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.

Sage, Adam. "Misogyny and French lies killed Mata Hari." The United Kingdom Times. 10 Nov. 2003. pg. 15.

    Sage's newspaper article is both a film and book review and a brief history. He discusses a 2003 French film about Mata Hari made by Philippe Collas, the grandson of the judge that ordered the death of the infamous female who was a supposed German spy, and a book by M. Collas (another relative) that was released around the same time. Both works give a unique perspective on Mata Hari - instead of depicting a cold, ruthless maneater, they paint the dancer as vulnerable, deeply troubled, and wrongly executed, condemned for her sexual freedom and the threat it posed to male power rather than her guilt as a spy. M. Collas also suggests that, based on his great-grandfather's personal journal entries, one of the main motives behind killing Mata Hari was his great-grandfather's misdirected anger about female sexuality that resulted from discovering his wife's affair.

    Knowing Mata Hari's story is important for understanding Notorious' heroine's plight on the most basic level, especially since Alexis verbally references Mata Hari and compares her own difficult situation of love, sex, and espionage, to that of the supposed spy. Like Mata Hari, Alexis is essentially forced by a wartime government into espionage, and her 'notorious' sexuality is turned into a tool for extracting information from unsuspecting male victims on the enemy side. The article outlines Mata Hari's difficult past, rife with family troubles and an abusive husband. Alexis's past is not much different considering her relationship with her traitor of a father, after whom's conviction she fell into heavy drinking and promiscuity. Both women, as a result of their pasts, are forced into exploitative situations by male-run governments who use the women's sexuality for their own power, despite their disapproval of the women's sexual freedom.