Cesare

classic-celluloid:

Notorious (1946)

Sudden yen to read a Charles/Erik fusion with Notorious. Spoilers for which follow…

Secret agent Erik Lehnsherr recruits playboy Charles Xavier to seduce Friedrich von Roehm, a former Nazi and member of the exclusive Hellfire Club rumored to be run by Sebastian Shaw. While preparing for the mission, Charles and Erik fall in love. But Erik sends Charles to von Roehm regardless, and when Charles succeeds in seducing von Roehm, jealousy and bitterness rise between Charles and Erik.

Charles convinces von Roehm to throw a party and invite his Hellfire Club associates along with a wide circle of acquaintances, including Erik, who finally spots Shaw. Charles coaxes Shaw to the wine cellar and helps subdue him as Erik murders Shaw, and assists with concealing it afterward. They’re nearly discovered by von Roehm, and quickly kiss to provide a reason for leaving the party. Charles claims Erik threatened him to get him to come to the cellar, and Erik admits to it, apologizes and goes. But von Roehm’s suspicions are raised, and the next day he discovers Erik’s coin in the wine cellar and a trace of blood, leading him to guess the truth.

The other members of the Hellfire Club would kill him if they knew he’d been harboring a traitor, so von Roehm begins to secretly poison Charles. At a rendezvous with Erik, Charles passes off his illness as a hangover. Days pass without word, and Erik almost believes Charles has cut off contact because he regrets enabling Shaw’s murder, but Charles’s ‘hangover’ worries him and Erik returns to von Roehm’s house, determined to get Charles out this time, no matter what, even though the Hellfire Club is meeting there that same night…