Notorious: an academic reading

Notorious and its Relation to Hitchcock as Auteur
Alfred Hitchcock searched the dark depths of mankind in many of his films. For this and other reasons, many proponents of the auteur theory are quick to name him as a prominent auteur- one of the best ever. Notorious, one of his well-known classics, provides an excellent example of his style. While it exemplifies his style, it also veers away at times from some of his typical ideas.
Hitchcock fits the idea of the auteur. Most of his films have similar themes, narrative styles, character situations, and other connectable traits. Notorious fills many of these elements, most notably in its narrative. Hitchcock used irony of quarlixastd in many of his films to build suspense. This particular type of irony comes when the audience knows something the character does not. It creates a sort of helpless feeling by the viewer, who may feel a desire to warn the character of upcoming danger. Of course, the viewer cannot talk to the characters, and the film tugs at the viewer’s emotional connection with the particular character.
Hitchcock was a master of this narrative style. This technique, in fact, is arguably the main stamp of any Hitchcock film, and has become a must today for any horror or suspense film. Psycho, the classic suspense movie that helped spawn a mass of serial killer or “slasher” movies, exposes the Bates Motel as a dangerous place after Lila Crane’s murder. The viewer, if he or she has any emotional connection with the characters, may internally scream, “Don’t go in there!” In Vertigo, the viewer hears the confession letter of the fake wife while the detective is gone, but she decides not to tell him when he comes back. This scene builds tension, because the detective originally thought of that exact situation, but he has no proof. The viewer may want to tell him, “Keep at it! You’re right!”
Notorious, in this sense, fits well with Hitchcock’s style. The viewer knows that Alicia’s marriage to Alexander is for a reason- she is a spy. The viewer also knows later that he has figured Alicia out, but she does not know. Also, the viewer knows that Alexander poisons her coffee, but again, she does not. This knowledge, like most of Hitchcock’s movies, makes the viewer feel a desire to help the character, especially here, because Alicia is the heroine and her husband is a bad man- he’s Nazi war criminal.
The themes of Hitchcock’s films vary, but several story elements appear often. Many of the elements of noir films (without getting into genre discussion too much) apply to Hitchcock films: murder, deception, detective work, financial crimes, and adultery. Psycho may focus on a murderer, but Lila ends up at the Bates Motel because she needs to escape. She has stolen money from her boss, and she is also having an affair. Vertigo deals with a man who creates an elaborate scheme to kill his wife, make it look like a suicide, make her look crazy, and throw everyone off while he gets away as a victim. He hires a lady to act as his wife and deceive the detective. Dial M for Murder contains a man’s plot to kill his wife for both money and revenge for her adultery.
Notorious belongs to a group of Hitchcock films that tackle these subjects on a grander scale. The marriage is deception, and the Nazi criminals living in Brazil are doing quite well, so it fits some of the noir elements. This film, however, is not just between several American citizens. It deals with government action, and that differs from the previous films. Hitchcock used somewhat similar scenarios in North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much. These films may deal with murder, deception, and money, but on a larger scale of dangerous government agents and complex international scandals.
Recurring themes mix with similar characters to create certain situations that appear often in Hitchcock’s films. As with noir films, the narrative usually has a detective or investigative agent. Psycho and Vertigo have regular detectives, while Notorious has an F.B.I. agent investigating the Nazis. North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much focus on undercover F.B.I. agents.
Another element of Hitchcock films that deals with a specific character is mental stability. Often, one character has a mental illness or a psychological flaw, and it can get worse as time goes on. The most obvious example of this is Norman Bates. He is the Psycho. His mother’s abuse and their obsessive relationship drove him to an extreme personality disorder. Vertigo focuses on the detective’s fear of heights, and the villain uses this flaw against him. His guilt intensifies when he cannot save the wife from jumping off the tower, and he becomes invalid for a period of time. Rear Window’s protagonist grows more and more unstable as the film goes on. By the end, he has lost touch with reality. The murderers in Rope are disturbed to start out with, and as the one becomes more daring, the other gets very paranoid. Marnie focuses on its title character, a very erratic woman.
Notorious does not have an obviously disturbed character, which separates it from the norm. It does, however, hint at a few mental problems. Alicia’s poisoning leaves her in a confused, sick, eventually delirious state. While not an innate flaw (and more of a physical problem), her sickness alters her mind’s clarity. The relationship between Alexander and his mother pales in comparison to the Bates’, but the mother’s harsh demeanor evokes similar feelings. Both mothers feel jealous and suspicious of the females connected to their sons.
Hitchcock films also often have attractive young females who appear vulnerable. Sometimes these women are stereotypical damsels in distress, like in The Birds. Sometimes, these female characters have secrets to hide, and their past ties into the criminal plot. As mentioned, Lila from Psycho steals money and has an affair. The detective in Vertigo follows who he believes to be an erratic wife, but she is not the real wife. Marnie, the disturbed young title character, initially hides her problems. Family Plot, Hitchcock’s last film, focuses on a phony psychic woman.
Notorious contains a perfect example of this female character in Alicia, because she is both secretive and good. She is young, attractive, and vulnerable. She has a past; the whole reason she needs to spy is because her father was a war criminal. She cannot enjoy his riches unless she helps the United States in its investigation. She has secrets, and she deceives her husband, but she is really a good person at heart. When her lover rescues her, she becomes the poor, innocent damsel.
Characters of Hitchcock films may also deal with some kind of isolation. Ian Cameron points out the isolation of Lila and Norman during their meal in Psycho, and of how their conversation amidst the stuffed game reflects this feeling (65). Rear Window contains an extremely isolated main character. Each day the loneliness wears on him more. The fake wife of Vertigo becomes an isolated stranger. Because of the deception usually involved, this is a common feeling amongst many other characters as well.
Although Notorious has some elements in common with North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much, one thing that it misses is a case of mistaken identity. Even though most of the characters are deceiving, Notorious does not have an accidental identity mishap like these two (and several other) films by Hitchcock.
The setting of Notorious differs from many Hitchcock films. Although the opening sequences are in Miami, most of the movie takes place in Brazil. Hitchcock films do not generally use exotic settings. Some of the spy films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much take place overseas, but most of Hitchcock’s films are set in America. He did make some Europe-based films while he was still working over there in his younger days, but after he came to Hollywood, he chose the United States much more often as a setting.
Hitchcock focuses often on the darkness of mankind, specifically emphasized by one or a few characters. The situation is just within this smaller, personal group of people. His movies tend to show just how evil or demented people can be. His characters that do wrong fall into several categories. The first category includes simple, weak men (and women) who make horrible mistakes. The husband in Vertigo exemplifies the criminal who is selfish and evil, but not a super villain. He kills his wife, which is an atrocious act, but he is not a huge danger to society. Lila from Psycho is no evil mastermind, but she makes a very poor decision. The second category contains mentally ill characters like Norman Bates, Marnie, and Jeff in Rear Window. They have problems, which excuses them in some ways from contempt. Even Norman, the killer psychopath, comes off at the end as a totally demented child, though he was aware of the harm “his mother” did.
These characters all have flaws and are despicable in many ways, but Notorious reaches the true depths of humanity with the Nazis. The inclusion of Nazis is another facet of Notorious that stands out from most of Hitchcock’s films. The previously mentioned characters were evil and criminal in many ways, but the Nazis represent a far darker reality.
Reality is an important word because Hitchcock’s villains are usually realistic in many ways. He does not create fake monsters; these are real people committing real crimes that could happen, and have already. The atrocities that the Nazis pulled off during the war overshadow the bad people of other Hitchcock films that usually focus on just a few bad individuals. Notorious, admittedly, also does focus on a few bad individuals, and it has personal conflicts, but these individuals are part of a larger evil not seen in most of Hitchcock’s other films. The spy films like The Man Who Knew Too Much contain secretive government enterprises, which is somewhat related, but it is still not as powerful as including the Third Reich.
The auteur theory suggests that every great director has stylish characteristics in his films. It also suggests that an auteur has an interior meaning for his films, a tension between the director and his material. Hitchcock dealt, quite simply, with bad people doing bad things. Every film starts with a crime. His tales of the dark side of human nature might initially suggest intense pessimism about humanity as an interior meaning, but the way these films end suggests that things are not so bleak.
Hitchcock endings are usually not very happy and bright, but they also are not always terribly bleak. Notorious has one of the happiest endings for a Hitchcock film. Alicia’s lover rescues her before she gets deathly sick, and they have the evidence against Alexander. Most of the endings do provide closure to the story, which is important for Hitchcock films, as they are classic Hollywood films.
Most of the endings also include a sense of justice. The criminals usually pay for their mistakes in some way. Notorious ends with the case against the Nazis pending. In the cases of deception and cheating, the cheaters are often caught or killed. The irony of Vertigo comes at the end when the fake wife panics at the sight of a ghost (which it is not), feels grief and guilt, and jumps to her own death. Lila dies, and though it is not because of her wrongdoing, it keeps her from being a totally innocent victim. Her crime leads her to the motel, so one could argue that it is her fault, in a way, when she encounters danger. Norman gets locked up in the end, so that provides safety and justice.
Hitchcock perhaps was sending the underlying message that these people got what they deserved. Many innocent people died and were harassed repetitively in his films, but the traitors often fall to an almost supernatural type of justice. This justice is almost like karma, as if the crimes of these characters have made them cosmic candidates for trouble. The decisions the criminals make come back to hurt them in the end.
All of these characteristics Notorious follows many of the characteristics typical of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but it has a few exceptions. Even though it has a happy ending, this film’s Nazi villains hint at something even darker than Hitchcock’s typical criminal. Hitchcock was an auteur for the evil things that people do. Notorious is a classic example of Hitchcock’s suspense wizardry. The thriller lies within a long line of work by perhaps the most respected director ever.