TV REVIEW : ‘Notorious’ an Update of Hitchcock’s 1946 Thriller

“Notorious” (which premieres on Lifetime tonight at 9 p.m.) is a sleek, successful remake of the Alfred Hitchcock suspense drama. Writer Douglas Lloyd McIntosh has shrewdly preserved all the plot elements of the original Ben Hecht script that made the 1946 film a classic while deftly providing contemporary characterizations and an up-to-the-minute political context for its spy tale.

Under Colin Bucksey’s stylish direction, Jenny Robertson, John Shea and Jean-Pierre Cassel excel in roles created by Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains without trying to compete with our memories of these larger-than-life legends of the silver screen.

The new “Notorious” manages to be as romantic as the original but on a more intimate, realistic scale ideal for the small screen.

CIA agent Shea falls for the beautiful, reckless American-born daughter (Robertson) of a convicted Russian-born traitor before being given the assignment of recruiting her to spy on one of her late father’s old colleagues (Cassel), a suave Paris-based arms dealer.

Robertson and Shea are quite touching as they determine to resolve maturely their conflict between love and duty, but it is Cassel who is the film’s surprisingly poignant figure, a worldly, polished and utterly ruthless man rendered vulnerable by true love. (In this version, the possessive woman in his life is not his mother but his coldly perceptive sister, well-played by Marisa Berenson.)

Filmed in Paris, this “Notorious” plays like an homage to Hitchcock, wisely honoring the spirit rather than adhering to the letter of the master.