The plot points are linear links that form the chain of the traditional Aristotelian dramatic structure in three acts. This classic structure worked well in Hollywood for almost a century. Although young filmmakers are pushing the limits of this structure, the plot points continue to dominate the day like the “tent poles” that hold up the circus of our dreams. These are the plot points of Hitchcock’s great and often underrated classic Notorious (1946), as I see them.

Notorious (1946)

Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Reinhold Schunzel

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Ben Hecht (screenwriter)

PLAN OF ESTABLISHMENT: Court of Miami. Journalists waiting outside.

INCITING INCIDENT: German spy Huberman is sentenced to 20 years in jail.

PLOT POINT 1: CIA agent TR Devlin proposes to Alicia Huberman, the daughter of the traitor Huberman, that she spy for the US by going to Rio, Brazil, for an unspecified mission. Devlin counts on Alicia’s patriotism and her disagreement with her father’s calling.

MIDPOINT EVENT: Alicia, though in love with Devlin, agrees to marry Sebastian, the local aristocratic contact for the German spy ring in Brazil and an old friend of her father’s, to report as an informant on things going on around Sebastian.

PLOT POINT 2: Sebastian discovers that Alicia and Devlin have been to the cellar where “uranium sand” was hidden in wine bottles for a secret German project.

ACT THREE RESOLUTION: Devlin finds Alicia poisoned in the bedroom of Sebastian’s mansion. Devlin eats her pride and admits that he loves her, and runs off with her leaving Sebastian at the mercy of his German collaborators who had punished by death a similar case of “incompetence”.