James Naremore's article American Film Noir provides a thorough history of the genre, tracing its roots back to articles by French film critics in the 1940s and placing film noir in the context of the international culture resulting from World War II. Naremore also discusses the difficulty of defining film noir, concluding that it is instead easier to give examples of the genre rather than construct a static definition. He then goes on to categorize the genre by analyzing films that exemplify noir along with early critics' interpretations of these films, and comparing noir to other contemporaneous genres. Elements of film noir that are mentioned throughout Naremore's piece include evil, violence, and misogyny; crime-based plots; tough-guy male protagonists; femme fatales; first-person narratives; and flashbacks.
        With these characteristics laid out, it is easy to see how Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious both fits into and strays from the noir genre with which it is often associated. The plot is crime-based to a certain extent, but it is arguably more centered around relationships and the pain that results from the conflict between love and duty. The crime in the film is largely non-violent, and the only violence associated with criminality is implied instead of shown - we know that both Emile and Alex are killed by the other men of the cohort, but there is no depiction of their deaths. There is no blood, no bullets. Instead, the only instance of violence we see is of a more domestic sort, when Devlin knocks out a drunken Alicia in her car after their joyride. Through Alicia's relationships, we certainly see a bit of misogyny and certainly some masochism, but not so grotesquely that wider audiences are alienated. Additionally, Alicia is not the typical femme fatale - she is instead the protagonist, and while quite sexual, she is very human and demanding of sympathy instead of cold and calculating. Likewise, Devlin is refined and restrained, not the rough-around-the-edges male typical of film noir. Here we see how Hitchcock's decision-making in regards to characters and plot place Notorious near the noir genre that was emerging during the 40s, but not so far in as to make the film characteristically noir.

Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious is best understood by examining it against the rest of Hitchcock's body of work. The ways in which the film is at once expected and full of surprises result of its historical context and from decisions made by Hitchcock and his team. It is full of classic Hitchcock suspense, yet this suspense (and the film's success in general) is achieved through means that are not all necessarily typical of Hitchcock. Additionally, the film fits loosely into many genres, but perfectly into none.