Part of the work of being human is finding ways to deal with the fact that we’re not going to be human for very long. Defining yourself by what you do, and the professionalism with which you do it, is the solution that Only Angels Have Wings puts forward, and it’s a hard one to argue with.
As a director, Hitchcock liked to toy with certainties—emotional, sensory, and moral—and perhaps the smartest dramaturgical tack he takes in Notorious is to make Ingrid Bergman a fallen woman.
Despite all of its hilarity and slapstick, Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday has a serious, dark heart.