...	Rosonov
Albert Pariente	...	Terek Al-Hassan
Marc Samuel	...	Mario Tomasini
Stephan Meldegg	...	Emile Gerhard (as Stéphane Meldegg)
Bill Bailey	...	Judge
Laurence Bouvencourt	...	Isabella
Dominique Figaro	...	Mrs. Fremont
Isabelle Lazard	...	Woman at Dinner

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Berger Queen Productions

Movie Connections:

Remake of Notorious (1946)

Zero charisma

Why oh why had they to spend one single cent in remaking a film that's so perfect as Hitchcock's classic? And, if they really wanted to do it, why to do it so bad? Remakes are welcome when they do something to improve the original, but when they are e.g. like Psycho'98 one can't do anything but ask himself why didn't they give the budget to a charity association instead. But there are even a worse breed of remakes: some of them are enjoyable if you don't know the original version (like Mel Brooks' "To Be or Not to Be"), but there are others that turn a wonderful story to a bore.

'Notorious' belongs to the latter category.

The storyline of this version is the same of the classic one, with two minor changes: it happens in the 1990s, and the bad guys are Communists instead of Nazis. The main problem begins when we are introduced the main characters: Jenny Robertson is a cute girl but Ingrid Bergman asleep and with flu acted better, and John Shea (from Lois & Clark Hall of Fame) is the lead guy with less charisma than I've seen in a movie in a long time. Comparing him to Cary Grant is kinda like comparing The Spice Girls to Mozart. With those lead actors, the movie goes downhill all the time, even when the other actors are somewhat good (Jean-Pierre Cassel is not a bad actor but nobody can compare to Claude Rains; and Marisa Berenson limits to appearing there without doing too much), and the suspense is minimal: you never get into the plot like in Hitchcock's version. You really don't feel interested about it.

Director Colin Bucksey isn't even talented enough to make it enjoyable, it seems that he only put the camera there and let the actors read their lines the way they wanted. I suppose that even the director knew that this was another TV-movie to see-and-forget and didn't care about its quality.

I don't know if this flick deserves to be listed in the Bottom 100 page, I mean, it's not ridiculously bad as 'Castle of Fu Manchu' can be, but maybe it really deserved it for its total lack of originality and its zero charisma.