Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's

Michael Rott

Notorious

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 classic Notorious is an American spy thriller that portrays a perfectly executed mission that brings down a group of relocated Nazis stationed in Brazil. A squad of American agents, including Devlin and Alicia, were able to successfully defeat their enemy after a rollercoaster series of events. However, there were many instances throughout the film when events could have gone awry, ultimately leading to the failure of the spying project. Regardless of the possible outcomes of these situations, everything seemed to end up working out in favor of Devlin and Alicia.

The first of these events occurs at the beginning of the film when Devlin initially confronts Alicia about her potential role working undercover. Devlin explains to Alicia that her father’s past would make her a perfect candidate for the job, but Alicia is extremely skeptical about the offer. Alicia challenges Devlin as to why she would ever do such a thing, and Devlin responds with “patriotism”. However, Alicia counters with saying, “I don’t go for patriotism...nor patriots.” At this point, the entire mission could have been terminated. Alicia is the pawn that the American government needs to infiltrate their enemies, but without Alicia’s approval to go forth with the mission, the entire scenario would have never initiated. As mentioned earlier, everything seems to work out in the end. Devlin reassures Alicia that she loves America and is absolutely appalled by her father’s “rotten schemes” by playing a recording of a conversation between the two. Without Devlin’s clever rebuttal to Alicia’s argument, Alicia may never have accepted to take the flight to Brazil and continue the mission.

The next event in Notorious that could’ve led to the project’s failure involves a conversation between Devlin and the leader of the mission, Captain Prescott. Devlin believes that Alicia won’t go through with the mission saying that she has no experience in this type of work. Devlin also learns that Alicia has had past relations with their main target, Alex Sebastian. Now Devlin is conflicted between his love for Alicia and the success of the mission. At this point in the film, Devlin could have told Prescott that he feels Alicia is unfit for the project and doesn’t want to jeopardize their relationship. Ultimately, this scenario could have nullified any future spying prospects for Alicia. Once again, things worked out in the end. Devlin complies to the stern orders of his higher ups, therefore allowing the mission to continue.

As the film progresses, the spying project is exposed to more and more risk. The scene at the horse track is evident of this. While having a secret rendezvous with Devlin

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