Notorious

Remember how sexy and suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 Notorious was, with its heady mixture of Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Nazi spies, and U.S. government agents? Well, don’t look for any of that sort of thing in Notorious, a clumsy remake starring John Shea (Baby M; WIOU) and Jenny Robertson (Bull Durham) in the great stars’ roles. Director Colin Bucksey (Dealers) makes the crucial mistake of playing up the romance at the expense of the tension embedded in Ben Hecht’s original script (writer Douglas Lloyd McIntosh has softened up Hecht’s story here). The TV movie ends up a soggy love story. Rent the original. D-