Notorious

Alex’s house in the film was perverted from a “castle” to an uncanny trap for both Alicia and Alex (at the end). Following Richard Abel’s theory on seeing Alex’s house as a castle that hosts Alicia, we see that before Alex has known Alicia’s true identity, Alex treats Alicia wholeheartedly and certainly gives her most control of the house as he could. In the famous crane shot at the party, Alicia stands along with Alex at the center of the first floor, welcoming the guests. But soon, the claustrophobic trap side of the house soon unfolds. The gothic plot of a heroine discovering a hidden or locked room is another Hitchcockian version of the domestic suspense. The concept of “the locked enclosure” is illustrated multiple times, including the locked closets, locked wine cellar, the closed living room reserved for Nazis’ meetings, and in the end the bedroom Alicia was trapped in. And a specifically perverted space in the house is the central staircase. The staircase being at the central and public location of the house, it can be seen as a central stage where people’s gaze naturally follows. This is similar to the staircase in Shadow of a Doubt, and the last sequence in Notorious is similar to young Charlie descending the stairs and showed Uncle Charlie the ring. At the very end, the spatial dramatic tension escalated to the climax at the staircase, as it is both the most open space in the house and also the most enclosed and claustrophobic space. The guests’ gaze follows the movement the four characters and the staircase in this sense becomes a catwalk stage. On the other hand, the four characters cluster together, which created a human enclosure to protect Alicia’s secret identity, so that the four characters can negotiate secretly with each other in an open space. This exchange of coded message in public is much similar to the symbolism of the ring between the two Charlies in Shadow. The dramatic tension between the openness and enclosure here emphasizes the concept of uncanny homes. And at the end, we see a mirrored shot of Alex standing on the stairs to his own house, facing his destiny. This is a mirror shot of Alicia visiting Alex for the first time. Both of which suggest their entrapment by the house. Maybe one last point, the uncanniness in the house was also imposed onto the banal domestic objects, including the wine bottles, keys to the closet, the key to the cellar, coffee cup.