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.

Alwitt, Linda F. "Suspense and Advertising Responses." Journal of Consumer Psychology. Vol. 12, no. 1. 2002. pp. 35-49.

         In her article on suspense and consumer psychology, Linda Alwitt explores what suspense is, how it is created, and its effects on audiences. She argues that the presence of suspense in an advertisement, in this case a television commercial, evokes at once both positive and negative emotional responses in the viewer, with the ultimate result being a more positive attitude towards suspenseful ads than non-suspenseful ads. She also argues that while viewers have a respond better to suspenseful ads, there are trade-offs in regards to effectiveness.

        Suspense is a fundamental element of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, as it is for most of his films, and is one of the keys to understanding the movie's success. For both filmmakers and advertisers, suspense is used to maintain the audience's interest, so for both groups the creation of suspense is similar, though filmmakers must hold the audience's attention for much longer than advertisers. As outlined by Alwitt, the critical elements that set the stage for suspense in both mediums are characters, a plot, conflict, perceived time (the passing of which must be somehow related to the conflict), multiple possible outcomes to the situation, and often the omniscient knowledge of the audience. All of these elements are present in Notorious. Since he is working within the movie format, which is much more extended than that of the commercial, Hitchcock is able to more fully utilize the camera, editing, music, and his characters to heighten the suspense.

        One of the films' clearest examples of mounting tension is just before the climax in the wine cellar, as the camera cuts back and forth between large party scenes and close-ups of the dwindling numbers of champagne bottles. The result is the audience's increased emotional involvement in the film and it's main characters, Alicia and Devlin. When the conflict is resolved, viewers walk away with a more gratifying emotional experience, having experienced both excitement and fear with the films characters and having lived to tell the tale.

    This review is a very well written piece that does a great job breaking down the aspects that make Jaws the masterpiece that it is, but also pointing out its flaws.  This article is worth noting because it explains how Jaws left such a shock on viewers and why it was so powerful even after audiences left the theater.  There are many horror films in many genres that haven’t had nearly the same impact as Jaws and this article provides a possible explanation.  Nesbit attributes the films success to the way Spielberg was able to set up scenes and master the art of suspense. It wasn’t only the gruesome images that had a lasting impact on the viewers, but also the element of surprise and not knowing exactly when the dreadful images would come.  This is a very important aspect to Jaws that made the film so influential.  Everyone knew at some point there would be bloodshed, yet the road there wasn’t so simple.  Spielberg used the prevalent theme song to build up the threat of violence, however its portentous tune didn’t necessarily mean something bad was immediately coming.  It was his way of putting the audience on the edge of their seats.  Numerous times he would intentionally mislead the audience, hyping them up for extreme violence, only to be children scuba diving or adults horsing around.  This technique added another dimension to the film, and added to its overall power.  If the film relied solely on freaking out the audience with shark attacks there’s no way its impact would have been felt the same way that it was.  As Nesbit points out, “Spielberg doesn't serve up mass quantities of blood and gore. He knows it's the anticipation of horror that brings suspense; there are relatively few killings.”  This technique works to make the ocean seem so gripping; every time it is shown there is the potential for something terrible to happen, yet it is unlikely.  Perhaps this is the lasting image that led to such an increase in the fear of sharks, as people could relate to shark attacks likely not occurring, however there would always be that mystical possibility.

Based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier, Directed by Nicolas Roeg, Screenplay by Chris Bryant and Allan Scott, Music by Pino Donnagio, Starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie