Alfred Hitchcock: Notorious

The Love between Devlin and Alicia

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Trier, course: The American Films of Alfred Hitchcock, language: English, abstract: In 1946 the director and 'Master of Suspense' Alfred Hitchcock published a film named Notorious. The plot of this film is said to be about 'a compelling spy mission interwoven with a romantic love story'. Hitchcock comments on the idea of his film as follows: 'In Notorious geht es einfach um einen Mann, der verliebt ist in eine Frau, die in offiziellem Auftrag mit einem anderen Mann geschlafen hat und gezwungen wurde, ihn zu heiraten.' Concluding from his statement Hitchcock's most important issue was to realize the love story between the two protagonists Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) and T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant). In fact the struggle of Alicia and Devlin, who are meant to be the heroic figures, is running like a central thread through the film until they are finally able to come together in the end. In the following analysis of the film Notorious from 1946 will be discussed how this struggle affects and changes both characters and their relationship to each other.