ALFRED HITCHCOCK, ADVOCATE OF FREEDOM: A STUDY OF 'FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT,' 'SABOTEUR,' 'LIFEBOAT' AND 'NOTORIOUS'

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-1980) made four films in the World War II era which manifest his democratic political ideology. Moreover, the plot structure and resolution of these films are in harmony with political and historical events of the period: Foreign Correspondent (1940) parallels the termination of America's foreign policy of isolationism and entrance into World War II; Saboteur (1942), the threat and reality of sabotage in the continental United States; Lifeboat (1944), national and international dissension; and Notorious (1946), espionage and the development of the atomic bomb.;These films are cultural and historical documents which show that Hitchcock used film as a celluloid weapon to undermine Nazi ideology. For Hitchcock, the democratic ideology of the United States was the main source of liberty and freedom, and this he advocated through the actions of his protagonists as they advanced democracy on both national and international levels.