The plot - the same as in Notorious (1946)

Rating: 3/10 (13 December 2005)

Has anybody else noticed? A lot of references are being made to the 1946 script by Ben Hecht for Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious.
First of all the plot in itself is very similar, with the female spy, the Mata Hari, who has to sacrifice herself and marry the crook, so that the protagonists can get to him. Just like in Notorious, the woman in MI2 is the one who really risks her life, while the male hero is on the outside.
Second of all, the whole scene at the horse racing tracks in MI2 is a more or less exact replica of the one in Notorious.
If you have seen both MI2 and Notorious, you will know what I mean.
I don't think that it is anything wrong at all that Robert Towne (he himself a great playwrite) copies the intrigues of the superb script by Ben Hecht. On the contrary it should be seen as a tribute to the latter. I am disappointed however that no one else (that I know of) has noticed and commented this.
I also think that this is the perfect example of how modern special effects, action and all that crap, ruins the great intrigues of a brilliant screenwriter, and takes away all the excitement. This is also very obvious when you look at the results, whilst Notorious is one of the best films in the history of cinema, MI2 is a blasphemy.
/O