L'honorable Monsieur Sans-Gêne

Notorious (1945) by Sidney Gilliat is a great black and white romance, Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer's performance as the stars of this film really blew me away. The camera work was excellent along with the lighting techniques used.

Personally I dislike black and white films, however this film had a very modern approach to it and that was able to keep me interested throughout the length of the film. (I would still prefer to see this movie in color!)

Overall, this is a great film and I would recommend it to anyone who likes black and white romances.

aka The Rake's Progress is fun to watch and enjoy.

The movie relates the story of a British Playboy, Vivian Kenway (Rex Harrison), in flashback, from the opening scenes of the film.

The first flashback takes us to a young aristocratic boy in London on Armistice Night, 1918. The young boy, talks to two soldiers who are happy that he will have to fight in a war. One of the soldiers gives the boy a talisman from his cap and the boy keeps it.

From there, the film moves forward and we see Vivan at Oxford in 1931. He is a prankster there about to be "sent down." Once he is "sent down" from Oxford, his family must find useful employment for a young man with his station in life.

But where?--How about a coffee plantation in South America? Vivian does well there, but since Brits don't drink coffee and the price of coffee is too low to make a profit, he must try another line of work.

Try again— How about a job with Vivan's old friend from Oxford, Sandy Duncan (Griffith Jones)? While it is true, he has an affair with Sandy's wife, it turns out that she is not such a virtuous woman either. So, even though Sandy and Vivian have a huge fist fight on the lift at one of the London fine establishments, Sandy has to admit that she was no big loss.

Next try— How about getting into the race car racket by driving at Brooklands? Well, that just ultimately leads to more problems.

With Rex Harrison playing an aristocratic bounder who thinks he can do about anything for enjoyment, money, or sex, this playboy thing just goes on and on. Doesn't it?............

Lili Palmer, who was Rex Harrison's 2nd of 6 wives, at the time the movie was made, also has an important role in this movie. I like Lili's cuteness. She sort of reminds me of a German version of Leslie Caron.

I cannot praise THE RAKES PROGRESS too highly. It has a witty script, extremely fine performances, a good William Alwyn score (including the famous Calypso he wrote for the film), good-looking sets by Norman Arnold and handsome cinematography by Wilkie Cooper. It told a good story as well.

Yes, Rex Harrison was quite a bounder. At the time of the film's release some critics were disappointed in how the character's life suddenly changed at the film's end - a valid objection which, had the script inserted at least one "transitional" episode, might have made it more believable. However I find this a minor point, having taken great pleasure in such a beautifully made production. It gave Harrison a good opportunity to widen his acting range considerably. Hitherto only light comedy roles were offered him but in RAKE'S PROGRESS we see some serious sly villainy. It was this performance that took him to Hollywood, by the way. A special bouquet to Lilli Palmer for another sensitive, touching performance. She was, without doubt,one of the finest actresses on the screen.

Highly recommended.

It is never an easy thing to watch a cad and bounder on film for 2 hours and come away feeling satisfied. But his film manages to do that because of it's wit and wonderful cast. Harrison is superb and Lili Palmer is at her very best. I had not seen this for 65 years and yet I remember it as though it was last week. One very odd goof in the film takes place in a car with Rex being driven by the character Jenny. He opens the door to get out before the car stops. He exits while the scenery goes whizzing by. One might expect to see him in a heap on the sidewalk. All in all, a lovely film with nice light touches and some very serious drama. GOOD SHOW

This is a very arguable film for its tremendous richness of ambiguities. It is both one of the best films of Rex Harrison and of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. The greatest credit lies perhaps with the script, but it is handled with brilliant eloquence and equilibration by all the actors, and their parts aren't easy. Rex Harrison is particularly excellent in his very debatable character of a perfect scoundrel who wins everyone by his charm and seems to get away with just anything just by his shameless audacity. His father, a politician, seems to forgive him anything and keeps on doing so until his death, while his female victims see him through but nevertheless also keep on loving him. The one you will remember is Lilli Palmer who becomes his wife, and they were also married for real outside the film studios. He is a man of many talents but nothing becomes of him, as he seems to live just for taking chances and enjoying risking his life for nothing, just to get a kick out of it. It's a kind of morality but without morals, it just states the case without taking any stand, and no one can be a judge in a case like this. You just observe it and enjoy its thrills and moments of temporary success and cheer, while all the time you have to worry about what will happen next as a consequence of his recklessness. The dialog is splendid and probably the best film ever created by Gilliat & Launder, but it leaves you with a kind of acid aftertaste, like as if you had to think "What a waste!" of a brilliant man letting his life just run like water off his hands. Long afterthoughts are unavoidable, and you will probably never forget it.